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
Hey Carl.....you need to clean up your site..
But it is true, though. I do not like the Sinkmaster, myself, but he does have his good points, and is indisputably gifted at making people like him. And he COULD make ^You Know Who^ like him, if he wanted to.
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"?
And let's not all forget, "He'd been trying to loose weight lately--to be more fit."
YEEEEEEEEEEeeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh. Just like a heroin addict, if his lips are moving....
BREAKING: Hays is a SERIAL-Liar and so is AP.
Behold the power of the Newmedia:
Police Portraying Protesters as 'Terrorists'
TOM HAYS / AP 29jan02
Why not blame all of the possible reporters and authors? I think there is still some uncertainty as to who originated the lie. Hays may have lifted the line from the on-scene report by Scott Lindlaw or "Deb" or whatever her name is. Of course, AP as a whole should be blamed for not lending transparency to the deliberate deception. AP ought to be embarassed, but it seems not to be, nor does it seem apologetic.
ARAB, MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS CRITICIZE U.S.
Tom Hays, Associated Press, 6/12/03
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6076259.htm
NEW YORK - Arab and Muslim immigrants accused U.S. officials Thursday of needlessly tearing apart their families with selective enforcement of immigration laws.
"My family is all that matters to me," Abdel Hakim Ben Bader said while cradling his infant son at a news conference in Brooklyn called by immigration advocates. "I hope I can stay here and live my life."
The Algerian, who came to the United States as a student in 1992, is one of many immigrants facing deportation after agreeing earlier this year to register with federal authorities - a policy rising out of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
None of the roughly 82,000 men from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and several other Middle Eastern or Muslim countries who registered was charged with a terrorism-related crime, advocates said. But more than 13,000 - many husbands of women with green cards and fathers of young U.S. citizens - were ordered to appear in immigration court for deportation proceedings.
Most of the men have overstayed their visas or are otherwise in the country illegally, although many have applications pending to legalize their status. They mistakenly thought their decision to come forward would be rewarded with leniency in their immigration cases, advocates said...
More whistling past the graveyard by the Old Media as it circles the bowl...
Plus having sex with various women while in office and hiding it from your wife.
By gosh, I love this place. There will be lots more of this so be vigilant my friends (like you needed me to tell you that).
(AP) John Kerry is a war hero, and the Sift Boat Veterans for Truth have been discredited.
See post 19.
Your right, HE is not finished with any of us yet, thanks to HIS great mercy
Honestly, I really don't think that any of his affairs is on his conscience or part of his heart problems....Clinton hasn't had a heart, or marriage, for quite awhile.
Thank you for the CAIR article. We definitely need to know a lot more about Tom Hays and why AP pays him for his anti-American stories.
Drudge is still running the stories front and center.
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