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 Less than one hour after the story first went out on the wire, under the byline of AP reporter Tom Hays, it was retracted, corrected, and the original link killed.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

[Dionysius]

Very true! It could also stand for Agenda Pre-conditioned.

[Robert A Cook PE]

" 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."

Gee.

The "official" coordinated coverup at AP has officially begun ....

But wait, we must wait all the other new media to follow-up on this breaking story ... To jump on it like they immediately wrote about Bush drunk-driving arrest 35 years ago two days before the election, after it had been peddled by the dnc for 5 weeks ....

[Grampa Dave]

I wonder about the number % of vile hate America Gay agenda pushers in control of the Boston Globus Hystericus.

The NY Slimes has 75% of those who determine daily headlines and placement of articles as out of the closet radical Gay Activists.

[MeekOneGOP]

[FreeAtlanta]

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

I think they hate themselves and everything that represents order. They are not unlike the anarchists that basically admit they hate everything. It would be really nice if they would leave us out of their misery and just go talk with Dr. Kavorkian.

[nicmarlo]

bttt

[TatieBug]

Thanks for these Email addresses. Told them both if they don't call off "the dogs" their boy's gonna lose alot worse than they can imagine.

[spodefly]

10 or 15 years ago AP's lies would have gone unchallenged. Apparently the 'traditional media' occasionally forget that we no longer believe their BS, and will fact check EVERYTHING they write.

[alrea]

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."

What does make a difference is when journalists invent information that influences the political process. This destroys an institution that has constitutional protection. There is great danger in this indirect political propaganda. Direct damage to citizens, democracy and the political process occurs. This is on the level of terrorism but may be worse because of it's deceptive nature. The fact that is was stopped and corrected is positive, however surprising.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

God bless the Internet, and keep it safe from Liberal censors.

[Robert A Cook PE]

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 ....

[Free ThinkerNY]

Good one!

[Libertina]

I though Tom Hays was implicated in this. Anyway, these slimes know that anything they write will be picked up, and the people who pucked up the story wills ay, "Gool, we only printed the piece, we didn't know." All of which is slimy and false.

[Young Werther]

PING!

[BrynS728]

AP = A Piece-o'sh-t!

[AnnaZ]

Al Pravda

You win!

[Entropy Squared]

AP - Ass Pickles.

[mrustow]

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.

I hope you're right.

[mrustow]

The AP seems to feel insulated from accountability because it is a wholesaler and not a retailer. The AP survives because of all the small newspapers which need a source to fill space on regional, national and world events, but those newspaper are dying off as newspaper readership steadily declines. It will not be long before we put those boys and girls in a museum along with broadcast network news and the fossils of Cronkite, Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather. It will be sooner than they think, who would have thought that Fox News could so humiliate the broadcast and cable networks in the ratings battle for the Republican Convention.

It's not just small newspapers that rely on AP; everybody does -- the biggest newspapers and the Web, including FR. Eliminate all wire services, and we'll back at guessing at the outlines of the shadows in the cave.

[mrustow]

'oohs of surprise'?

The only times I have heard 'oohs of surprise' were at fireworks displays and in melodramatic musical theater productions.

You're right, of course. The "oohs" are just to cover for their reporter, so they can say, "It was an honest mistake; he confused "oohs" with "boos."