I see that Harold Ford Jr has put out a statement disputing what the Washington Times wrote about him last week (which I quoted here).  As I don't regularly check the DLC website, and no one told me about his statement, I didn't see it until now.  Here it is.

"Had I been in the Senate, I would have voted in favor of the supplemental. How the Washington Times reporter -- after my speech, previous statements, and recent campaign platform -- could have interpreted my remarks to the contrary is puzzling.

As recently as three weeks ago, I wrote an op-ed for the Chattanooga Times Free Press outlining a "Plan B" for Iraq. Although the op-ed was written before the supplemental vote, the Plan B approach would not have cut off funds for our soldiers, urges outreach to Iraq's neighbors and encourages formation of a Democracy coalition, which I talked about in the speech Wednesday.

It is unfortunate that the Washington Times misunderstood my position on this critical issue and reported it wrongly. The record should be corrected.

When I blogged about this, I went over Ford's prepared speech in full because I know that the Washington Times tends to falsify information, and finding no discussion of withdrawal in there, I assumed that the Times had done an interview with him or picked up on questions that were not in the prepared remarks.  I'm glad he has told us all that the Times was full of it.

I am no fan of Harold Ford, but I respect it when a public figure corrects the record on his or her own behalf.  It's not hard to do, and it's something that would be really helpful to activists and bloggers.  We don't like it any more than our public figures do when a reporter misquotes or misrepresents one of our public figures, even if it's someone we don't like.  To me at least, journalists have an obligation to represent the world as it is.  When they fall down on that duty I resent it deeply.  

With a website and an email to bloggers public figures can correct the record.  It would be interesting if enterprising politicians begin to tape record their media interviews and put them online themselves, so that the press had some citizen oversight in these exclusive interviews.

Anyway, thanks Harold Ford for setting the record straight, and while I still think your pony plan is dumb, I'm glad you would have voted for the supplemental.