Posted on 09/09/2004 4:52:56 PM PDT by ElRushbo
AP Boo-boo? News group works quickly to cover its tracks on Bush speech
Viewers around the world tuning into BBC World Report on Friday night learned that when President Bush told a Milwaukee crowd earlier that day that former President Clinton was in the hospital that the crowd booed the mention of Clinton’s name. For that matter, the same report appeared for hours on the famed "Drudge Report" Web site. Ditto for the Boston Globe Web site. TV stations around the country picked up the report that also aired on countless radio stations. If you’d like a clear indication of how widespread the story has been, type the following words into the Google search engine: Bush, Wisconsin, Clinton, heart, boo. The story is all over. It’s on liberal Web sites. It’s being "blogged" by leftist Internet wannabes.
There’s just one problem. It never happened. How Wisconsin Republicans came to be portrayed as a bunch of boorish goons is a remarkable story of journalistic incompetence and arrogance. The Associated Press, the world’s largest news agency, transmitted a report on its wires at 1:19 Friday afternoon. It read: "President Bush on Friday wished Bill Clinton ‘best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery. He’s in our thoughts and prayers,’ Bush said at a campaign rally. Bush’s audience of thousands in West Allis, Wis., booed. Bush did nothing to stop them."
The story instantly appeared on Web sites of all major news agencies. Radio stations ran with the report. But shortly after the story was posted, Wisconsinites who attended the rally exploded into action. The AP, recognizing it had a problem, "withdrew" the story 17 minutes later. An hour after that, the AP sent out a new report saying the crowd responded with "oohs" when Bush made his announcement about Clinton. Better, but still wrong. It didn’t really matter. The lefty news reporters that populate news organizations around the world went with the original report and delivered it with glee.
Close listening to audio tapes of Bush’s comments reveal no "boos" and not even any "oohs." After Bush’s first remark that Clinton was hospitalized, the crowd responded with a hush and a faint gasp. When Bush wished Clinton a quick recovery, the crowd loudly applauded and CHEERED. How could the story have been reported so inaccurately?
The AP reporter covering the speech evidently assumed that uncouth, classless Bush supporters would be gleeful at news of Clinton’s illness. This translated into a delusional episode in which he heard "thousands" do something that no one did. Who is this deaf or deranged reporter? Well, that turned out to be a good question and one AP didn’t want to answer.
The Wisconsin bureau chief for AP, a character named Lee Hughes, grunted to me that he not only did not know who the "national" AP reporter was but that he wasn’t going to try to find out. "Why should I?" he blurted to me. I tried to respond that it was, well, news and I was trying to report the news myself, and besides, shouldn’t a news agency be cooperating in the reporting of news. One other thing. WISN Radio is a paying customer of AP.
I’ve stumbled across all sorts of reporters over the years but until Friday, I had never heard of Lee Hughes, whom I imagine is some sort of AP lifer plopped into an anonymous administrative job. In any event, I relayed the story and my conversation with the uncooperative Hughes to my radio audience that was already seething about the inaccurate report that slurred many of them. Then, I mentioned the AP’s phone number. I figured that if Hughes wouldn’t tell me who wrote the story, maybe he’d tell my listeners. Well, the AP phones were busy for hours. A woman whose number is close to that of the AP called me a day later to say her phone was still ringing off the hook. If people were calling the wrong number in droves 24 hours later, how many people called the correct number?
Lee Hughes still won’t help me out with the name of his colleague who mangled the story. It turns out that a "Tom Hays" actually produced the first piece, according to a search of a computer database. Whatever. Here are the facts: Wisconsin Bush supporters reacted with hearty cheers and applause to best wishes for a much-disliked Democratic ex-president. A news agency wrongly reported that the crowd booed and later covered its tracks by wrongly reporting that the crowd "oohed."
The story will become urban legend. For years, Democrats will talk at cocktail parties about the goon-like Republicans who cheered news of Clinton’s sickness. Leftist callers to talk shows will repeat the story over and over. The news organization responsible for all of this has shown no remorse, offered no explanation and still hasn’t produced an accurate report of the event.
To quote the AP’s Lee Hughes: "Why should I?"
The facts aren't on their side. The law isn't on their side. They've only got one thing left, and if that doesn't work, they'll bounce as many checks as they can and skip town.
Ping.
do you remeber reading the story on drudge? I couldn't believe it that the reporter would say Bush did nothing to stop the "Booohs" Not only did this guy lie about booing in the first place but then he finds an opportunity to bash bush and make him look bad--- liberals are horrible people
The AP lying about the crowd booing when the president wished Clinton a speedy recovery, CBS producing crude forgeries as some kind of proof that GWB was AWOL.
It makes me wonder how many hoaxes the media successfully managed to pull off on the unsuspecting public prior to the internet.
That's AP for you. wouldn't expect anything different from what you reported.
AP's motto: Never let the facts get in the way of a good story!
Who's Mark Belling?
I watched the announcements made by both President Bush and kerry, and the crowds at the Presidents rally were much louder in their cheering than the kerry crowds were.
The Mark Belling I know is a talk show host we hear occasionally here in the Seattle Tacoma area, who is pretty conservative. Seems to fill in for people.
A white lie is a white lie. In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, big media outlets deny that they have their own agenda other than "the truth". We now know just how much arrogance drives them to do what they do. They think that they control the flow of information to the public and can shape it to serve their ends. Either that, or much of the media is so far to the left that they take their delusions more seriously than what their eyes and ears are telling them. In any case, the old media deserves to shrivel up and die.
Belling subs for Rush and has a top rated radio program in Milwaukee. He is very good and very conservative
my mistake --Belling had it correct
Afternoon talk-show host on News Talk 1130 WISN in Milwaukee (BTW, #1 in the time slot for the last few years), sometime guest host on Rush's show, poart of a racehorse group (a couple of their entries came close at the Derby), and a weekly columnist in the Waukesha Freeman and its associated free weekly shoppers.
FReepers actually broke this story. It was an amazing day on FR. Many of the FReepers who were at the rally, came back to report, and were dumfounded at what they heard, re the boos.
"How could the story have been reported so inaccurately?"
The same way they inaccurately report so many other stories to the detriment of Conservatives.
I think Tom Hays is now working for Dan Rather & 60 Minutes.
The reason so many liberals believe this story, is because that is exactly how a gathering of Liberals would react if a Democrat asked them to pray for President Bush under similar circumstances.
The boos are just another GW/heterosexual bashing by the gay agenda pushers in the homosexual dominated AP.
Tom Hays has been pushing the homosexual agenda and bashing GW for being heterosexual for years.
Here is the Yahoo search on Tom Hays Gay:
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=Tom%20Hays%20Gay
Whenever a liar spins a new or old lie about GW and it works for the AP just run the Yahoo search on his name plus gay.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.