Political journalist Mark Leibovich’s new book, “This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral–Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!–in America’s Gilded Capital”, is an insider’s look at the workings of Washington.
It’s also the cause of a delicious correction in The Forward, involving Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and a Christmas ham.
The New York Observer gets credit for spotting the correction, which was made to a story about Leibovich’s book that looks at the presence of Jews and Jewish themes in the work (and Washington), among other topics.
At some point after being published in August, this correction about Ambassador Oren was appended to the story:
The Forward previously reported that Oren reached for the ham, which misrepresented what Leibovich wrote in his book. Leibovich’s account never insinuated that Oren ate the ham. The Forward regrets the error.
An important distinction for a man in his position. The offending paragraph was corrected and also updated to add a response from the ambassador:
Jewish power, a long-standing myth or reality in Washington, depending on your viewpoint, was not a focus of Leibovich’s book. But Leibovich could not help observing some of the Jewish players in action, including the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren as he “hovered dangerously over the buffet table, eyeing a massive Christmas ham” during a high-profile reception. Oren’s security detail, the book noted, “was trained to protect him from terrorists, not treif.” (In a statement to the Forward from his press officer, Oren, who states he keeps kosher, adamantly denies having partaken in any ham.)
