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
And John Kerry says he wishes there was a delete key on Lexus Nexus.
Tom Hays, you are a lying SOS and your puke bosses probably rewarded you with a raise. I hate the media.
The crowd left out the clap. Kerry did nothing to correct them, guessing Clinton had seen plenty.
bump
I wonder what other lies a Lexux-Nexus search for "Tom Hays" would produce?
THE CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST'S GIANT E-MAIL LINKS PAGE! has the contact information (email & phone numbers) for just about anyone you might want to voice your opinion to. We need to contact everyone on this!
Good fine .. thanks for the ping
It appears that the AP **has** now issued a correction.
From wcco.com:
Bush Offers Good Wishes To Clinton For Speedy Recovery
Sep 4, 2004 9:27 am US/Central
NOTE: This is a correction to an incorrect story posted by AP on Friday stating the crowd booed the President when he sent his good wishes. The crowd, in fact, did NOT boo.
Jason Blair was more benign. At least he wasn't trying to impact an election, and that's what I think this man was doing.
He should be fired.
NEW YORK -- Saying police were more likely to provoke violence, anti-globalization activists planning peaceful protests of the World Economic Forum said Tuesday authorities are portraying them as terrorists. "The police have been putting up a counter-campaign trying to portray the protesters as terrorists," Mac Scott said at a Manhattan news conference called by protest organizers.
Another activist, Star Hawk, accused news media of focusing on a potential clash between demonstrators and the police, rather than the protesters' message of "global justice" for the poor and for developing nations.
"There is no secret cabal of violent thugs in the movement," she said.
The comments came a day after police officials announced plans to use nearly 4,000 officers to secure several blocks around the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in midtown Manhattan. About 3,000 political and business leaders will meet there Thursday-Monday for discussions on the world economy.
Citing street violence that has erupted at similar international forums in recent years, New York authorities say they will strictly enforce order. One law, dating to 1845, bars demonstrators from wearing masks.
Leaders of labor, student and environmental groups told reporters that peaceful demonstrations were planned for each day of the conference. Some will feature giant papier-mache puppets and song and dance, including a "Radical Rockette kick line."
"For weeks, the police have been training in riot tactics," said Brooke Lehman of Direct Action Network. "We've been training in samba, puppetry and street theater."
Partly as a show of solidarity with a city stricken by terrorism, the World Economic Forum is being held in New York instead of the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where it has been held for 31 years.
Protesters call the Forum "the dining club for the ruling class." Forum organizers counter by suggesting that angry demonstrations would be inappropriate after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
|
If you have come to this page from an outside location click here to get back to mindfully.org |
bttt
I believe this problem is common at Time and Newsweek magazines.
If the problem is with the Wisconsin affiliate, it is possible that they have since covered their tracks before the story went to print locally.
Alternatively, there may have been a video feed from Wisconsin to NY and Hays was asleep at the switch when he should have vetted the story for errors, but didn't.
In any case, it's hard to believe that someone would willingly embarrass themselves and their news organization in front of the entire world. Whether or not the Internet AP story was withdrawn, hardcopy snapshots still exist in newsrooms all over the world by now, as Hays and AP must know. Whatever system AP uses to report the news ultimately relies on human beings working accurately. In this case, someone slipped in some prejudice, and it did not get caught. It is not supposed to happen. But when it does happen, the ambient political bias usually ensures that the error is in favor of liberals. The number of such errors occuring, in combination with the counter-conservative effect, probably means that AP is not terribly concerned with correcting the problem, although they may conduct some perfunctory review of their existing procedures.
Is it just me or does it seem like these people are just like the staff of the Kerry campaign?
They do something wrong, then try to cover it up, do it badly and then it really starts to blow up from there.
Reminds me of what an old friend used to say:
"He's got mighty short toes and his boots're full of bullet holes"
bttt
Here's what I wrote to Tom Curley on this issue. Thanks for the email address jimbo!!
I was very disturbed to note that one of your reporters completely fabricated a news story about rebublicans booing when told about President Clinton's impending surgery. I have read enough eye-witness accounts of the incident to satisfy me that your reporter simply made up a story in order to fit some pre-conceived political agenda.
Sadly, when talking about thinks like journalistic integrety and ethics, we can no longer include the AP in a list of companies that adhere to that standard.
I am taking it upon myself to notify via email all the people in my address book so that they can know what your reporter did and how you have so shamefully covered it up without a setting the record straight. I will encourage them to notify everyone in their address books, and so on, thus bypassing your media filter. After all, the public has a right to know.
I demand that a clear retraction and correction be published and distributed as widely as your made up story and that the reporter who perpertrated this lie be diciplined.
Assignment to self: learn how to use Lexus/Nexus!
They are getting hammered it seems..
Maybe they don't, but your local paper, which carries AP stories, might want to know.
Relate to your local paper clearly in a letter what has happened, and how the AP tried to cover its tracks. No real correction, just airbrushing out intentionally deceitful reporting. Let them know that they left a number of papers carrying the story on the hook.
Remind them that repeating another's malicious lies does not insulate them from liability for demation.
Demand that they cease publishing AP stories.
I just emailed to the link in this thread with the following. I will post a result as soon as I get a response.
" September 4, 2004
News Director: Associated Press
Please tell me the employment status of Tom Hays with your "credible" news organization. What happenned yesterday puts the Associated Press in the same category as the New York Times and the Jason Blair scandal.
It was entirely irresponsible reporting on AP's part, and that it was one reporter DOES NOT wash. Please tell me your policy for discrepancies like these, and the circumstances that allowed this to happen.
I will eagerly anticipate your response, and I will consider a non-response that you are not concerned about your credibility with the public that sometimes think your reportings are true.
I would detail the incident but I am VERY sure you are all too aware of the incident to which I refer."
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.