Call it a small victory (and yes, I am taking a lap). I pointed out on Tuesday that the ironically named, CIA WORLD FACTBOOK, was inaccurate in its “facts” about the coup in Niger. The entry on Tuesday claimed the coup took place in “late April 2023.” Here is the screenshot from Tuesday. Look at the last sentence in this paragraph:
I figured this would be the ultimate test to determine if anyone at the CIA is reading this blog. Well, guess what? There is at least one person at CIA reading sonar21.com because the CIA quietly updated its erroneous fact sometime today (Thursday). Here is the updated version with the correct date:
Here is what is troublesome and inexcusable about this mistake. I had three years experience updating the CIA World Factbook on Honduras during my tenure there. The process is pretty simple. You are given a copy of the current content and are asked to provide updates. This means that the person (or persons) handling the Niger account inserted the information about the coup within the last three weeks. You cannot very well write about a coup that has not happened.
Now I can understand making a typo. I do that all the time (and I do not have an editor that must review my content before I publish). How in the hell do you confuse July with April? That reflects an inexcusable level of carelessness. This is not a case of “auto correct” run amuck.
This is not just the fault of the analyst responsible for this error. Once the analyst updates the World Factbook with current developments it is supposed to be reviewed by a Branch Chief and someone from the office at the CIA responsible for publishing the Factbook (in my day it was called the Office of Global Issues) . This begs the more serious question — if CIA cannot get the date of the coup in NIGER right the first time, what else are they screwing up?
Here is a novel concept — how about having some “fact checkers” work on the FACTBOOK before putting it on the web? Could it be that CIA’s preoccupation with correct pronouns and gender issues has turned the brains of its analysts to mush? Failing to identify the correct date of a coup that is being widely reported on all public media outlets is baffling.
