This Just In: Newsweek Was Wrong (20 Years Ago)

Earlier this month Newsweek made news by admitting a news story that became so pernicious in our culture -- a faux stat that women would be more likely to be killed by a terrorist than married by 40 -- was actually made up. A clever journalist at Newsweek wrote that "killed by a terrorist" quip to describe a Yale study stat -- that never mentioned terrorists. But it stuck. Caryl Rivers, who I saw speak at the Women, Action and Media conference in Cambridge, MA this past spring, has an excellent opinion piece on Womens enews about this ridiculous claim -- that people knew at the time made no sense. Even the researchers of the study said it had been misinterpreted. Does it matter that Newsweek apologizes for getting the story so wrong, even 20 years later? Well, given that the wedding industrial complex seems to be humming along just fine, maybe only the terrorists have something to say about it.