Posted on 09/04/2004 5:01:21 AM PDT by MaineRepublic
By E & P Staff
Published: September 03, 2004 10:00 PM EST
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."
Actually, I saw the video of that point of the rally on Fox last night. It was obvious there were no boos. All I could hear was polite clapping from the audience.
The people who live in that area need to get really angry about this, because the AP just made them look really, really bad for no reason except disseminating its own propoganda.
How very ironic that, just this morning, C-Span aired a show "Politics and the Internet" (from 8/24/04). Dan Gillmor, of The Mercury News said Drudge is now taken "with a grain of salt" because of his reporting of the alleged Kerry affair.Will people now take the AP with "a grain of salt"?
Here's the reporter:
Tom Hays Associated Press
212-587-8035
thays@ap.org
Well, here's a link to the audio so you can judge for yourself. My conclusion: the AP deliberately misstated a clear fact and is now trying to spin some excuse.
Is that even possible to do? I always assumed that once a story got into their database, it stayed. Maybe it would be amended over time, but I thought all the old versions persisted.
Putting by-lines on AP stories is a new practice. It started about ten yeare ago. It used to be that wire service stories, since they were owned by the wire service, only used their own service by-line omitting the reporter's name.
"The Associated Press changed 'boos' to 'ooohhs'"Apoligists would dismiss this as Rashomon effect.
"AP soon changed its story"
"AP 'retracted' the report 'citing uncertainties about how to characterize the crowd's reaction.'
"The new version...described the same incident this way..."
"A Knight Ridder/Tribune (KRT) report put it this way:"
In fact, it is something quite different.
Notice that both these news outlets and John Kerry are tormented by similar, endless contortions, convolutions, confusion, uncertainty, retractions, re-clarifications, re-re-clarifications...
It results from the same thing.
Their re-re-clarifiers would claim that it results from sophisticated nuance.
In fact it is the opposite. It is highly unsophisticated confusion.
These people are bogged down in a quagmire of decadence. They cannot see any way out of it.
They are the decadent Romans of the failed and falling Empire.
George Bush is an Athenian of the Age of Pericles. That's where sophistication is to be found.
Drudge is still carrying the original AP story with some kind of garbled addendum and then a link to the full transcript saying that the 'local press' reported applause. The link is to the official White House transcript with the word 'applause' written in the appropriate places. This is hardly a retraction and it hardly tells the story of the AP blatent lie.
I was there -- right in the thick of it, right in front of the podium, right in the center of the auditorium, and I could hear anything the President could hear.
If there were any boos, he couldn't hear them because I couldn't hear them.
What actually happened is that there was a fraction of a moment of stunned silence and then polite clapping because that is what the president asked us to do. The President held that audience of 15,000 partisans in the palm of his hand. We would do anything he asked yesterday.
I wrote Drudge late last night and their page was changed immediately. However, no further corrections have been made to the story. The AP should be exposed for the lying b-ds that they are! Everyone should lip a note to Drudge until a full retraction is posted. And a note to the AP isn't a bad idea eaither.
Booos to oooohs. My, lord -- how lame!
Tom Hays' boss:
Tom Curley, President, CEO
450 W. 33rd Street
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-621-7550
Fax: 212-621-6108
Email: tcurley@ap.org
BUMP!
Looks like Knight ridder needs some FReeping, too.
Your right. This is what Terri the McCall (not a typo)is going to tout on the Sunday morning shows. "The AP said they booed and blah blah blah". Terri wanna cracker?
He can run, but he can't hide.
BYLINE: TOM HAYS; Associated Press Writer
BTTT
Ping. More MSM presstitution.
Not entirely the Internet.
Talk radio is involved, too.
I heard the speech live on the radio and heard the 'ahhh/ooo' when Bush announced Clinton's hospitalization. It was a typical mild shock reaction.
Later heard the news headline that it was "booing." Thought that was odd--not what I heard on the radio.
A couple of hours later, the local afternoon talk radio guy, Mark Belling (WISN1130) got extremely upset over the reporting and attempted to track down the name of the AP presstitute through the local AP office.
AP honcho for Milwaukee told Belling, in effect, to 'stuff it.' That was not the right thing to do.
Drudge was running the original story--and you can see that his story has changed to reflect the AP's retraction. By Monday, this may have some legs.
In any case, while the Internet is very VERY helpful--in this case it was also talk radio.
Does anyone know how to get this lie exposed on the fox show where all the reporters discuss the media? Can't remember the name at the moment -- it's on Saturdays and Sundays. You know -- the show with Jane Hall and Jim Pinkerton? And Eric somebody (host) and Neal somebody (the weasly little liberal)?
I've just phoned the hays reporter and left a message. The email link doesn't seem to work. Obeservations of another poster seem accurate -- the voice mail (for several reporters) sounds like one of these 'girly-men'.
the voice mail gives you teh option of paging them to.
Perhaps the chairs of the local Republican Parties need to get involved?
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