Krugman's Dishonesty Strikes Out

In Monday's post, I pointed out that Paul Krugman was putting words into the mouth of Newt Gingrich to claim that he was openly being a racist. Well, in Krugman's defense, he was quoting the Washington Post.

Here is the offending quote:

And on the other side, here’s what Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House — a man celebrated by many in his party as an intellectual leader — had to say: If Democrats pass health reform, “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation. (Emphasis mine)

Like a lot of readers, I was suspicious of whether or not Gingrich even had said "civil rights," and it turns out our suspicions were well-founded. Krugman's employer adds this editor's note to the current version of Krugman's column:

The Paul Krugman column on Monday, about the health care bill, quoted Newt Gingrich as saying that “Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation. The quotation originally appeared in The Washington Post, which reported after the column went to press that Mr. Gingrich said it referred to Johnson’s Great Society policies, not to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

In other words, it looks as though the WP is as dishonest as Krugman. But they are dishonest.