Ms Schulz larger point is that we fight admitting our wrongness because it's psychologically difficult. How many times have you heard someone say "You just can't admit you're wrong!"
This morning we see how this works. Yesterday, Obama released his "long form" birth certificate. His short form was plenty of legal proof of his place of birth. But birther conspiracy theorists continued to say that until Obama released this long form, it was major evidence they were right.
Now suddenly the long form is released, devastating their position; and suddenly, the long form is not enough. Top birther Orly Taitz simply moved the goalposts. She can't admit she's wrong, even in the face of devastating evidence.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/orly_taitz_obamas_long-form_birth_certificate_should_say_negro_not_african.php
"In those years ... when they wrote race, they were writing 'Negro' not 'African'," Taitz says. "In those days nobody wrote African as a race, it just wasn't one of the options. It sounds like it would be written today, in the age of political correctness, and not in 1961 when they wrote white or Asian or 'Negro'."
Are these mistakes limited to the right? No, this is a psychological problem for everyone. On the left we have Trig Birtherism, the theory that Sarah Palin is not the real mother of her son Trig (the one with Down Syndrome). This week the long form showed up: a beat reporter in Alaska revealed that he saw Palin's "baby bump" when Trig was 7 months along. That was still not enough for lead Trig Birther Andrew Sullivan, who moved the goalposts to media's terrible failure to cover what he can't admit is not a story at all:
You mean while she was promoting a book detailing bizarre details of the story, was regarded for months as the top GOP opposition leader, and commanded massive media attention, there was no need to investigate this? And the stakes were so low? You mean the exposure of possibly the greatest hoax in American history would have had no impact on the MSM or the RNC or McCain or Harper Collins? This is now just perverse hostility to journalism.
This is pundit-speak for "Sorry, I was wrong about this for over a year. My bad."