Posted on 01/08/2005 1:48:23 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Sometimes it's hard to set the record straight.
That's because it's hard for some people to admit mistakes.
It was refreshing this week to see Tampa police Chief Steve Hogue's response to a minor traffic accident in his own city. He rear-ended a Volkswagen Jetta and sparked one of those chain reaction wrecks that frequently tangle us up on our way to work.
His own officer ticketed him for following too closely.
"It was my fault," Hogue said. "I just wasn't careful enough."
What a refreshing response.
How many times have you heard those words from a public official? Or a newspaper, I might add.
About the same time Hogue was running into his neighbors, the Associated Press was putting out a story suggesting Gov. Jeb Bush was showing signs of running for president despite his denials.
The governor's trip to tsunami-ravaged countries "seems tailor made for a White House aspirant looking to pad his resume," the AP's State Department reporters noted. "Traveling with a press secretary and two security guards, Bush is getting equal billing at news conferences."
The story goes on to note that Bush was even dressing like Secretary of State Colin Powell by wearing khakis and open-necked shirts.
Any Florida reporter would have noted that the governor has been dressing like that for years - particularly at hurricane-related events.
And the press secretary?
That young man was William Piferrer, the governor's brand new 24-year-old travel aide who does not answer questions from reporters. No press secretary made the trip with the governor. Press secretary Jacob DiPietre - the only one who has the title in Bush's office - was safe in Tallahassee working by day in the Capitol and taking care of a new baby at night. Communications director Alia Faraj was fielding calls from frustrated reporters trying to find a way to get access to the governor at some point on the trip.
Yes, there were two security guards - the same Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents that follow the governor everywhere he goes.
On Monday we published a story correctly identifying those who accompanied the governor as a travel aide and security guards.
A sharp-eyed reader noticed the AP story a few days later and wondered if we failed to notice that a press secretary went along on the trip.
I called the question to the attention of editors in St. Petersburg after rechecking the identity of the travelers.
Notify the AP so they can correct it, an editor told me. So I e-mailed Adam Yeomans, a longtime AP editor and reporter in Miami. The rest of the story is a textbook of what happens when folks defend a mistake.
First, news editor Andrew Fraser checked into it and advised me the AP would not correct the story because they were using "a press secretary generically to refer to an aide to the governor who is handling press queries during the trip."
I suggested the context in which it was used made it look like Bush was using the trip to gain a political foothold on the presidency.
"I am finding it hard to see how anything can be inferred from that," Fraser replied in an e-mail with an exasperated tone. But Fraser did promise to run the question by Donna Cassata, the editor who handled the story in Washington.
"We used a press secretary to describe someone who fielded questions in addition to the governor," Cassata said. "The story is accurate and we plan no correction."
Okay. Forget I asked.
But the facts remain. The governor didn't take a press secretary of any kind with him and he refused to take any Florida reporters who might highlight his role on the trip.
Doesn't sound like a man running for president to me.
In this world of journalism, seems to me we are getting awfully thin of skin when we cannot admit we made a mistake.
We all make them.
AP = CBS
Funny headline
Oh, sure, their facts were wrong, but it wasn't a mistake at all. It was an intentional effort to manufacture a story where none existed.
Hi Miss Marple.
I don't think she would have written a column if she believed it was a mistake.
= Reuters = ABC....
And fitting!
She's not a new reporter, she covers Tallahassee for the St. Pete Times.
But even a liberal paper like the Times understand Jeb Bush is one of the "good guys." They may not always agree with him, but they seem to know he's a sincere guy.
His efforts after the hurricanes were tireless and selfless and the implication that this trip was purely for political gain seems to have made her mad.
It wasn't a mistake. The AP injects this kind of bias deliberately, and, like CBS, bristles when anyone asks that they correct the bias.
St.Pete Times=NY Times liberal to the core
Free enterprise, it’s a great country we live in, one just has to have a good information filter - and work to keep 'em honest. Regardless, it can be disgusting at times.
Time to go fishing. The hell with politics. Gee, maybe I am a little too bitter! Anyway, I feel better now!
What efforts? What exactly did Jeb do? Did he man bulldozers, build buildings, or even pick up a shovel? I am tired of seeing pols run around a disaster ala Clinton, and then getting credit for all the hard work they did. Silly. The insurance companies, state agencies, FEMA employees and private companies "were tireless". Not someone who has a governor's mansion to go home to every night.
While it is personally more dangerous to go out and get one's hands dirty doing many disaster recovery activities, I myself would not discount the responsibility and the effort that Governor Bush undertook. Coordinating emergency activities is not in my experience easy work, nor lightly taken on, but perhaps your experience is different. I believe that Governor Bush did take on a hands-on role in emergency coordination during the hurricanes, and my take is that he did a good job at this.
Bumper bullies suck.
Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING
AP myth writers aren't journalists.
They just write myths and pretend the myths are news.
AP stands for Absolutely Partisan.
It doesn't have to be dangerous. I doubt that Jeb actually did any coordinating other than making a couple of phone calls. He has an administration to do the work. Giving him credit for hiring the right people I can see. Giving him credit for doing the work doesn't seem right.
bttt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.