Politico's editorial staff on Friday conceded that entire basis of
attack on Carson was invented out of whole cloth.
NOVEMBER 6, 2015 By Mollie Hemingway
Politico‘s Kyle Cheney admitted that he fabricated a negative story
about Ben Carson. At least, according to his own standards, he admitted
the grievous journalistic sin.
In a story published early on Friday, Politico’s Kyle Cheney authored a
piece headlined “Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship”
with a subhed “Carson’s campaign on Friday conceded that a central
point in his inspirational personal story did not occur as he
previously described.”
There were at least five major problems with the story:
*The headline was completely false
*The subhed was also completely false
*The opening paragraph was false false false
*The substance of the piece was missing key exonerating information
*The article demonstrated confusion about service academy admissions
and benefits
*But other than that, A+++ work, Kyle Cheney and Politico.
It could take all day to parse the problems with Kyle Cheney’s
now-somewhat-cleaned-up hit piece on Carson, but let’s just look at his
original introductory claims:
Ben Carson’s campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry
from POLITICO, that a central point in his inspirational personal story
was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point. The academy has occupied a central place in
Carson’s tale for years. According to a story told in Carson’s book,
“Gifted Hands,” the then-17 year old was introduced in 1969 to Gen.
William Westmoreland, who had just ended his command of U.S. forces in
Vietnam, and the two dined together. That meeting, according to
Carson’s telling, was followed by a “full scholarship” to the military
academy. West Point, however, has no record of Carson applying, much
less being extended admission…When presented with this evidence,
Carson’s campaign conceded the story was false.
Roughly none of this is true. Ben Carson’s campaign did not “admit”
that a central point in his story “was fabricated.” Quite the opposite.
The central point of the story is falsely described by Cheney/Politico
as being that he applied and was accepted at West Point. Carson, in
fact, has repeatedly claimed not to have applied. So any claim
regarding the absence of West Point records of such an application
would not debunk Carson’s point. And, again, Carson’s campaign never
“conceded” the story was false at least in part because the story, as
characterized by Politico, is not one he told. Further, Cheney is
unable to substantiate his claim that Carson told this story. Nowhere
in the article does he even explain, with facts, where he came up with
the idea that Carson has ever made this claim.
Politico stealthily edited the inflammatory headline and lede, after
the damage was done. They made changes without adding a note about what
was corrected. They didn’t update the piece or add an editor’s note.
The new headline is very much toned down to “Exclusive: Carson claimed
West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied.” This is a claim not
exclusive to Politico and not newsworthy in the least. Carson himself
broke this news 23 years ago when he said he was offered a scholarship
to West Point but never applied. The cleaned-up story still says that
Carson “conceded that he never applied nor was granted admission to
West Point.” To concede is to admit that something is true. But, again,
Carson himself made this claim more than two decades ago, so he’s not
conceding the point to Kyle Cheney or Politico simply because Kyle
Cheney and Politico misread him.
The Washington Post‘s Dave Weigel, who immediately expressed skepticism
about the significance of the Politico hit that was taking everybody by
storm, has a balanced take on the kerfuffle here. He also noted:
One other quick point to make about Politico and Kyle Cheney’s piece.
The original story claimed that Carson also lied by claiming he was
offered a full scholarship to West Point since the service academy is
entirely taxpayer funded. Or, as Politico put it: “indeed there are no
‘full scholarships,’ per se.” The only problem with this is that the
academy itself describes this benefit as a “full scholarship.”
Ben Carson was a brilliant student who had already shown an interest in
the military and had demonstrated leadership skills. It would be
weirder if West Point hadn’t tried to recruit him than tried to recruit
him. This doesn’t happen to us journalists, for obvious reasons, but
exceptional students are recruited by top colleges and universities all
the time.
Now, as for Kyle Cheney’s concession that he fabricated his piece on
Carson. He didn’t. That’s how I’m interpreting his decision to
stealthily edit his piece to remove much of the error. But Ben Carson
didn’t “admit” or “concede” to fabrication and he’s been tarred by
Cheney as if he had. So I’ll keep the headline.
Other critiques of Cheney and Politico are available from across the
political and media spectrum here, here, here, here, here, and here.
At a time when the media need to demonstrate good faith efforts to
cover Republicans and conservatives with even a modicum of fairness,
Kyle Cheney and Politico have done a tremendous disservice to their
brands.