A 196-word correction now perches atop Walter Pincus’ star-crossed column from Monday about links he posited between Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald and the organization WikiLeaks. Greenwald complained Wednesday that the Post was taking too long to correct the column, which Pincus acknowledged contained one error and Greenwald said had at least two more.
The correction owns up to that one — Greenwald never wrote for WikiLeaks’ press blog — and dismisses Pincus assertion that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had advance knowledge of Greenwald’s June 6 scoop about the NSA collecting phone records. “There is no evidence that Assange had advance knowledge of the story,” the correction says.
“That’s a thorough correction: better late than never,” an update to Greenwald’s Wednesday piece says.
Full correction after the jump.
Correction: A previous version of this Fine Print column incorrectly said that an article by journalist Glenn Greenwald was written for the WikiLeaks Press blog.The article, about filmmaker Laura Poitras and WikiLeaks being targeted by U.S. officials, was written for the online publication Salon and first appeared April 8, 2012. Its appearance on the WikiLeaks Press blog two days later was a reposting. This version has been corrected.
A previous version of the column also asserted that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, during a May 29 interview with Democracy Now, “previewed” the story that Greenwald wrote for the Guardian newspaper about the Obama administration’s involvement in the collection of Americans’ phone records. There is no evidence that Assange had advance knowledge of the story; the assertion was based on a previously published interview in which Assange discussed an earlier surveillance project involving the collection of phone records.The assertion has been taken out of this version.
The column also does not mention Snowden’s past work in the intelligence community. The lack of this context may have created the impression that Snowden’s work for Booz Allen Hamilton gave him his first access to classified surveillance programs.
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