Back in June AIM columnist Roger Aronoff  wrote that NBC’s Meet the Press Host Tim Russert erred when he told Conan O’Brien and Sean Hannity that this is the first time in 80 years that a president or vice president, an incumbent president’s or vice president’s name is not going to be on the ballot.

As Aronoff correctly pointed out in his June 20th column in 1952 neither the incumbent president, Harry Truman, nor vice president, Alben Barkley, made it onto the ballot for that year, though Truman did run in the New Hampshire primary before announcing his intention to not run again.

It was pretty astonishing that someone of Russert’s stature could make such a colossal error and yet there it sat unchallenged for months.

Yet on the November 25th edition of Meet the Press the official transcript shows the following statement;

MR. RUSSERT: First time since 1952 an incumbent president or vice president’s name is not on the ballot, and that’s why we’re seeing what we’re seeing on both sides, volatility.

Tim that’s great that you now have the facts straight, but don’t you think you owe it to your viewers to let them know that you made a mistake in the first place since it’s on the public record? Or is that too much to ask to have the media actually admit the error of their ways while they hold others to that standard?

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