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
The AP is stonewalling inquiry into who authored the lie. The majority of posters on this thread believe the original author was Mr. Hays. That conclusion is the point of this thread.
I remain unconvinced, and have presented evidence that Mr. Hays was NOT the original author.
Ok you have made your point...
It would seem to me that shareholders in AP, NBC, ABC etc might like to see some of the evidence of upper level management is permitting the ruin of their investment.....
It would seem to me that shareholders in AP, NBC, ABC etc might like to see some of the evidence of "how" upper level management is permitting the ruin of their investment.....OOPS!!
Clinton will undergo heart bypass surgery
By Andrew Miga
Saturday, September 4, 2004
NEW YORK - Former President Bill Clinton faces coronary bypass surgery as soon as today ...
[paragraphs snipped] ... Both Sen. John F. Kerry and President Bush [related, bio] publicly wished Clinton a quick recovery as they launched their fall campaigns. Some in the crowd reportedly booed when Bush offered kind words at a West Allis, Wis., stop.
``He is in our thoughts and prayers,'' said Bush, who The Associated Press said did nothing to stop the booing. ``We send him our best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery.''
http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=42753 <-- Hark, the Herald sings
can you point me to the audio clips? thanks.
Absolutely NEBO. My father is the same sort of case. I don't think he will ever repent, but I hold him in my prayers anyway and hold out hope for home.
I remain unconvinced, and have presented evidence that Mr. Hays was NOT the original author.
Hays may or may not have authored the first article, but he DID author the second. Given that the exact verbage was used in both articles, the datelines don't match, and nobody in Wisconsin was given ANY credit in the second article (not even a "sources in Wisconsin" cover) while a heap of other reporters elsewhere were given credit, I'd put my money on Hays writing both articles and falsifying the dateline on the first.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1206793/posts
#15
Meanwhile, Mr. Hays received a bunch of nastygrams. Not that he doesn't deserve nastygrams, but nastygrams are more effective when they are based in verifiable truth.
The AP has two reporters that cover Bush, on the campaign trail. I'll put my money on one of them being the author of the lie.
This blogger has a good summary of the whole story. See Update #4 for a link to an audio clip. It's very clear.
http://spinswimming.blogspot.com/2004/09/ap-bias-strikes-again.html
Then, there's always syphilis. . .
The only way to settle that is to get the three of them in 3 separate, soundproofed rooms and extract the truth (now where did I put that white-hot poker? :-)
It seems very, very possible that Hayes is the guy. If he's not, he's close enough to events, that now he has an interest in getting the real story out.
It's a little messy, but it works for me.
Thank you kindly!
Thanks! This AP reporter's a loon.
LOL. If you check some of my earlier posts on this thread, I suggested that blaming all of them for the lie is a useful tactic. One of them might rat-out the perp.
CORRECTION:
who made the LIE.
Excellent observation
We get so used to the value-neutral description of sin, don't we? He made "A poor word choice" instead of "told an outright LIE".
We sure need some righteous indignation at the present state of TRUTH in the media. He should be fired!
When Kerry was challenged on his Senate testimony recently he said that his remarks may have been "a little over the top"
Excuse me? What does that mean? It was a sworn testimony. Did you tell of an eyewitness account with personal participation or was your testimony a fabricated lie? The media let it slide.
...over the top?
Why isn't "over the top" an intolerable euphemsism for a lie?
Neither.
The original article about the convention speech wasn't completely erronous. It just had the one comment in it which was completely and totally false, which indicates that the source of that comment, either the author, his source, or an editor, etc, inserted the fiction into the article in order to influence readers. That doesn't mean everything in the article is bogus.
This article and others posted here may have similar fictional insertions since it comes both from Hays and the AP.
The topic of the article I posted is not relevent.
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