It's new, it's fresh, it's Zinsmeistering

UPDATE: Paper May Take Legal Action Against Bush Aide

By Joe Strupp

Published: May 31, 2006 12:15 PM ET updated 5:00 PM ET

NEW YORK The top editor of Syracuse (N.Y.) New Times, which saw its profile of President Bush's new chief domestic advisor altered and reposted on his Web site, calls the incident "insulting" and said she plans to consult a lawyer about possible legal action.

"What is getting lost here is that he changed quotes, that is getting lost here," Molly English, who has served as editor-in-chief of the alternative weekly for five years, told E&P today. "I find it insulting and his excuse is awfully lame."

English's comments came a day after the newly appointed domestic policy advisor, Karl Zinsmeister, acknowledged taking the 2004 New Times profile of him and changing both quotes and text. He then reposted it on the Web site of the American Enterprise Institute magazine, which he edits -- still under the New Times author's byline. The article, by New Times staffer Justin Park, had been written because Zinsmeister lived in the Syracuse area.

After the New York Sun revealed that Zinsmeister had posted the altered copy, and The Washington Post quoted Zinsmeister as admitting the change, the issue arose at a White House press briefing Tuesday where press secretary Tony Snow was forced to defend the action.

One of his quotes he changed was originally published as: "People in Washington are morally repugnant, cheating, shifty human beings." The Post carried an editorial today suggesting that the White House probably wished it could revise plenty of newspaper articles it did not like. It also coined a word for such actions: "Zinsmeistered."