NYT Proves Journalism Isn't Rocket Science

I found the following on The Corner and then found a source for it on Wikipedia:

In 1920, a New York Times editorial ridiculed Robert Goddard and his claim that a rocket would work in space:

That Professor Goddard, with his "chair" in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react--to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.

In 1969, days before Apollo 11's landing on the moon, the newspaper published a tongue-in-cheek correction:

Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th century, and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error.

Perhaps some day the New York Times will realize that events in Israel as well do not function in a vacuum, but have a history and context.

And maybe The Times will get the history, and the context, right.

Technorati Tag: Israel.