In a post here on Wednesday, I stated, without attribution, that Governor Ige and his DLNR nominee, Carleton Ching, had gone to intermediate school together (“Strong land board nominations counter worst-case views of Gov. Ige“).
That was incorrect. The two were not friends from school. I regret the error, which was brought to my attention by Mike McCartney, the governor’s chief of staff.
My original post should have included an attribution for statement about their supposed school connection, which I originally saw referenced in a post by Henry Curtis last month at his Ililani Media (“Talk Story with Carleton Ching and Kekoa Kaluhiwa“).
But further checking shows the governor graduated from high school in 1975, according to his entry on Wikipedia. In that same year, Ching earned a degree from Boise State University, according to his resume submitted to the Senate. So the two would not have overlapped in either intermediate or high school.
My apologies for the mistake.
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thank you for owning up to it, Ian. we all have our mistakes. we all make more mistakes than we will ever admit (especially to ourselves). you are one of the few non-arrogant Americans I know. you can admit mistakes and move on, rather than duck, weave, deny, change subjects, switch to salesman mode and lie. kudos to you. enjoy the weekend.
Mahalo Ian – with my respect and aloha, Mike McCartney
Thanks for the correction, Ian. Even though the truth has come out after Ching’s nomination has crashed and burned, I think it provides a valuable lesson for all of us. It’s fine if anyone was opposed to Ching based on an honest assessment of his merits and professional background. What is not okay would have been a rejection of cronyism based on a notion that Ching was an old school chum of Ige’s. After all the flack that Tulsi Gabbard took for naming a childhood friend with zero govt. experience to be her chief of staff, this kind of misinformation may very well have made up the minds for some cynics without even taking a look at the man’s resume.
Now, I’m not saying that this misinformation alone is what doomed Ching’s nomination. To be sure, it would have been an uphill climb. But if the general public truly wants “the best and brightest” to serve in government, then everyone who chooses to be a part of the process needs to do their part to reach towards this ideal when future nominations are considered. If you think you smell a rat, then call it out, by all means. But do so only when you are armed with all the necessary facts.
Corrections are an important part of journalism and are just one more skill that journalists practice. The New York Times has some good ones, and people pay attention to them. Here’s one:
“An earlier version of this article misidentified the state where Andrew M. Cuomo is governor. It is New York, not New Jersey.”
Sometimes readers help the NYT out by providing corrections:
“To the Editor:
I was grateful to see my book “This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage” mentioned in Paperback Row (Oct. 19). When highlighting a few of the essays in the collection, the review mentions topics ranging from “her stabilizing second marriage to her beloved dog” without benefit of comma, thus giving the impression that Sparky and I are hitched. While my love for my dog is deep, he married a dog named Maggie at Parnassus Books last summer as part of a successful fund-raiser for the Nashville Humane Association. I am married to Karl VanDevender. We are all very happy in our respective unions.
ANN PATCHETT
NASHVILLE”
thank you, Mr. Mike
Mahalo for uncovering my error
Finally, perhaps only to myself, what was the original point?
Irrelevant on its face ( “…worst case views of Ige “) and by comparison (…strong land board nominations… )