Cosmetic changes can, I feel, be honestly made -- for instance, our own Al Giordano called Hannah Baldock repeatedly 'Hannah Burdock' and has silently corrected this post (though not yet this one - incidentally, I made my 'for the record, the journalist's name is' post in response to Alex Satanovsky's post which doesn't name her, before I read Al's.)

But to pretend you never published wretched propaganda (after it fails to do its job) is not an act of journalistic integrity but, rather, cowardice.  (Note to the Independent: Baldock's previous article is almost as bad.  Will this one disappear too?)  It certainly doesn't serve our cause of truth as well as a carefully considered correction.

I suspected The Independent might yank Baldock's article from their web site, and I saved a copy.  I'll reprint it in its entirety here-- for historical amusement, though at the risk of anti-Chavez conspiracy theorists claiming evidence of an 'election fraud' cover-up, and for anyone wants to learn how NOT to do journalism (at least 'Dewey Defeats Truman' was close).  For both the conspiracy theorists and journalists, get the truth from Ron Smith's post (UK's Independent Newspaper Falsifies Venezuela Election Results!), above.

Here is Baldock's disaster-piece, put in the public domain by its infamy:

Venezuela's Chavez on brink of referendum defeat

By Hannah Baldock

16 August 2004

The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, looked to be losing his grip on power last night as exit polls showed him to be trailing the opposition by almost a million votes.

The figures were early indications that, for the first time in the country's history, the President may have his term in office cut short by a referendum.

The mid-morning results showed that the opposition, already boasting an enormous 1,758,000 votes to Chavez's 798,000, is well on its way to reaching the target of 3.76 million votes it needs to oust the authoritarian, left-wing President. Turn-out for the referendum was high, with millions of Venezuelans queuing from the early hours at polling stations all over the oil-rich country to decide the political fate of the firebrand Mr Chavez.

The Venezuelan people are tensely awaiting a close-run and disputed result. In the capital, Caracas, government vans equipped with speakers drove through the poor residential districts in the east of the city at 5am, playing a military wake-up call before piping out popular pro-Chavez songs to voters, some of whom had in any case been up all night letting off fireworks, anticipating victory.

"Our commandante has already won," said Eric Caldera, a student queuing to vote against Mr Chavez's recall. "The rich people and TV stations are the only ones who say the opposition is going to win. They want to regain the power and privilege they had before, and loot the country. You can count the rich people on your hand, the poor you can't. They are too many. And they are with Chavez."

A clamorous cluster of opposition voters in Parroquia El Recreo voting station, central Caracas, rejected the pro-Chavez voters' arguments against them. "If Chavez wins we will paint the walls with 'No Future'. As no one will have a future, not us nor our children. We don't want a Cuba here," added Elsie Billar, 54, an accountant.

If, as looked likely last night, Mr Chavez loses, Vice-President Jose Rangel will take over until general elections are held in a month's time.