http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2008/11/07/abc-nbc-fail-correct-obamas-seance-gaffe
ABC and NBC Fail to Correct Obama’s ‘Seance’ Gaffe
By Brent Baker (Bio | Archive)
Fri, 11/07/2008 - 21:47 ET
Friday night stories on ABC’s World News and the NBC Nightly News ran a clip of President-elect Barack Obama’s gaffe at his press conference in which he related he had talked to all of the “living” former Presidents, as “I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances.” But both newscasts failed to note it was Hillary Clinton, not Nancy Reagan, who reportedly had seances in the White House. ABC’s Jake Tapper called Obama’s comment “a lighter moment” while NBC’s Lee Cowan described it as “the only awkward moment of his first meeting with the press.”
FNC’s Jim Angle, however, managed to point out in his 6 PM EST story: “It was actually Hillary Clinton who was reported to have engaged in seance-like sessions in which she communed with the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt.”
The AP also noted the error. “Obama slips in reference to seance by Nancy Reagan” announced the headline over a dispatch posted at 5:06 PM EST on Yahoo News. The AP’s Kevin Freking recalled:
In his book, The Choice, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward described how Clinton consulted with a spiritual adviser who led her through imaginary conversations with her personal hero, Eleanor Roosevelt. Newsweek magazine, which was promoting the book, characterized the visits as “seances,” a term that White House officials quickly tried to squelch
Obama himself let slip that he is also conducting seances with corpse men.