At Spinsanity, we showed how Slate’s “Bushisms” and “Kerryisms” columns twisted the two men’s words to reinforce pre-established storylines. Now Eugene Volokh, the UCLA law professor/blogger who is one of the chief critics of “Bushisms”, has nailed what might be the worst one yet:

Slate’s quote of Bush (subsequently deleted): “Listen, the other day I was asked about the National Intelligence Estimate, which is a National Intelligence Estimate.” — Washington, D.C., Sep. 23, 2004

Bush’s actual statement (Real Audio – go to 30:54): “Listen, the other day I was asked about the NIE, which is a National Intelligence Estimate.”

Now, Slate was fooled by an inaccurate White House transcript. But that’s no excuse — given that Bush’s statement as quoted is nonsensical, they have an obligation to check it carefully before calling him an idiot. Not exactly responsible journalism.