In paraphrasing Rick Perry's new anti-gay rights ad, the article states that Perry complained about the lack of "organized prayer" in public schools. That is not what Perry said at all. Rather, Mr. Perry clearly stated that "Our kids can't openly...pray in school." There is a big difference between the two statements.
While the Times is essentially correct in reporting that there is no state-sanctioned organized prayer in public schools, Rick Perry is, not to put too fine a point on it, lying about a ban on any student prayer. Whereas fact-checking is a vital tool to improve the accuracy of your articles, it should not be used to distort the actual words of a person to make them less false. Fundamentally altering the meaning of Perry's ad does a disservice to your readers -- and to the truth.
-rj
-rj
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