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 Less than one hour after the story first went out on the wire, under the byline of AP reporter Tom Hays, it was retracted, corrected, and the original link killed.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.

[mrustow]

Media Fraud Zing!

[mrustow]

Media Fraud Zing!

[johnny7]

The AP and the MSMedia have gone from lying in articles about Bush to lying about supporters of Bush!

It's US(Republicans, Conservatives) they really hate... Bush is just our candidate.

Kerry's assersion that he will tax the wealthy heavier is an attempt at class warfare... the lowest road a candidate can take to win an election!

I am struggling with a small business and exist from month to month... all I ask from my government is for EVERYONE to be equally taxed!

Taxes are not a donation based on your income... they are only OPERATING EXPENSES!

[mrustow]

Media Fraud Zing!

[randog]

Gotta luv those tireless bloggers!

[RaceBannon]

Here is the response I got, and my answer to that response to one of the news outlets that repeated this story:



To: All WSTM Assignment Editors
Subject: Your story from the AP on Clinton is wrong

http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=2257936

NO ONE booed, that is a lie that was later retracted by the AP

Here is a link to the audio of that story:

http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/bush.mp3
-----Original Message-----
From: Hand, Laura [mailto:lhand@wstm.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 11:38 PM
To: RaceBannon
Subject: RE: Your story from the AP on Clinton is wrong

Hello RaceBannon

Thanks for your email about the 'President Booed' report.

The story is no longer on our website-- it has not been since early Saturday, despite reports from other sites that it is.

By way of explanation, the report came to us from AP, and it was posted on our website, as well as on dozens of others. When they corrected the story, the link was taken off our website. However, the American Thinker website 'captured' the incorrect story as it was posted and continues to link to the outdated page---we invite you to go to our website, www.wstm.com and see for yourself that the story is not there.

Of course, accuracy and credibility are ongoing concerns---we believe we have acted responsibly in removing access to the story as soon as the error was realized . We hope this explains the sequence of events.

Again thank you for taking the time to comment---

Laura Hand

WSTM Community Relations

This is what I responded with after receiving her comment that the article was removed SATURDAY NIGHT

Whoever told you that the story was not on your website lied to you, too, I sent this e-mail directly from your site at the same moment I was reading it.

This was NOT removed from your website on Saturday at all, I was reading it the very moment I sent this e-mail, and that was Sunday Morning about 8:30AM or so.

Better tell your news department that the internet is a useful tool to check stories before they are posted, and also a useful tool to check stories after they are posted, too.

I don’t fault you for posting the inaccurate story in the first place, the AP is generally considered a fair organization, but the actual audio proves they deliberately LIED on this story, just as much as Jason Blair lied to the NYT.

This e-mail correspondence also proves that your own people LIED to YOU in telling you that the story was yanked on Saturday. I sent the original e-mail while reading the story on Sunday Morning.

[Wardawg]

It's not reasonable to give this clown Hayes the benny of the doubt of having good intentions. He made up two "facts" 1. that booing occured and 2. that Bush did nothing to stop it. It might be possible to get one wrong, but then to make up another to support the first. Associated Propagandists must fire this ahole immediately to maintain any degree of mere bias and not activie fact production.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Good to see someone spell out all the "nuances" in this story. Tom Brokaw ran a clip on Friday evening's newscast of the president's Clinton remarks and I heard cheers and applause--nothing else. It was a classy remark by the president, twisted by another hateful member of the DNC's media division.
Like Old Europe, they're Old News.

[tioga]

ok, I sent a comment.

[Steely Tom]

I think we have to give this guy a break. Remember, he is a hard-core leftist.

I'm guessing that he actually heard the booing. In his mind. He was just reporting "his truth."

Also, in his mind, he actually heard the President doing nothing about it. Of course, in our reality, the President did nothing about it because it didn't happen, but who are we to judge what is reality and what isn't?

(steely)

[MHGinTN]

You nailed it ... the democrap party has become the lefthand of Satan, complete with the blood of innocent children sacrificed to appease the demon.

[mrustow]

Gotta luv those tireless bloggers!

Right?! Whodathunkit, that these guys with the cyber equivalent of peashooters would be bringing down the high and the mighty?

[mrustow]

Wow! Thanks for posting your correspondence, Race.

[mrustow]

It's not reasonable to give this clown Hayes the benny of the doubt of having good intentions. He made up two "facts" 1. that booing occured and 2. that Bush did nothing to stop it. It might be possible to get one wrong, but then to make up another to support the first. Associated Propagandists must fire this ahole immediately to maintain any degree of mere bias and not activie fact production.

I say, let them take as long as they like with the decision. The longer they try to ignore the story they created, the longer the story remains a story. We have to stop talking merely about "media bias," and talk more about media fraud.

[WestTexasWend]

Here's another left-leaning piece of work from Tom:

Police Portraying Protesters as 'Terrorists'
TOM HAYS / AP 29jan02
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. X X X

[mrustow]

It's not reasonable to give this clown Hayes the benny of the doubt of having good intentions. He made up two "facts" 1. that booing occured and 2. that Bush did nothing to stop it. It might be possible to get one wrong, but then to make up another to support the first.

Exactimiento!

Associated Propagandists must fire this ahole immediately to maintain any degree of mere bias and not activie fact production.

I say, let stay awhile, so Net journalists can make him as famous as Jayson Blair.

[mrustow]

Good to see someone spell out all the "nuances" in this story. Tom Brokaw ran a clip on Friday evening's newscast of the president's Clinton remarks and I heard cheers and applause--nothing else. It was a classy remark by the president, twisted by another hateful member of the DNC's media division.
Like Old Europe, they're Old News.

I like that -- "Old Europe, Old News." I also saw it on TV (don't remember where), and heard the applause.

[mrustow]

I think we have to give this guy a break. Remember, he is a hard-core leftist.

I'm guessing that he actually heard the booing. In his mind. He was just reporting "his truth."

Also, in his mind, he actually heard the President doing nothing about it. Of course, in our reality, the President did nothing about it because it didn't happen, but who are we to judge what is reality and what isn't?

(steely)

Tom Hays: "My reality is that I am a bizarro American."

[RckyRaCoCo]

crAP

[MaineRepublic]

I see you beat me to it.

I'm glad this story will not go away. Hopefully tomorrow when everyone is back from the holiday, the media will investigate this more.