AP Reporter Invents Anti-Clinton “Boos” at Wisconsin Bush Rally

Intellectual Conservative ^ | 6 September 2004 | Nicholas Stix

[mrustow]

On Friday the AP falsely reported that a crowd at a Bush rally booed the news that Bill Clinton had been hospitalized, and President Bush "did nothing to stop them."

On Friday afternoon, an Associated Press (AP) story reported that a crowd at a Bush rally in Wisconsin, responded to President Bush's news that former President Clinton had been hospitalized with chest pains and faced bypass surgery, and Bush's best wishes for Clinton's speedy recovery, with boos. The AP, a wire service founded in 1848, describes itself as "the largest and oldest news organization in the world."

Audience boos as Bush offers best wishes for Clinton's recovery
By Associated Press, 9/3/2004 13:57

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) President Bush (news - web sites) on Friday wished Bill Clinton (news - web sites) "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."

"He's is in our thoughts and prayers," Bush said at a campaign rally.

Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wisconsin, booed. Bush did nothing to stop them.

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."

In fact, however, the crowd had responded with respectful applause.

The false story was immediately caught and reported to conservative talk radio shows and blogs. Less than one hour after the story first went out on the wire, under the byline of AP reporter Tom Hays, it was retracted, corrected, and the original link killed. The new title was "Bush offers best wishes for Clinton's recovery." There was no mention of the changes; however, the later version without the "boos" run by the New York Times-owned Boston Globe still carried the title "audience boos as bush offers best wishes for clintons recovery" in its URL.

Some original versions of the story carried the reporter's name, but at least one original version and all later versions were published without a byline.  Blogger Jonathan V. Last of Galley Slaves, however, determined though a Lexis-Nexis search, that the AP reporter was Tom Hays.

Last came up with a 649-word version of the AP story, entitled "Bill Clinton hospitalized with chest pains, will face bypass surgery," which included the booing, and which also credited "Associated Press writers Ron Fournier and Frank Eltman in New York, David Hammer in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Marc Humbert in Albany, New York ..."

Last commented, "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."

At AP headquarters in New York, staffer Mark Kennedy, an entertainment writer, directed this reporter to the wire service's corporate communications division, adding, "We're also supposed to note that we, that we changed the [crowd] reaction from, to 'oohs of surprise,' apparently rather than 'boos,' if that makes any difference."

By press time, AP corporate communications had not responded to telephone and e-mail requests for comment.

New York-based freelancer Nicholas Stix has written for Toogood Reports, Middle American News, the New York Post, Daily News, American Enterprise, Insight, Chronicles, Newsday and many other publications. His recent work is collected at The Critical Critic.

[marktwain]

This should have looked like this:

10 or 15 years ago (prior to Clinton's rise to power based on the press, when the press/liberal politicians realized THEY DID have that unbalanced power!) Blair's lies in the NY times would not have happened ....

I think you are wrong on the time line. It is very difficult to be sure, but I believe that the OldDominantLiberalMedia started to realize their power when they managed to bring McCarthy down. Then they started to set the agenda, rather than report it. After reading "Silent Coup" about the Watergate affair, I came to think of Watergate as a OldDominantLiberalMedia Coup that brought down a sitting president.

I believe that we have been lied to on a regular basis for four decades or more.

[Dave S]

It sounds like you'r saying that the guy is either: 1. Somehow shellshocked by FReeper charges of media bias; or 2. Because of hysteria among some on the right, leftwing media hysteria is ok.

No what I was attempting to say was this reporter had a bias for Kerry or against Bush or both and expected Bush voters to boo Clinton just as some freepers expect the MSM to constantly lie and mislead the public. If in fact he heard a few oohs or something similar or perhaps even one idiot nearby actually booing (say one out of a crowd of thousands) he could have mistakenly believed that much of the crowd was booing. That was not the case and he was obviously wrong. However, that doesnt mean that he invented the whole thing out of thin air. Through his liberal filter he may have thought one thing happened when in fact it didnt.

What would be in it for him to purposefully lie? There were other press people there as well as TV cameras and most of all Karen Hughes. To purposefully lie would be to bring discredit upon himself and risk losing his Whitehouse credentials for the sole purpose of attempting to rescuitate the dying Kerry campaign. Liberals may be stupid and they may be arrogant but I dont buy it.

[MeekOneGOP]

bump! :^D

[OldPossum]

Re your post 98, I remember that story. It happened in southwest Virginia and very few news reports covered what really happened. It does not surprise me that AP was among them.

[mrustow]

come up with the best new full-length name for "AP."

Arrogant Perfidy?

Sounds good to me, as does Associated Perjurers.

