Posted on 09/04/2004 5:36:40 AM PDT by Dog
Booing the AP When the AP story about a Republican crowd booing President Bush's well-wishes for Bill Clinton first broke at 2:12 p.m., the story carried the byline of Tom Hays. After coming under fire, the AP pulled the story down. The original link now brings you to a dead page.
After a brief interlude, the AP reposted the story, minus the claims that the crowd had booed Clinton's heart scare. The revised story is here. It carries the time stamp of 2:31 p.m. and, curiously, no byline. It also carried no mention of the story's previous version, nor any mark that the new version is indeed a revision. (For those looking for it, there was one tell-tale sign in the AP's URL: The URL for the first version ended in "bush_clinton_1", while the URL for the second version ends "bush_clinton_2".)
So the AP: (1) Puts out a story with falsified reporting; (2) Pulls the story; (3) Removes the faulty reporting; (4) Makes no note of its mistake; and then (5) Pulls the byline of the reporter who made the error. If you were going to impute bad faith to the folks at AP--and at this point that's not unreasonable to do--you might suspect that they have pulled Tom Hays's byline to protect him.
Behold the power of Lexis-Nexis. The AP was able to cover their tracks on the web, but Lexis-Nexis keeps all versions of stories which carry different time-stamps. The Hays original is preserved there in its entirety:
September 3, 2004 Friday 2:12 PM Eastern Time SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 649 words
HEADLINE: Bill Clinton hospitalized with chest pains, will face bypass surgery
BYLINE: TOM HAYS; Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: NEW YORK
Former President Bill Clinton checked into a Manhattan hospital Friday with chest pains and will soon undergo bypass surgery, his office announced.
An angiogram given to Clinton revealed "significant blockage," said a Democratic official, who had discussed the condition with the former president's staff and spoke on condition of anonymity. It did not appear that Clinton suffered a heart attack, the official said.
Clinton, 58, was admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia after undergoing initial testing near his suburban home, his office said. Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea, were to be with the president in the city, the statement said.
Clinton canceled a two-day joint trip with his wife across upstate New York.
Sen. Clinton made a brief appearance Friday at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, after which she noted that her husband was hospitalized and would need heart surgery, and apologized for leaving right away. "He's in excellent hands," she said.
Dozens of reporters and camera crews were assembled outside the city hospital, which is north of Clinton's Harlem office. Hospital officials had no immediate comment.
There was no word on when the surgery would take place. A source speaking on condition of anonymity said the surgery was not likely to take place Friday, but instead at a later date.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, Clinton's mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, said Clinton had called her to tell her about the situation.
"He sounded wonderful as usual and very upbeat, as he always is," she said. "I just told him how much I love him."
She said she didn't know if he was in the hospital when he called.
Clinton had a cancerous growth removed from his back shortly after leaving office in early 2001. It turned out to be basal cell carcinoma, the most treatable form of skin cancer. In 1996, he had had a precancerous lesion removed from his nose and a year before that had a benign cyst taken off his chest.
Other than that, Clinton has had the normal health problems that often accompany aging - periods of slightly elevated cholesterol and hearing loss - and an appetite for junk food. In 1997, he was fitted with hearing aids. He has also suffered from allergies.
Clinton went to Northern Westchester Hospital on Thursday after suffering "mild chest pain" and shortness of breath, his office said in a statement. He spent the night at his Chappaqua home, but checked into the Manhattan hospital after further tests Friday revealed the medical problem.
"He's going to be fine," Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said at a rally in Newark, Ohio.
"But every single one of us wants to extend to him our best wishes, our prayers and our thoughts and I want you all to let a cheer out and clap that he can hear all the way to New York," Kerry said to cheers. Clinton had been expected to campaign extensively for Kerry.
President George W. Bush, campaigning in Wisconsin, wished Clinton "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."
"He's is in our thoughts and prayers," Bush said. Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wisconsin, booed. Bush did nothing to stop them.
In June, a Clinton spokesman characterized the ex-president as "doing very well" health-wise. The 42nd president has struggled with a weight problem, but had recently seemed much leaner at public appearances.
During his two terms as president, Clinton was known for his love of fast food. But in January of this year, Clinton said he had gone on "The South Beach Diet" and started a workout regimen.
Clinton has led an active lifestyle since leaving office. Most recently, he was on the road plugging his memoirs, "My Life."
Associated Press writers Ron Fournier and Frank Eltman in New York, David Hammer in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Marc Humbert in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.
The next nugget on the Lexis-Nexis trail is a shortened, corrected, un-bylined version of the story that is time-stamped 2:41 p.m.:
September 3, 2004 Friday 2:41 PM Eastern Time SECTION: NATIONAL POLITICAL NEWS
LENGTH: 118 words
HEADLINE: Bush Offers Best Wishes for Clinton
DATELINE: WEST ALLIS, Wis.
President Bush on Friday offered former President Bill Clinton, who faces heart bypass surgery, "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."
