Naomi Wolf
In the course of her research for the book Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love - which deals with the British government's criminalization of same-sex relationships in the 19th century - Wolf misinterpreted the ancient UK legal term "death recorded" to mean that homosexuals were executed.
"I found, like, several dozen executions, uh, but that was again only looking at the old daily records in the crime tables," Wolf told host Matthew Sweet.
Sweet jumped on it, saying "I don't think you're right about this," pointing out that one of the young men Wolf claims was executed was not.
"I was really surprised by this," says Sweet, adding "death recorded is what's in most of these cases that you've identified as executions. It doesn't mean that he was executed. It was a category that was created in 1823 that allowed judges to abstain from pronouncing a sentence of death on any capital convict."
"I don't think any of the executions you've identified there actually happened."
While Wolf's book has already been released in the UK, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that it would not move forward with a June 18 date. On Thursday, the publisher told the New York Times:
"As we have been working with Naomi Wolf to make corrections to 'Outrages,' new questions have arisen that require more time to explore. We are postponing publication and requesting that all copies be returned from retail accounts while we work to resolve those questions. "
Wolf responded in a series of tweets, claiming that she objected to the delay, and that the false premise over executions wasn't the "heart of my book."
Hilarious.
R.C.