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Getting Blogged Down in the News By Michael Getler Sunday, April 17, 2005; Page B06 Being away for 10 days usually means coming back to some old business. It's unusual for old business to remain new business over such a stretch, but that's what has happened with The Post's coverage of the mysterious Senate memo dealing with political strategy in the case of the now-deceased Terri Schiavo. It started on Sunday, March 20, with a front-page story by reporters Mike Allen and Manuel Roig-Franzia about Congress preparing to have the federal courts become involved, in hopes that doctors would be...

HARKIN AND HARRY Late last week a staffer for Sen. Mel Martinez admitted to being the author of the infamous Terri Schiavo "talking points memo." Senator Martinez also reported late last week that he handed a copy of the memo to Sen. Tom Harkin. Martinez says that Harkin was the only person to whom he gave a copy of the memo. That memo, which gained a great deal of attention after a Senate source handed the document over to both the Washington Post and ABC News, was initially thought to be a Democratic dirty trick. The Prowler reported two weeks...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A one-page unsigned memo that became part of the debate preceding Congress' vote ordering a federal court review of the Terri Schiavo case originated in Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez' office, Martinez said Wednesday. Advertisement The memo — first reported by ABC News on March 18 and by The Washington Post and The Associated Press two days later — said the fight over removing Schiavo's feeding tube "is a great political issue ... and a tough issue for Democrats." "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating...

Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida, said Wednesday that a senior member of his staff had written an unsigned memorandum about the partisan political advantages of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo that became a controversial footnote to the debate over the wisdom and motives of Congress's actions. In a statement on Wednesday night, Mr. Martinez said that he had just learned that the memorandum originated in his office and that its author had resigned. He did not name the author, but aides said it was Brian Darling, his counsel. Mr. Darling could not be reached for comment. "It...

This time, the hoax was on them. Still gloating over their role in unmasking CBS's faulty National Guard memo story last September, right-wing bloggers launched a new memo-based crusade against the so-called liberal media last month, one that turned out to be completely phony. But unlike CBS and its tarred former anchor, Dan Rather, who eventually admitted their mistakes in the Memogate affair, these bloggers (many of whom were also involved in the CBS campaign) haven't had the guts to apologize for their blunder. When the Terri Schiavo story became national news in mid-March, a curious subplot revolved around a...

With the revelation that an aide to Senator Mel Martinez was the source of the widely-trumpeted "GOP talking points memo," we have written this article for the Daily Standard to summarize the story as it has developed to date: For the past two and one-half weeks, Washington has been roiled by controversy over an alleged "GOP talking points memo" that, according to ABC News and the Washington Post, was circulated among Republican Senators on the evening of March 17, when the Senate took up debate on the Terri Schiavo federal jurisdiction bill. The memo, of which Republicans disclaimed any knowledge,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Mel Martinez said Wednesday an infamous unsigned memo passed around on Capitol Hill emphasizing the politics of the Terri Schiavo case originated in his office. The memo -- first reported by ABC News on March 18 and by The Washington Post and The Associated Press two days later -- said the fight going on then over removing Schiavo's feeding tube "is a great political issue ... and a tough issue for Democrats." "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue," said the memo,...

Where Did They Get That Idea? There's a reason people think that the Terri Schiavo "talking points memo" was written by Republicans. by Scott Johnson 04/04/2005 12:00:00 AM Increase Font Size Printer-Friendly AFTER 60 Minutes II broadcast its fraudulent story on President Bush's Air National Guard service on September 8, 2004 holy heck broke loose on the Internet. Virtually anyone with eyes to see the evidence that accumulated during the days after the report came to the conclusion that the documents on which the story was based were fraudulent; yet CBS stonewalled for 12 days before admitting that its story...

Talking Points (Cont'd) The flap about a Washington Post report on an unsigned strategy memo in the Terri Schiavo case, which the paper said was "distributed to Republican senators," isn't going away. It turns out that The Post's news service put out an early version of the March 20 story -- published by numerous other papers -- that said the talking points, which touted the Schiavo case as a political opportunity, were "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders." GOP congressional leaders say they never saw the document, whose author remains unknown. Post reporter Mike Allen, who was unaware the...

Here we go again. Another fake memo story is handled quite well by new media types John Hinderaker and Cliff Kincaid and along comes the defender of all things old media Howard Kurtz to set the record straight. Kurtz is again put in the uncomfortable position of trying to spin another one of his employers and the rest of the old media out of a poor decision. This time the implication is that the GOP was willing to politicize the Terri Schiavo case. To get to that point, the proof the old media cited was a poorly worded, rambling note...