"He's is in our thoughts and prayers," Bush said at a campaign rally.
Bush offered his wishes while campaigning one day after accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in New York. Clinton was hospitalized in New York after complaining of mild chest pain and shortness of breath.
Bush recently praised Clinton when the former president went to the White House for the unveiling of his official portrait. He lauded Clinton for his knowledge, compassion and "the forward-looking spirit that Americans like in a president."
So what's going on here? Was Hays in Wisconsin reporting, or in New York? What role did Ron Fournier, Frank Eltman, David Hammer, and Marc Humbert have in this story? There are five reporters on the hook for this misreporting, surely one of them will want to clear their name.
P.S.: This is a fine time for Romenesko to be on vacation. Let's hope he digs into this story on Tuesday. Paging Howie Kurtz . . . posted by Jonathan V. Last at 10:49 PM
Mr. Hays,
Thanks for reporting attendees at Bush's rally in Wisconsin booed President Clinton. By writing such easily refuted lies, you make the effort to discredit the politically corrupt and increasingly obsolete mainstream media just that much easier. Your article's position of honor, right in the middle of the Drudgereport homepage, ensures millions of Americans will be exposed to just how far our media is willing to go to slander the Bush campaign with poorly conceived lies. Rest assured, you'll have many more opportunities to exercise your bias. As President Bush marches toward four more years of office, idiocy such as yours helps move him on his way.
Matching timestamps, Hays' article was 4 minutes before the thread. However, comparing the thread to Hays' article, it appears to be two different works with the exact same 3-sentence "booing" paragraph.
Nedra "Kneepads" Pickler of the AP is in contention too.
So are all those sexual encounters with women less than half his age.
The media will do whatever they can to make Bush look bad.Tom Hays was doing SOP.The media longs for all-night pizza parties in the White House and sex scandals from every corner.(see x42) With the new JFK they may get some of that back so SOP is to lie about the current Administration.Even if the story is retracted and hid it got out there and the sheeple are not intelligent enough to care if its the truth or not.
So are sexually transmitted diseases, like syphilis & herpes.
BUMP!
The liberal media straight-up lying? That never happens. Just ask GM, who sued NBC for running a story showing rigged trucks exploding.
So are sexually transmitted diseases, like syphilis & herpes.
Don't forget about the obvious, like weight ballooning up and down, and dealing with Hillary (whoever thought I'd be even sort-of defending a Clinton?).
Think positively. It could turn into a Paul Wellstone circus.
Or Audi, which was nearly ruined by "60 Minutes".
The old boy's a commie through and through.
Yes. And it's Lexis-Nexis timestamp (14:12) is AFTER the timestamp on a dateline West Allis AP wire transmission (13:57). That 13:57 dateline is the earliest I have found, so far, and it has no byline on it.
Newsday link - 15:57 dateline <-- Early report
Thanks for the email to contact that Tom, I slung him the following email - I bet that CSer deletes it without even opening it let alone read it.....
Tom,
You should be ashamed of yourself for the words you wrote about booing Republicans, upon being told of Bill Clintons condition. Perhaps, no, you MUST go to the media museum down in New Orleans, Louisiana and read the motto of the media. How am I supposed to OBJECTIVELY teach high school social studies when you lie like a dog about the facts. You only ruin your, and all of your colleagues, credibility and integrity - and in the name of what?!?!
One thing that I learned not too long ago is that "one stone tossed into the pond makes more than one ripple" Your lies, then even worse, your bosses attempt to make your lies disappear is going to be a very hot topic in social studies this year. So on one hand thanks for the talking point, but no thanks.
QUIT MAKING THE NEWS AND JUST REPORT IT, PLEASE! In the classroom we are told to not show our leanings, which I totally agree with as it allows students to form their own values and creates independent thinkers. Oh, but perhaps that is what scares you so much, hmmmmmmm!
Do my job for a semester and you will have a better sense of the awesome responsibility that you actually have and abuse when you print a lie.
I could go on and on and on, but I won't. I would rather have you think (which if you have a shred of dignity, you will) about the young minds that you just poisoned by not being objective and made the conscious decision to spew forth hate and lies.
Shawn
Hays was placed on a terrorism watch list according to Google. Something about him in Pakistan and comments given to the press in Pakistan.
And that article on abusive prison officials proves just what? Do you agree that prison officials should be abusive, or do you deny that abuse has ever occurred?
That makes two AP stories with the 3-sentence "booing" paragraph (actually 2 paragraphs in the first wire transmission). I find it very interesting (and disturbing) that in the 2nd story, nobody from Wisconsin contributed, even though the sentences were lifted from a story datelined West Allis, WI.
Dear Mr. Curley
Your Mr. Tom Hays should be fired immediately for falsely reporting the story about Republicans booing during a Bush rally in West Allis Wisconsin. You guys are going to have to stop telling lies and start reporting the news as it really happens, without your opinions. Sincerely
Tom Hays should be terminated from his job immediately.
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