[editor-surveyor]

'Media Fraud' is a redundancy!

[editor-surveyor]

"They're evil. Their intention is to lie their way into a communist dictatorship, and they're well on their way to achieving that goal."

Truth bump!

[ladyinred]

Good job RB!

[mrustow]

Thanks!

[mrustow]

10 or 15 years ago, the AP lies would not have occurred. 10 or 15 years ago (prior to Clinton's rise to power based on the press, when the press/liberal politicians realized THEY DID have that unbalanced power!) Blair's lies in the NY times would not have happened ....

You're definitely on to something, though I doubt Clinton had anything to do with it. Circa 1990, affirmative action caused big-time newsrooms to reach a critical mass. However, at that point, the flexing of pc muscle involved getting jobs for manifestly incompetent blacks, females, and Hispanics, harassing white males, censoring the news, and providing uncritical coverage to black and feminist hustlers (the Tawana Brawley Hoax, the Campus Date Rape Hoax, etc.). However, the pc types taking over did not yet feel ready to simply commit journalistic fraud, as a matter of course. Now, they do.

[mrustow]

'Media Fraud' is a redundancy!

I love it!

[mrustow]

They're evil. Their intention is to lie their way into a communist dictatorship, and they're well on their way to achieving that goal.

Truth bump!

Bumpbackatcha!

[festus]

;Tom Hays' Boss
;Tom Curley, President, CEO

Perchance does Mr. Curley have two Vice Presidents named Larry and Moe ?

[marktwain]

What would be in it for him to purposefully lie?

1. To promote the end of the Bush Presidency.

2. To gain the appreciation of his boss, and the rest of the OldDominantLiberalMedia.

3. No reason to worry about getting caught, because things like this, that harm a Conservative, are done every day, and winked at. This would not have been caught ( and still has not been fully discredited) except for the internet.

The left is used to lying and getting away with it. They have done it for decades, which is why we are where we are today.

[JulieRNR21]

I was told on Friday night to call the AP Corporate Communications office on Tuesday regarding this false report.

Please join me in doing so:

212-621-6060

---

TALKING POINTS:

What does AP need to do, if it wishes to avoid destroying its own credibility over the next two weeks?

One, it must acknowledge that it is responsible for an outright hoax, consciously intended to damage the image of President Bush and his supporters. The outright fabrication of "did nothing to stop them" proves malicious intent.

Two, it must apologize to President Bush and his Wisconsin supporters.

Three, it must publicly identify all the people who wrote and approved the issuance of the fraudulent story.

Four, it must present to the public the backgrounds of those people identified in step three, including identification of all other political stories written by them concerning President Bush and other Republican candidates.

Five, it must call a press conference, identifying it as a historic occasion, and publicly apologize.

Six, the staff identified in step three must be fired, and the top management of AP must resign. They permitted an organization to grow which casually believed, without checking, the worst sort of personal character slander of an entire large class of people. And we're giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Seven, the AP must launch an affirmative action program to recruit conservatives at all levels, to correct the systematic discrimination which has enabled such frauds to pass muster in its editorial screening process.

That’s just for starters.

This story has it all. Human interest. Misconduct. A cover-up. And it has legs. Ex-President Clinton's health will be in the news for months. The Presidential campaign has 8 weeks left to it. Press bias continues. This one gets hearts beating faster, because it is the smoking gun proving proving hideous press bias at the core of the estblished old media.

AP-gate has only just begun, and Woodward & Bernstein's latest incarnations are all over the blogs.

Thomas Lifson

[JulieRNR21]

Please read my post #115 and call AP Corporate Communications Office on Tuesday:

212-621-6060

[Dave S]

The left is used to lying and getting away with it.

You been reading too many conspiracy theories. Tell me what is the Illuminati up to these days?

[L.N. Smithee]

At AP headquarters in New York, staffer Mark Kennedy, an entertainment writer, directed this reporter to the wire service's corporate communications division, adding, "We're also supposed to note that we, that we changed the [crowd] reaction from, to 'oohs of surprise,' apparently rather than 'boos,' if that makes any difference."

It doesn't.

[supercat]

Their web master could truly kill the story with a single keystroke (renaming the fraudulent source document), but nooooo.

Actually, what I'd like to see news sites do would be to have such pages preserved with their original text, prepended by a header:

ATTENTION: This article has been superceded. Newest version is available here.

The article you have requested has been found to be factually incomplete or erroneous, or is now out of date. It is reproduced below for historical interest only, as the information expressed therein may be incorrect.

Such handling would avoid a 1984-ish "memory hole" while at the same time limiting the spread of incorrect "news".

[nutmeg]

bump