Bloggers are swarming around a new target: the Terri Schiavo "talking points." Fresh from declaring victory over CBS News and its discredited National Guard memos about President Bush, some of the same bloggers are raising questions about a strategy memo, first reported by ABC News and The Washington Post, that cast the Schiavo right-to-die case as a partisan opportunity for Republicans to stick it to Democrats. "Fake but Accurate Again?" says the Weekly Standard headline on an article by John Hinderaker, an attorney and conservative blogger who had challenged the CBS documents. While there is no hard evidence that the...

Washington — ACCORDING to a now infamous memo circulated among Republican senators, the Terri Schiavo case is a "great political issue" for their party. The memo is half right: the case may be good politics - but for Democrats. After all, in defending their intervention, Republican leaders in Congress have marshaled traditionally liberal arguments about the federal government's obligations to its citizens. Indeed, the practical effect of the idealistic arguments the Republican leadership puts forth to defend much of its agenda - from health care to education to immigration reform - may be to sell the middle of the electorate...

When Dan Rather used fake memos to smear President Bush, bloggers blew the whistle and the rest of the media recognized a journalistic scandal. But coverage of the dubious “GOP Talking Points” memo on the Schiavo case has been far different. Perhaps realizing that another phony document scandal could totally sink the credibility of the so-called mainstream media, there is great reluctance to admit that journalists from ABC News, the Washington Post, CBS News and other news organizations were taken in again, and that the Democrats played a dirty trick on the Republicans in a matter of life and death....

MUCH TIME MAY PASS before we fully understand the political ramifications of the Terri Schiavo case. For now, though, it seems that Republicans are taking a fearful beating. Opinion polls consistently show that a large majority of Americans disapproved of the effort--bipartisan, to be sure, but led by Republicans--to keep Mrs. Schiavo alive. To add insult to injury, most poll respondents hold the seemingly-inconsistent belief that the Republicans are not sincere, but are trying to capitalize on the Schiavo tragedy for political advantage. One reason for this perception may be the "GOP talking points memo" that was allegedly distributed on...

When Dan Rather used fake memos to smear President Bush, bloggers blew the whistle and the rest of the media recognized a journalistic scandal. But coverage of the dubious “GOP Talking Points” memo on the Schiavo case has been far different. Perhaps realizing that another phony document scandal could totally sink the credibility of the so-called mainstream media, there is great reluctance to admit that journalists from ABC News, the Washington Post, CBS News and other news organizations were taken in again, and that the Democrats played a dirty trick on the Republicans in a matter of life and death....

Thanks to Lucianne for sending her readers over to check out Rocket Man's reporting on "the GOP talking points memo" with the notation that "ABC picks up where CBS left off." The American Spectator's Washington Prowler has picked up the scent and interviewed Republican Senate staffers: "Dirty Democrat pool." The Prowler reports: "Republican leadership staffers now believe the document was generated out of the Democratic opposition research office set up recently by Sen. Harry Reid, and distributed to some Democratic Senate staffers claiming it was a GOP document, in the hope -- or more likely expectation -- that it would...

Confirming what we reported earlier today, ABC News has admitted that it knows nothing about the origins of the "GOP talking points" memo that it first published. An ABC source writes: the memo discussed a republican bill and was distributed to repulbican senators. That's what we reported. we are obviously not going to divulge our multiple sources. I appeciate your questions, but believe you are approaching this from the wrong end. We asked numerous sources - all confirmed that senators had received the memo in conjunction with one of the bills on the floor. For three days none of those...

It's Rathergate all over again, and the same vigilant entities that brought about to the collapse of CBS News could now also cause heads to roll among Democratic Senate leadership staffers and further shame multiple news organizations that would appear to have fallen for another document hoax. Very quietly, Senate Republican leadership aides to both Sen. Rick Santorum and Sen. Mitch McConnell, as well as the Senate Republican Policy Committee, have been using the Senate recess break to reconstruct the purported distribution of a document that media outlets, including ABC News, the New York Times and a number of regional...

Washington Prowler Dirty Democrat Pool By The Prowler Published 3/24/2005 12:08:04 AM It's Rathergate all over again, and the same vigilant entities that brought about to the collapse of CBS News could now also cause heads to roll among Democratic Senate leadership staffers and further shame multiple news organizations that would appear to have fallen for another document hoax. Very quietly, Senate Republican leadership aides to both Sen. Rick Santorum and Sen. Mitch McConnell, as well as the Senate Republican Policy Committee, have been using the Senate recess break to reconstruct the purported distribution of a document that media outlets,...

In an effort to get to the bottom of how Republican lawmakers obtained talking points urging them to use the tragedy surrounding Ms. Terri Schiavo for political gain, United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today asked the top Republican and Democrat on the Rules Committee to conduct an immediate investigation. Media reports suggest the anonymous talking points (attached) were circulated on the floor of the Senate chamber. "Those who would attempt to influence debate in the United States Senate should not hide behind anonymous pieces of paper," wrote Lautenberg in his letter (attached) to Senators Trent Lott (R-MS) and...