The Command Post - 2004 US Presidential Election

September 04, 2004

| Catch of the Day

This time, from the fourth estate, to wit, the Associated Press.

As documented in great detail at Swiming Through the Spin, the AP has engaged in a minor, yet typical, example of journalistic rotation.

From Editor and Publisher :

NEW YORK The Associated Press changed “boos” to “ooohhs” Friday afternoon in reporting on President George Bush’s first statement to supporters on the heart ailment that has befallen former President Bill Clinton.
In a dispatch sent to subscribers in early afternoon, the AP reported that when Bush, at a campaign rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, told the crowd that he wished to send Clinton his “best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery,” the audience “of thousands booed. Bush did nothing to stop them.”

Pretty damning, except that AP soon changed its story, only after the original appeared on many Web sites.

Several Web sites revealed that AP “retracted” the report “citing uncertainties about how to characterize the crowd’s reaction.”

The new version moved on the wire Friday described the same incident this way, after relating Bush’s remarks: “The crowd reacted with applause and with some ‘ooohs,’ apparently surprised by the news that Clinton was ill.”

A Knight Ridder/Tribune (KRT) report put it this way: “Some in Bush’s audience booed when he wished Clinton well….” The AFP wire report declared that after Bush’s statement “thousands of boisterous supporters clapped respectfully.”

Of course thanks to the Blogosphere,more than one audio file of the event is available online, showing a distinct absence of Boos, a complete lack of Oohs, and for that matter, no Kangaroos either.

Being caught injecting fiction into a report (and removing the offending paragraph as AP initially did) is one thing : leaving unequivocal evidence of a really clumsy cover-up attempt afterwards is another.

I fear that ‘Catch of the Day’ may become a semi-regular feature of this site at this rate.

Posted by Alan Brain at September 4, 2004 06:03 AM | TrackBack

Comments

..seems alot of retractions are in order,freedom of speech is glorious right. As proven in this election it can be abused..I`m waiting for the hearings to start…there`re coming mark my word….

Posted by: Rob_NC at September 4, 2004 07:10 AM

Another textbook case in 2 days.

There was nothing approaching booing. No cream puffs for AP.

Posted by: jones at September 4, 2004 08:21 AM

..seems alot of retractions are in order,freedom of speech is glorious right. As proven in this election it can be abused..I`m waiting for the hearings to start…there`re coming mark my word….

Posted by: Rob_NC at September 4, 2004 07:10 AM

I agree, the media has been absolutely disgusting in it’s blatant bias and outright lies.
There needs to be some rules and harsh penalties for those that abuse this freedom.

It is the people that run this democracy, not the press. To be used to sway the electorate is a gross abuse of power.

Posted by: Grand Ayatollah Nathan at September 4, 2004 10:08 AM

Yesterday, I heard the first “version” of this story on the radio - sans audio - and was appalled at the reported behavior of the crowd. Fortunately, people do NOT take what the media says as gospel anymore and checked up on the AP release.

Sure enough, it was not true. Within the hour, a revised and corrected story was played, this time with the audio, which showed only surprise and respectful applause - no booing.

Thanks CP for carrying this story here. It’s important because these are the kinds of misrepresentations that the media has long been able to get away with. They are subtle, or in the catch word of the day “nuanced,” but they can have a cumulative and profound effect on how people view persons and events.

With the Internet, blogs and talk radio we don’t have to wait for the AP or the NYT to print a “correction” on page 38C two days latter or for the TV news reader to mumble an update on the 11:00 pm news before speeding on to discuss the latest sports event. People have begun to seriously doubt what they are being told, and that’s all to the good.

The Press used to be the watchdogs of events until they became drunk with the power they could wield. In the past year alone, stories abound of fabrications, journalists not checking sources or reporting stories of an event/speech from a distance or a day or two ahead of time as though they were actually there. Some have an agenda, others are just seeking to further their careers. All are wrong.

If we are to have Freedom of the Press today and in the future, others have to take up the mantle - to be the “watchdogs” of the media. Hopefully, the new “watchdogs” will remember what is at stake and do not become corrupted as well. In the last analysis, it all depends on us - what we write, read, research and question.

Posted by: Jim at September 4, 2004 10:24 AM

Speaking of the press, here’s a good one to throw back at the double standard dem’s next time they mention a dick Cheny DUI when he was a kid:

Peter Fonda reminisces, offers his thoughts on the Kerry Swift Boat controversy
http://www.celluloid-wisdom.com/pw/index.php?/weblog/entry/16572/

Fonda: “I only met Kerry once—through Jane—during his Vietnam protest days. You have to remember, Jane and I weren’t really close during the early seventies, and I was far less into geopolitical minutia than she was, being zoinked on acid or fifty-cent wine most of the time—so what I do recollect of ol’ Johnny is kinda hazy.

“The most striking thing about him, as I remember, was just how much he looked like that cartoon chick from the Campbell’s Soup ads—same hair, same jut to the jaw, same goofy smile. Only, y’know, Kerry was much taller than the cartoon chick, and he wore fatigues.

“Anyway, it was ‘71, I think, and Hopper and I were having a few friends over one night to watch Willy Wonka, when Jane shows up just before midnight, high on Thai stick and dragging with her this lumbering dude dressed in military casuals. ‘This is John Kerry,’ she tells us. ‘He’s a special friend of the anti-war cause.’

“Hopper just kinda snorted at him and did a line of coke, but I was like, ‘hey, man. That’s really groovy. Grab yourself a seat,’ which he did. And he sat there very quietly for the most part—at least until we all took turns licking this toad Dennis’d brought back from the Arizona desert. This was during our ‘organic high’ phase. Bufo alvarius, I think the toad is called. Has 50-160 mg 5-MeO-DMT/g in it’s skin. Good shit.

“Getting back to the story, though, after we all’d hit the toad a few times, Kerry began giggling like a little girl every time the Oompa Loompas came on screen. He kept pointing at them, calling them “his little talky fruits”—though I don’t think he meant they were gay or anything, just that they kinda reminded him of oranges, y’know? Then he’d squeal, “I love midgets. I want to purchase a gross of midgets. Does anybody know where I can find me some goddamned midgets for sale?”

“And then we all passed out—Kerry by himself on the couch, Hopper and I inside of Kaye Lenz.

Jezz, and before i found this I thought the only toad Kerry licked was Theresa

Posted by: Grand Ayatollah Nathan at September 4, 2004 02:12 PM