ABC News Quotes Obama Saying Something He Didn’t Say [UPDATED BELOW: ABC SAYS IT WAS EDITING ERROR]
Check out ABC News’ latest headline on Obama’s Europe trip (click to enlarge):
The only thing is that I can’t find any evidence that Obama said “sorry about the Bush years.”
My understanding is that it’s a no-no to put something that someone didn’t say between quotation marks, even if it’s a paraphrase.
What’s more, this translation of what Obama said is fast becoming a political rallying-cry, perhaps making it even more important to make sure that stuff between quotes was actually, you know, uttered. Not to put too fine a point on accuracy or anything like that.
Update: ABC has nixed the quotes and clarified: “This headline was mistakenly put in quotations; obviously the president never said that, it was meant to express the sentiment of his remarks. Apologies for any misunderstanding.”
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I’ll be the first to call for a blogging ethics panel.
Its Jake Tapper, what else do you expect? Thats his version of “tough journalism” and not being a “butt boy” as Limbaugh would say. I wonder how long before he turns off his twitter feed again.
Here’s the problem, Greg: there’s no incentive for Tapper to be honest or accurate. Sure, he could report on what actually happened, but what does that get him? Not much. On the other hand, if he makes up an inflammatory quote, not only does he get hyped by the likes of Drudge and National Review, he gets people like you linking to him, too. And even if he gets caught, so what? He’s not going to be held accountable by the D.C. media elite; it’ll be swept under the rug and all but forgotten in a few days. But the lie itself will live on.
Forget it, Chinatown. It’s Jake.
“Forget it, Chinatown. It’s Jake.”
O my god – that may be one of the best comments I’ve seen in 6 years of spending time on boards. God I wish I’d thought of that first – my highest compliment.
it’s the press – what do you expect?
Thanks, Tena. Valued praise.
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Tapper’s updated and apologized. “(O)bviously the president never said that.”
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Well, actually, you can make it more obvious when you don’t use quotation marks, Jake.
Greg, can you twitter that Jackass Tapper, er Jake, and ask him to explain this deliberately anti-Obama lie?
Hey guys -hear about the newest domino? Vermont just legalized same *** marriage. That didn’t take long. One after another, the states will come around.
That is same-s-e-x marriage.
*sigh*
Tapper is nasty. He isn’t holding anyone “accountable”, he’s acting catty and acts like he holds a personal grudge against Obama. He writes like a TMZ columnist.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Jake Tapper is an undercover PUMA. Seriously.
Maybe Jake is upset Chip got to fly on Air Force One instead of him? I’m not sure Obama ever said the word sorry.
I hate non-apologies. “Apologies for any misunderstanding.” How about “we’re sorry we failed on a basic journalistic standard.”
Meantime, I want a “Forget it, Chinatown. It’s Jake” t-shirt.
“Forget it, Chinatown. It’s Jake.” By Trevor J
LMAO!! Seriously – contender for best comment since the inception of the internets!!
LMAO!!
Forget it, you say. Then why do I still have this hollow feeling in my gut where my soul used to be?
I agree. Trevor FTW. still laughing at that.
@Kathleen – ah yes. That’s Lesson #1 in Political Apologies. Don’t actually apologise for what you did, apologise that people got offended, or that it was taken the wrong way.
Sadly, Tapper’s not a politician, he’s in the media. Oh, heck, what’s the diff?
Should the headline of this piece be: “Tapper to world: ‘Sorry for making stuff up’,” or “Tapper to readers: ‘Sorry I’m an a*****e’”?
I find great irony in this post. Liberals/Progressives were not concerned about context when they distorted the comments of Obama administration officials (e.g., Axelrod) just about a week ago. So, if you want to hold someone to a higher accuracy standard, you should first learn to adhere to that standard yourself.
Travis what in the phizuck are you talking about pray tell?
Tapper is all about putting his personal ambition ahead of anything approaching ethical reporting. That’s why he’ll give an interview and accuse “anonymous” editors of “liberal bias” and that they were “rooting for Obama” but he refuses to name names. It works out great for him, the right embrace him as the rare “non butt-boy- bubble” reporter and repeat his assertions, and he never has to prove them.
I’ve been rather unimpressed with Jake Tapper for a while now, but this needs to be said:
Contrary to popular belief, reporters typically do not write the headlines to their articles. Their editors do. This was not Tapper’s mistake; rather, it was someone else in the newsroom (probably their online editor) who dropped the ball on this.
That doesn’t lessen the gravity of this error. It’s important that things like this have attention called to them so they can be corrected, but make sure to levy blame where it is due.
Make him pay. The intertubes word for this kind of thing should become “Tapperism.”
Hey,
Did you guys see the post over at Huffington Post about he caller on Limbaugh’s show who called Rush a “brainwashed Nazi”? It’s a good read.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/07/republican-caller-tells-l_n_184244.html
The caller claimed to be a Repub and military.
However, it is an internet tradition to write, “Shorter [so-and-so]: ‘[hostile summary of what so-and-so said]‘ ” — perhaps we can excuse this as occurring in a different context (and with the qualifying “Shorter”), but the comparison leaves me a little uncomfortable.
What’s with Tapper, Henry, Todd and Reid? They seem to be run by the same mastermind. Exactly who told them that their job was “to trick the President” rather then to report on the news from the White House in the same flaccid way their predecessors uniquely approached George W. Bush. Barack Obama is the President of the United States not some perp on the Police Beat. The may need to deliver a hot story everybody else needs appropriate respect for our President. To us “Trick the President” is not a game, Baseball or Basketball is a game.