AP Retracts 'Clinton Booed' Story

NewsMax .com ^ | 9/04/04 | Carl Limbacher

[kattracks]

The Associated Press has retracted its Friday afternoon report that a crowd at a Bush rally in West Allis, Wisconsin booed when President Bush offered ex-President Clinton best wishes for a speedy recovery from coronary bypass surgery scheduled for next week.

In a report that moved on the AP wire at 9:27 a.m. Saturday, the AP said: "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."

A transcript of Bush's remarks released by the White House noted applause after Bush's offered Clinton "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."

ABC Radio Network news also confirmed that the Clinton reference was applauded, not jeered.

In its original version of the story, the AP had reported: "Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wis., booed. Bush did nothing to stop them."

The erroneous report prompted a firestorm of outrage on interactive news web sites like FreeRepublic.com, where posters complained of media bias and circulated contact numbers to protest the AP's false claim.

In a revised version of the story that moved on the wire late Friday, the AP said: "The crowd reacted with applause and with some 'ooohs,' apparently surprised by the news that Clinton was ill."

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping and the good news.

Tom Hays was outed as a hostile gay activist who hates GW.

AP was outed as a hostile POS news service which hates GW which hired Tom Hays and keeps him to write these bs stories about GW and republicans.

[RonDog]

I haven't seen the official AP retraction that Newsmax refers to here.

Has anyone else seen it?

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.

President Bush on Friday offered former President Bill Clinton, who faces heart bypass surgery, "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."

"He 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."


© 2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Grampa Dave]

The good thing is now that we know how to respond to the next lies that the hostile gay activist Tom Hays writes about GW under orders from AP.

[MEG33]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1207200/posts

[waterman478]

This retraction is astonishingly lame CYA by the AP. Listen to the audio...there are no "Ooohs", just as there were no "Boos". Clearly meant to cover their reporter and themselves (We thought the ooohs were boos!).

Just how stupid does the MSM think people are? We just found out.

[steveegg]

Ah, there's the Schadenfreude. The AP's been needing a lot of them lately :-)

[TN4Liberty]

If I lied to my employer, I would be fired.

[Carl/NewsMax]

Here's the AP retraction. As for NewsMax posting the original erroneous AP report, it was yanked as soon as I saw it this morning.

Carl/NM

http://wcco.com/water/local_story_248102910.html

Bush Offers Good Wishes To Clinton For Speedy Recovery

Sep 4, 2004 9:27 am US/Central

West Allis, Wis. (AP) 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.

President Bush on Friday offered former President Bill Clinton, who faces heart bypass surgery, "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."

"He 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."

[Robert A Cook PE]

Notice that, in the "retraction" the AP REPEATED the false charge that the crowd booed at news of Clinton's heart attack/surgery FOUR TIMES!

More repeats of that lie than in the original story itself!

[thomas70]

Yeah, but after the correction, the damage has already been done and achieved the desire effect (to paint the Republicans as "mean and heartless"). Such blatant, partisan misinformation is frightening.

[Drango]

This is a correction to an incorrect story posted

Incorrect? It was a flat out lie. And the false statement "Bush did nothing to stop them." is propaganda and false on it's face. A retraction is not enough.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I'm wrong.

The "retraction" mentioned the crowd "booing" FIVE times, and had one extra JEER thrown in for good measure.

(The orignal story only used the word "boo" once!

[joesnuffy]

AP just another left wing anti American propaganda tool.....


imo

[GSWarrior]

Is there a link to the retraction. I know folks who will not believe this unless they see the retraction in print with an AP byline. (And even then some won't believe it.)

[Rokke]

Well I'll be damned. I'll bet your news service is the only news service that will publish that. But since your news service is the only news service anyone is going to read anymore, I guess that will be enough.

[jimbo123]

The reporter who filed the false story:

Tom Hays Associated Press
212-587-8035
thays@ap.org


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

[BlessedByLiberty]

Thank you.

I'm in agreement that a story should appear from the AP explaining why this happened in the first place. What motivated the "Journalist" to file an erroneous report.

A mere retraction no longer excuses obvious and apparently deliberate bias. How many other stories has this "journalist" filed with incorrect facts?

Main Street Media (Medieval by today's standards) does not understand how quickly facts can be checked, audio or video links produced to prove their falsehoods, deceptions and outright lies.

Congratulations to Freepers who proved this tenet. All we ever wanted was unbiased, objective journalism.

[yoswif]

We should thank the AP. This story makes the Swifties look more credible than "old media".

[Puppage]

Is Jason Blair work'n for the AP now???

[Sea2ShiningSea]

Excellent. Now all of those outlets that picked up the first AP lie, need to run this retraction.