AP Goes All Orwell in Covering Obama Apology for MOH Gaffe It Originally Ignored
Sordo
in mixing up the dead with the living Medal of Honor Recipients.
How do you suppose the magic President Hopey McChange,
with the mind of a computer can make all these errors?
AP Goes All Orwell in Covering Obama Apology for MOH Gaffe It
Originally Ignored
By Tom Blumer | June 25, 2011 | 22:44
http://newsbusters.org
By failing to initially cover a story millions of people nevertheless
learned of -- the presidential gaffe noted at NewsBusters by Matt
Sheffield, among others, on Thursday morning -- the Associated Press
created a bit of a problem for itself. In a speech to soldiers at Fort
Drum, President Obama "mistakenly identified a fallen member of that
division as another soldier in a completely different Army unit who is
alive" -- both of whom were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
NB's Geoffrey Dickens noted later on Thursday that the Big 3
television networks also ignored the story.
A search on the last name of deceased soldier and Medal of Honor
winner Jared Monti at the AP's main site only returns one relevant
story: its Friday night/Saturday morning coverage of Obama's apology.
Wait until you see how dishonestly the wire service tried to cover its
tracks (graphically captured here for future reference, fair use and
discussion purposes), starting with the headline:
White House confirms Medal of Honor mistake
The dictionary's primary definition of "confirm" is "to establish the
truth, accuracy, validity, or genuineness of."
You see, in the Orwellian world of the Associated Press, we don't know
that the President's gaffe really occurred because the self-described
"Essential Global News Network" didn't report it. Therefore, it can
only turn into something that really did occur when a White House
spokesperson "confirms" that it occurred. Until then, in AP-Land, it's
only some kind of unverifiable rumor.
Never mind that it's recorded here at YouTube and heaven knows how
many other places.
Never mind that it was noted Wednesday by over 50 blogs, including
several high-traffic leaders like Pajamas Media (here and here), Hot
Air, Gateway Pundit, Blackfive, and Wizbang.
Never mind that Andrew Breitbart posted the related video at 3:59 p.m.
on Wednesday.
Never mind that a few establishment press outlets noted the gaffe
early on Thursday, though with a level of understanding which would
never have been and almost never has been allotted to a conservative
or Republican, including the LA Times ("Obama confuses his Medal of
Honor recipients during Ft. Drum remarks"), the Washington Post
("Obama slips on names of Medal of Honor recipients"), CBS News
("Obama criticized for flubbing name of medal of honor recipient" --
Of course, the gaffe isn't the story, it's the fact that meanie
conservatives are pointing it out), and ABC News ("Obama Flubs Medal
Of Honor Winner").
And finally, never mind that even the White House transcript of the
speech posted Wednesday correctly records Obama's gaffe:
First time I saw 10th Mountain Division, you guys were in southern
Iraq. When I went back to visit Afghanistan, you guys were the first
ones there. I had the great honor of seeing some of you because a
comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person who I was able to
award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn�t
receiving it posthumously.
Nope. At the AP, it's not official until a White House spokesman
"confirms" what everyone who knows of it has already seen, heard,
and/or read, as the text of the AP's unbylined coverage (I'd say it's
unbylined for a reason) demonstrates:
The White House is confirming that President Barack Obama misspoke
about a Medal of Honor winner coming home alive during comments at
Fort Drum in upstate New York.
Addressing soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division on Thursday,
Obama said one of their comrades was the first person he had awarded
the Medal of Honor who wasn't receiving it posthumously. In fact, the
soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti, was killed in action.
Obama spokesman Josh Earnest says the president misspoke. He noted
that Obama paid tribute to Monti in remarks to troops in Afghanistan
in March 2010. But Salvatore Giunta was the first living recipient of
the medal among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
You would almost think that until Mr. Earnest said the president
"misspoke," everybody thought Obama was correct (Update: ... and that,
as NewsBusters commenter MotherBelt wryly observed, everybody else was
wrong about which soldier lived and which one died).
Earth to AP: The correct words are "admitted" and "acknowledged."
We're not in a situation where a historical event isn't considered to
have happened until the White House says so -- at least not yet.