Correction to the result of mistaken editing of an ADA letter-to-the-editor published on 14 April 2018 - and a correction to mistaken editing of the ADA letter requesting the correction.
13-17 April 2018
The Australian
Letter-to-the-Editor, "No support for Monash", Weekend Australian 14-15 April 2018, p23)
On Friday, 13 April 2018, the ADA submitted a letter to The Australian concerning the proposal to promote General Sir John Monash posthumously to the rank of field marshal.
Part of of our letter was published in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, 14 April 2018.
The full letter can be read here.
As we normally do to preserve the public record, and minimise confusion where editing removes detail or changes context or meaning, the full letter at the above link includes text omitted by the editor (coloured red) and text inserted by the editor (coloured green).
Due to the substantial editing and the resultant changed meaning, on Sunday, 15 April 2018, the ADA sent the following four-sentence letter to The Australian:
"Editing of my 14/4 letter, concerning the posthumous promotion of John Monash to field marshal, unfortunately changed its meaning.
My letter noted that I had not met or indeed heard of any expert military historian who supports the idea.
Not “anyone” as in the letter published.
Last week, at the Australian War Memorial, I joined a discussion of this topic with Tim Fischer and Ashley Ekins recorded for broadcast this Anzac Day."
On Monday, 16 April 2018, an edited version of this four-sentence letter was published by The Australian in its "Last Post" section. This version omitted two of the sentences and changed the third to misrepresent it was the author, not the editing, that had changed the meaning. It read:
"In my letter (14/4), concerning the posthumous promotion of John Monash to field marshal, I meant to say I have not met or heard of any expert military historian who supports the idea, not "anyone".
Last week, at the Australian War Memorial, I joined a discussion of this topic with Tim Fischer and Ashley Ekins recorded for broadcast this Anzac Day."
On Tuesday, 17 April 2018, the ADA submitted another correction to The Australian. This read:
"Your published correction (Last Post, 16/4) to the mistaken editing of my original letter (14/4) was itself edited with the result that the mistake was wrongly attributed to me.
In the original letter, and in my further letter pointing out a mistake in its editing, I clearly noted that "I had not met or indeed heard of any expert military historian who supported the idea" of promoting John Monash posthumously to field marshal.
At no time did I say I had not encountered "anyone" who supported the idea."
This correction to the misrepresentation in The Australian remains unpublished.