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Correcting A Mistake

This column was written by CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.


Let me let you in on a little radio secret. I write these missives on a computer in my office. It's not a very fancy process. I juggle a few ideas around and one usually pops out as the subject for the day. I don't have an editorial board or gaggle of overseers who edit my work. So every six months or so, I make a stupid mistake.

This week I put Peggy Noonan with Richard Nixon. Ouch.

At a reception for Prince Charles and Camilla here in New York this week Peggy, and my wife and I joined forces to wiggle our way into just the right place so we could get our thirty-second audience with the Prince. I introduced Peggy to the prince as one of our great writers and of course as the great speech writer for Ronald Reagan. The Prince was impressed. But, when I wrote about it the next day I rattled off Nixon speech writer Peggy Noonan.

How does that happen? Was it fatigue? Was it Freudian? In any case I'm sorry. I've always said you can't trust the media.


Harry's daily commentary can be heard on manyCBS Radio News affiliates across the country.

By Harry Smith

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