Anatomy of a Myth - How The Biden Bunker Gaffe Myth Took Root

[Mass]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/anatomy-of-a-myth.html?wprss=rss_blog

Here's a classic example of an inaccurate story instantly gaining mythological status.

As Mark Silva blogs for Tribune, Washington yesterday was "abuzz with word that Vice President Joe Biden reportedly had disclosed the location of the undisclosed location that his predecessor, Dick Cheney, made mysteriously famous."

Consider the Fox News headline: Biden Reveals Location of Secret VP Bunker.

What set it all off was a blog post by Newsweek's Eleanor Clift: "Ever wonder about that secure, undisclosed location where Dick Cheney secreted himself after the 9/11 attacks? Joe Biden reveals the bunker-like room is at the Naval Observatory in Washington, where Cheney lived for eight years and which is now home to Biden. The veep related the story to his head-table dinner mates when he filled in for President Obama at the Gridiron Club earlier this year. He said the young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment. The officer explained that when Cheney was in lock down, this was where his most trusted aides were stationed, an image that Biden conveyed in a way that suggested we shouldn’t be surprised that the policies that emerged were off the wall."
...
As Silva writes: "Elizabeth Alexander, Biden's spokeswoman, offered this explanation this afternoon: 'What the vice president described in his comments was not - as some press reports have suggested - an underground facility, but rather, an upstairs workspace in the residence, which he understood was frequently used by Vice President Cheney and his aides.
...

No big surprise, but how many people discursed about Biden's gaffe. Sorry, there was none.

[AspenRose]

1. Ah, but if they say it's a gaffe enough times, then it'll be true.

That's what echo chambers are for.

[LiberalFighter]

2. The key is "shouldn't be surprise that the policies that emerged were off the wall"

Wouldn't appear as nutty if Biden had said an upstairs workspace in the residence. Much more diabolical with the description Biden used.

[beachmom]

3. Newsweek is really pathetic. And they are planning on making

it worse by turning it all into opinion puff pieces to match their shoddy journalism.

[Muttocracy]

4. Thanks Mass - I think the critical link is this:

"Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger write in The Washington Post that Clift's "source" was the club's newsletter, in which club President Dick Cooper of the Tribune Co. recounted what Biden had said to him at the dinner -- fully two months ago.

But Clift apparently put two and two together and got five. The room in question was not Cheney's secret bunker."

So Biden -> Cooper -> Clift -> Newsweek bloggers -> Fox, Yahoo, whatnot and suddenly we have a childhood game of "telephone" where you whisper around a circle and see how the story gets mangled.

I'd like to see the GridIron Club Newsletter article!

[PatSeg]

7. That whole story sounded fishy to me

when I first read about it. I figured there would be some clarification later on.

[yellowcanine]

5. Faux of course was trumpeting the "Biden gaffe that revealed national security secrets"

[Muttocracy]

6. Cheney lived in the VP residence while VP!!!!!11111

[jberryhill]

8. Yeah... that's what I don't get here

Biden "compromised" the location of the naval facility where the VP lives?

Next thing you know, Obama will slip up and reveal the White House is located at... shhhh.... 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (don't tell anyone).

:shrug:

[jillan]

9. I swear the media takes everything Biden says and calls it a gaffe.

thanks Mass!
The whole thing that bothered me about this story is why was this even coming out now when that dinner was in March!