1987 Washington Times access needed.

June 25, 2008 9:43 AM

I need to find out what date the following article was published on: "Poindexter ends testimony, refuses to bow to the critics". It was published in The Washington Times sometime in July of 1987. It was written by Mary Belcher. Thanks!
posted by sperose to media & arts (16 comments total)

So far searches in the Historical full text for "Poindexter ends testimony" in July 1987; "Poindexter ends testimony" in all of 1987; and "Mary Belcher" in all of 1987 are not turning up the article. How sure are you of your citation? What part(s) of your citation are you most confident about being correct?
posted by 100watts at 9:52 AM on June 25

The title of the article and the author are definitely correct. I have the original newspaper clipping from the newspaper itself, but the date part is missing. I'm guessing on the July 1987 part due to the fact that the folder that I found it in was that one.
posted by sperose at 9:54 AM on June 25

Hmm. Still not finding out. Can find an article on July 22, with this title: "Poindexter 'Locked Out' Reagan :Admiral Ends Testimony, 'Head Held High'" by Dan Morgan and Walter Pincus.

Our full-text database searches only the Final Edition of the daily paper; perhaps your clipping is from a different edition?

If you were a student in my library, I would advise you to cite it with the date of July 22, 1987 with proper indication that the date is a best guess.

Hope that helps, or that someone with better LibrarianFu than me comes along to answer your question definitively.
posted by 100watts at 10:03 AM on June 25

I'll just put it as July 22 and if someone wants to bitch, they can look it up themselves. (This a lovely project for work that was supposed to have been done 2 years ago, argh.)

Thanks 100watts.

(And if anyone else comes along with better citations, that's more than welcome at this point.)
posted by sperose at 10:17 AM on June 25

I don't have an answer, but perhaps someone at the Washingtoniana Division of the DC Public Library does.
posted by arco at 10:27 AM on June 25

I sent you the contact info of someone at the Washington Times (who knew?) library. Send them the info and they've agreed to track it down.
posted by cashman at 10:38 AM on June 25

LA Times had this story on July 22 1987 (via Google News Archive Search)
July 22 was a Wednesday, the article says the testimony ended "Tuesday". If your article also says "Tuesday", it has to be July 22, because the WaTimes would not be a whole day late with it. Or, if it says "yesterday", that confirms July 22 as well.
posted by beagle at 10:51 AM on June 25

As someone who uses footnotes as leads to the original source all the time, let me mildly suggest that, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, you avoid the 100watt you've endorsed if there is even a remote chance that someone will follow up. Putting in close-enough citations is like leaving the toilet seat up, in a world where the next user never wants to stand.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 10:51 AM on June 25 [1 favorite]

I dropped a line to your contact, cashman and if that doesn't work, I'll hit up the Washingtoniana Division at the DC Public Library.
posted by sperose at 11:31 AM on June 25

Please don't sloppily cite your sources. It's dishonest, lazy, and irresponsible - basically all the things that should get you an F in school and fired at work.

A LexisNexis search returns zilch on your title...
posted by wfrgms at 11:37 AM on June 25

Citing the date in square brackets with a question mark should be sufficient to indicate that you have put the information in yourself (the []s), and that you are uncertain (the ?). For example:

[22?] July 1987

In my opinion, at least in the English-speaking world, this will be intelligible to information professionals and experienced researchers. This is not being 'sloppy', it is being transparent.
posted by onshi at 12:56 PM on June 25

Err, by "put the information in yourself" I mean that you found the information somewehere other than on the clipping itself. This practice is often used when bits of information are missing from the title page of a book, but can be verified elsewhere.
posted by onshi at 2:03 PM on June 25

The issue is that most of these articles have dates either attached to them (via original newsprint) or written on them by the staffers. This article happened to be in two different folders with two different dates.
I'll keep hunting around for a while and if I can't get anything, question marks it is.
posted by sperose at 2:45 PM on June 25

This doesn't answer your question, but it cleared up my confusion when I looked up Mary Belcher!
Washington Times reporter Mary Belcher has been covering independent counsel Lawrence Walsh's prosecution of Oliver North. Now, she's taken a side. Belcher has decided to work for Walsh. On June 19 Belcher becomes the Public Information Officer for the Office of the Independent Counsel.
posted by lukemeister at 7:02 PM on June 25

Did you get the citation?
posted by cashman at 8:02 AM on July 9

I ended up not getting any response back from The Washington Times, so I'm just going to bracket it and if I get something concrete before I print this project stuff out, I'll fix it later.

Thanks for all y'alls help.
posted by sperose at 8:17 AM on July 9