Reporter Who Made Up AWOL Story Has History Of Libeling GOP Candidates

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ^ | March 10, 1987 | N/A

[Hon]

"Same "facts," but laced with a lot of innuendo. And IMO that's how they do it."

From what I can see, Walter V. Robinson has made a career of this. He is famous (and infamous) for it, as my second post on this thread shows.

Except sometimes it seems he doesn't bother with facts at all.

[dennisw]

Walter V. Robinson is the Boston Globe reporter who originally reported the Bush AWOL

I used to be the kind of idiot who read the Boston Globe every day. Don't blame me, I was trapped in liberal hell. The unfair Globe coverage of Israel got me to switch to the Boston Herald. My recollection is that 15 years ago this Walt Robinson was their gossip columnist. My less clear recollection is that he is gay too. He is also Black, if that has anything to do with anything.

[dennisw]

Hmmm... I just may be confusing Walt Robinson with someone else

http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/bios/robinson.htm

[dennisw]

Course Material for Media & Politics

Professor Susan E. Gallagher, UMASS Lowell



Flood the Zone With Innuendo: Walter V. Robinson's Approach to the News



In his long career as a political reporter at the Boston Globe, Walter V. Robinson has come to specialize in what fans of his work describe as resume deflation and critics denounce as character assassination. Robinson's forte, which he has pursued for over twenty years, is digging up discrepancies between what public figures say about themselves and what documentary records and/or other people say about their achievements. In some cases, as in his articles on apparent gaps in President George W. Bush's performance of his duties while serving in the Texas Air National Guard, Robinson has focused squarely on documentary records and factual accounts. In others, Robinson has strayed into the far more slippery terrain of psychological profiling. Thus, in front-page portraits of former vice president Al Gore, former Boston mayor Ray Flynn, civil rights leader Paul Parks, and historian Joseph Ellis, Robinson did not simply point out inconsistencies between claims that each of these men had made about himself and what each had actually done, he called in psychologists to speculate about their motivations and summarized the opinions of of vaguely defined sources rather than relaying what specific individuals actually said.



Though it might seem like a short step from showing that someone has lied to portraying that person as a liar, a review of Robinson's work over the years illustrates that this shift can transform the writing of a story into a profound abuse of power. That is, when Robinson's aim has not been to expose contradictions, but to promote particular judgments about specific individuals, his reporting exhibits precisely the characteristics that he attributes to his targets, namely, a tendency to embellish, exaggerate, and stretch the truth to suit his purpose. However, whereas Gore, Flynn, Parks, and Ellis had all, according to Robinson, twisted facts in the interest of self-promotion, Robinson engaged in what is usually seen as a much more egregious form of deception by misrepresenting other people's lives. It is, after all, hard to figure out who is harmed when public figures such as Gore, Ellis, Parks, and Flynn commit the sin of self-inflation, but Robinson's misleading reporting on both well-known and ordinary people has ended careers, ruined reputations, inflicted deep humiliation, and, at least in the case of clergy sex abuse victim Paul R. Edwards, the latest addition to Robinson's roster, brought a blameless man to the brink of suicide..........

----MORE----



http://www.catholicsandsurvivors.net/a_survey_of_walter_v.htm

[facedown]

Walter V. Robinson, an assistant managing editor of the Globe and the editor of the Spotlight Team, has been a reporter and news editor at the Globe for close to three decades.

[familyofman]

If the NG records in question can't be found in Denver, why not just get some of the other MS or TX NG people that served with W come forward & say they were with W at the time period in question. If JFKerry can get his VN comrades to stand with him, GWB should have his comrades stand with him. End of story!!!

[shhrubbery!]

Interesting...but...

Walter Robinson is ALSO the guy who went after AlGore over Gore's lie about the costs of his mother-in-law's vs. his doggy's medication.

Robinson also went after creepy left-wing professor and 'historian' Joseph Ellis, who claimed he'd fought in Vietnam. Ellis hadn't.

Robinson is also pursuing some who have apparently dubious claims to have been abused by Catholic priests. Here's a site taking him to task for that: Flood the Zone With Innuendo: Walter V. Robinson's Approach to the News

So the guy seems to be a mixed bag. From what I've read, it's hard to tell whether he's an equal-opportunity attack-dog, or a professional smearer. Or something in between.

[shhrubbery!]

Ooops, didn't see your link before I posted mine at #27.

But note that piece is written by some (likely) leftie professor at UMass. It's not surprising she doesn't like Robinson after he exposed Joe Ellis and AlGore.

[PJ-Comix]

Meanwhile John F-ing Kerry has taken up this "issue" and, in addition, making it seem as if service in the National Guard isn't really serving in the military. This is yet ANOTHER example of John F-ing Kerry using questionable sources to make phony allegations. John F-ing Kerry also did this on April 22, 1971 in testimony to congress about supposed war crimes committed by the U.S. military in Vietnam. It turned out later that the "witnesses" to such crimes were bogus. many of them only pretended to be Viet Vets. To my knowledge John F-ing Kerry never apologized for this smear on the military based on FALSE testimony.

[shhrubbery!]

I admire your research, but (in addition to what I said in #27), I think you should be careful in your wording.

I don't know that it's fair to say Walter Robinson "made up" the AWOL story, as you say in your title. It looks to me as if he may have left out important facts -- which, if true, is unethical journalism and is bad enough by itself.

However, to attribute the "AWOL" charge to him, when I believe it is Dim scum-suckers such as Michael Moore and James Car-vile who are responsible for that terminology, doesn't seem kosher.

[Chances Are]

I used to be the kind of idiot who read the Boston Globe every day. Don't blame me, I was trapped in liberal hell.

In your defense, the Globe does have a very good sports section...

CA....

[dennisw]

yeah.. my bad.

[Hon]

No. He made it up. He should credit for it.

[Hon]

AWOL Story Won't Die

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, February 5, 2004; 10:29 AM

AWOL Watch: The Boston Globe, which in 2000 was the first paper to report on President Bush's spotty record as a National Guardsman, returns to the issue this morning and finds once again that Bush did not report for required Guard duty for a full year at the height of the Vietnam War. Reporter Walter V. Robinson tells Salon he thinks some documents have been removed and inserted from Bush's military file.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15414-2004Feb5.html

[shhrubbery!]

Well, unless Robinson actually used the term AWOL himself, I don't think he should be 'credited' with making up that part of the story.

From all you've posted, however, it does sound as if Robinson did some egregiously selective reporting of the Turnipseed interview. Other Dim slimeballs took it and ran with it.

In an unrelated sidenote, the link you posted contains this lovely little snippet:

David Von Drehle writes in The Washington Post that it is "virtually guaranteed that the issue will be a wedge in this year's political campaigns.

"Washington political veterans generally believe this could be a plus for President Bush, whose homespun philosophy that 'marriage is between a man and a woman' manages to please his conservative base voters even as it reflects the opinion of a majority of Americans."

So Von Drehle thinks the accepted definition of marriage is 'homespun philosophy.' Will elitist wonders never cease.

[piasa]

Oh my, Boston Globe again!

[piasa]

Boston Globe Reporter Wrote Book For Kerry Campaign

[ErnBatavia]

Politics of Personal Destruction** bump...

Thanks for resurrecting this thread.

**A phrase commonly tossed out by the left...

[Dolphy]

Thanks for the information, somehow I missed the ping earlier.

[StAnDeliver]

Bump on the chance the Globe and CBS try to backstop their fraud.