WPost Admits Bungling Obama Quote

[babylonsister]

WPost Admits Bungling Obama Quote

By Robert Parry
August 10, 2008

The Washington Post’s ombudsman says the newspaper’s original source for a quote that was used to portray Barack Obama as a megalomaniac now disputes the Post’s negative interpretation that has spread across cable TV, the Internet and even into a John McCain attack ad.

Post ombudsman Deborah Howell also acknowledges that neither Post reporter who relied on the misleading quote spoke directly with the source, checked out its accuracy, or made any independent effort to determine the context of the remark, which was made to a closed Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on July 29.

In her column, “The Anger Over an Obama Quote,” Howell adds that she has been contacted by about 160 people, including congressional officials, who said the Post twisted the meaning of the quote by taking it out of context. But the newspaper still refuses to run a full-scale correction or a clarification or even print a letter protesting the distortion.

Howell’s column, appearing in the Post’s Aug. 10 editions, does chide the two reporters – Dana Milbank and Jonathan Weisman – for not checking out the disputed quote more carefully but her criticism is mild.

Generally, she treats the quote as a case study on the risks of anonymous sources, not a clear-cut case of shoddy journalism. She also demeans critics of the Post's handling the issue by calling them “partisans.”

more...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/080908.html

Howell's column:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/08/AR2008080802933.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Skwmom]

1. So demanding the truth = being a partisan. People should demand that she be

fired from her position. She is not an ombudsman, she is a charlatan.

[FrenchieCat]

2. That is why writing to the media does work......

and why we should all do it, instead of throwing our hands up in the air,
and acting like we can't make a difference. We can make a difference,
but we have to be willing to do what is hard to some to get it done; write letters,
make phone calls to the very media we despise.

That's what I do, and it not only works,
but it keeps me from talking to my television
all of the time. :)

[Gabi Hayes]

3. thanks! one of the few real journalists left, writing about poseurs, play acting as

journalists, getting caught, then having nothing done about it

whatever happened to the halcyon days of Janet Cooke?

buy his books!

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/consortiumnews/shop/shop.jsp?storefront_KEY=261&t=SecrecyandPrivilege.dwt


donate here.....keep him reporting--there aren't many left:


https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/consortiumnews/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2043

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Dana Milbank: [puke]

Why do these things appear so obvious to so many of us, and take so long for others to see??

[GoesTo11]

5. Hey, it could happen to anyone.

I didn't go to journalism school. Do they teach you to check quotes or to just print them?

Sorry excuse for an ombudsman trying to explain away their partisanship.

[Major Hogwash]

6. Poor Dana Milbank

Never to be seen on tv again, he went over to CNN!!

LoL

[blm]

7. It takes a wall of noise from united Dem lawmakers and left media to get the MSM to give in to truth

and that wall of noise and outrage from Dems has been Missing In Action for too many Dem campaign cycles. If WE ALL keep hitting back as a united force, we can give Obama the crucial inches he will need for this fight.

[Major Hogwash]

10. Well, John Kerry is the only one that has been going out there and saying just that!!

I haven't seen any other Democrats on tv defending Obama or stating his case, so evidently this is more of the "catch me when you can" syndrome the Democrats have suffered from for the last 25 years!

[blm]

11. I think most won't stick their necks out because they don't want to become targets -

the other day that asshat Schumer tried to claim he would've been tougher in 2004 than Kerry, but you never saw him stick his neck out once to face down Bush or back up Kerry on anything over the years - he and Clinton tried to talk other Dem senators out of filibustering Alito, fer chrissakes. The Dry Powder Dems always fuck the rest of us over, and then point blame at the ones who stick their necks out the most.

[Thrill]

8. That ain't shit.........They know the quote was horseshit. They should do a retraction

[liberalla]

9. there they go again - claiming 'truth' and 'fact' is "partisan" ...

Pathetic. I'm tired of being pissed at these idiots all the time.

[AtomicKitten]

12. KO gave Milbank a chance to come clean and Milbank decided to remain a douche.

[David Zephyr]

13. Bad journalism or propaganda? Which of the two was Milbank practicing? Either way he disgraces CNN.

And disgracing CNN any further takes a lot to do.