Friday, April 10, 2009

The Great Bates Apology Anniversary: 'I Regret and Retract'

We almost forgot, but it's the 10th of the month, which is the day we remember the Great Bates Backdown.

Two months ago today, Michael Bates of Batesline signed a letter making six specific "corrections, clarifications and/or retractions" to his January Urban Tulsa Weekly column concerning the circulation figures of the Tulsa World.

In observance of the anniversary, we present this interesting sample of the Bates letter:
My suggestion that Tulsa World circulation was 20% higher in 2005 than in 2006 was incorrect. The actual decline…was between 5-6% as evidenced by their audits, and this percentage decline is consistent with the declines at other major daily newspapers.
There's more, of course, but we'll let the other corrections slide for now and end with this line from the Bates letter: "I apologize to the Tulsa World and the Urban Tulsa Weekly."

4 comments:

Man of the West said...

Apparently, the tenth of the month is now going to provide, in perpetuity, an opportunity to remind you that you have gone well beyond normal gloating and into the realm of juvenile behavior.

On the worst days he's had, Michael Bates is a blogger far superior to you.

Tulsan said...

Bates is superior in prolificity, but in no other way I can discern.

I am unbothered by the supposed juvenility of this observance.

(There was a special on -ity words this week.)

Tulsan said...

On second thought, it's not even true that he is more prolific.

Bates spends his energy at Urban Tulsa and tilting at the "Whirled," and has become a less diligent blogger.

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