'fake but accurate' spreads

cbs-60 minutes-mary mapes-dan rather seemingly introduced the policy of "fake but accurate" during memogate. newsweek dutifully appropriated it during flushgate. the practice, long prevalent in movie pr and science, involves 'molding' facts to comply with a specific viewpoint.

the senior senator of massachusetts apparently adheres to this policy as well. when an anecdote he invoked to slam president bush turned out to be false, the wall street journal's best of the web details kennedy's response

Kennedy, meanwhile, apologized for slandering America's dedicated law-enforcement agents by portraying them as totalitarian thugs.
Ha ha, we fooled you! Here's the actual Kennedy response as reported by the Globe:
Laura Capps, a Kennedy spokeswoman, said last night that the senator cited "public reports" in his opinion piece. Even if the assertion was a hoax, she said, it did not detract from Kennedy's broader point that the Bush administration has gone too far in engaging in surveillance. [emphasis added]

...fake but accurate...

i very cynically add that occasionally kennedy expresses support for causes before he's against them, grasps at whatever may be politically convenient to make his point, or forgets some things when they are not convenient