Last I checked, the Post & Fox News had never been in bed with a murderous dictator.
Posted on 07/06/2004 7:48:47 AM PDT by dead
The tabloid New York Post was wiping egg from its face yesterday after identifying the wrong man in a front-page "exclusive" on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's choice of running mate.
"Kerry's Choice" ran the banner headline in the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, over a file photo of Kerry shaking hands with Congressman Richard Gephardt of Missouri.
The accompanying story analysed the "stunning" choice of Gephardt, stressing how the 63-year-old had managed to beat out the strong challenge of the youthful Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
But Kerry announced yesterday morning that he had actually chosen Edwards for his vice presidential candidate.
The newspaper's online edition further confused the issue by continuing to run the erroneous print version of the story next to a "breaking news" link declaring that Edwards would be the running mate.
The mistake meant that the Post, which has never shied away from highlighting the errors of its rivals, was forced to swallow some of its own medicine.
The CNN network gleefully showed off the Post front page, pointing out that Murdoch's News Corp, also owned CNN rival Fox News.
On its inside pages, the Post compounded its mistake with an analysis of what it believed to be Kerry's choice, saying Gephardt would be an asset to Kerry in key battleground states in the Midwest.
It also underlined Edwards' lack of experience as one of the main reasons why he had been passed over.
AFP
The Post has already pulled the front page and the article off their website, but I have my copy.
Somebody’s heads going to roll. There’s no name on the article, oddly. If your “superscoop” reporter isn’t willing to put his (or her) name on the piece, you might not want to put it on your front page.
I suspect Deborah Orin, based on her boneheaded history.
this was a curveball.
never trust liberals bearing scoops.
I agree it was stupid to have that on the first page like it was a done deal.
Not necessarily. Free advertising.
Everyone knows the Post got it wrong and they probably went out in droves to buy the "mistakes".
It was a 50-50 call with no downside.
Pretty smart.
Last I checked, the Post & Fox News had never been in bed with a murderous dictator.
Saw a guy on CNN a while ago, laughing about this and linking the paper to FoxNews. Glad to see the Clinton News Network lackies are still able to get their jollies.
Yep! While I agree that this was a bonehead move, there is a difference between an honest mistake (especially if this was suppose to be an inside scoop) and the deliberate distortions of the truth, run as news stories.
This is in no way comparable to the antics of Jason Blair, Eason Jordan and CNN...or the recent and deliberate misrepresentations over the 9/11 Commission's staff report.
I think it was KERRY who made the big mistake.
I wouldn't fault the NY Post. It may have very well been a Kerry operative that sent the Post scrambling to the presses with a fraudalent "scoop", that ended up being a pile of horse droppings.
The New York Post is my favorite paper. They actually have investigative reporters, not just wire copy rewriters.
I'm sure that this was a scoop provided by the dems to embarass the 'conservative' Post. It's conservative compared to the NYT, WP, and LAT, but it's more of a cross between country club conservative/tabloid.
I'm just POed because I take the west coast edition and they print early...therefore I got a cover of people outside a building fire scene.
Would have been one for the collection.
That's the way I see it too.
Maybe they'll learn a lesson to not take rumors or "scoops" and run them as bleeping huge bold typeface front page stories.
I wouldn't fault the NY Post. It may have very well been a Kerry operative that sent the Post scrambling to the presses with a fraudalent "scoop", that ended up being a pile of horse droppings.
That’s EXACTLY why I would blame the NY Post, and why I suspect it was Orin’s “scoop.”
You can’t maintain credibility if you let sleazy liberal political operatives make your editorial decisions for you. If you don’t have a source on the record, sit on the story until you do.
They got played like amateurs.
Or you can be like Newsweek and sit on it indefinately until Drudge makes world exclusive headlines. LOL
"There's no such thing as bad PR". It was esentially a big ole risk to do that, and I gotta hand it to them, whatever it was it worked to their advantage IMHO. Risks don't always work out, but can always be admired if they are honest.
I was going to put up the POST link on my site this morning, but decided against it. Then I decided not to even put one up at all until I can find the appropriate conservative leaning (or at least objective) story to post. The link at the POST is to the AP story, so I'm not going to put that one up. Any suggestions?
That's okay. Kerry did, too.
Of course, to be fair, none of these guys was going to be the right choice.
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