Politico Reporter Says GOP Sent Him Misleading Transcript Of Dem Remarks On Race
Updated below: NRCC defends the move.
Okay, this is a bit in the weeds, but it’s really striking.
Politico reporter Glenn Thrush has an extraordinary post up that essentially calls out the National Republican Congressional Committee for sending him a deeply misleading, sliced-and-diced trascript of supposedly incendiary remarks about race and the town halls made by a Democrat.
Bear with me on this one, because it’s interesting. Thrush says that a few days ago, an NRCC spokesman sent him a transcript of some comments by Dem Rep. Tom Perreillo, in which he said he’d witnessed “very racist remarks” at town halls. Thrush ran the NRCC version of the transcript, and the Perriello comments have since gone viral on the right.
Turns out, though, that the transcript the NRCC sent had cut a bunch of words out of what Perriello actually said, relacing them with ellipses, in a way that made his comments seem much worse than they were, Thrush says. Here’s the updated transcript, with the words the NRCC spokesman cut out in bold:
“I conducted over a hundred hours of town hall meetings in central and southern Virginia [and the vast majority of them were civil; people disagreed passionately on ideological grounds]. And there were [rare] cases where very racist remarks were made. Sometimes they were called out by neighbors in the audience; sometimes they weren’t. Clearly, race remains a factor in America, [but] there’s also a lot of disagreement here that is genuine and not based on race, so I think we have to have both conversations.”
Thrush (full disclosure: He’s a friend of mine) doesn’t blame the NRCC spokesman, saying that he’s a “partisan operative,” and took responsibility for what happened himself. Kudos to Thrush for that, but I think he’s being too kind to the NRCC, which induldged in some seriously dishonest cherry-picking here on a highly incendiary topic.
I’ve asked the NRCC for a comment and will update if I get one.
*********************************************
Update: NRCC spokesman Ken Spain is standing by the move, pointing out that the original email sent to Thrush put the ellipses in their proper places and linked to the full interview. Spain adds:
The comment stands. The video tape doesn’t lie. Tom Perriello accused some of his constituents of racist remarks at his town halls without a shred of evidence. And if he does have proof and it did happen, why did he remain silent as he heard people say it aloud in a forum he hosted? At the end of the day, Perriello is in complete disagreement with President Obama in regards to the motivations behind voters’ frustrations over the Democrats’ healthcare takeover.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
These people have clearly gone off the deep end! Now, it’s not just fox news and Glen Beck who did this a few days ago with an interview Obama gave back in the 90. The Republican party is a disgrace. I won’t hold my breath waiting for them to condem this but, I can’t wait to hear their excuse.
Oh good. Thanks Greg for posting this. The GOP is disgusting. Plain and simple. Disgusting.
Sounds like the Repubs are using the lefts tactics against them. But to tell the truth, the distinction between the edited version and not, is not that great.
But the right doesn’t race bait. Sean Hannity told me so.
Reminds me of a contract negotiation I did a few years back when I sent out execution counterparts of the contract as a word doc, the attorney on the other side added “not” in a few choice places, had her client sign and sent it back. I was a young and overzealous lawyer back then and actually reviewed all 45 pages and caught the unagreed to modifications.
2 things then happened: the firm made a rule that execution copies only were to be by pdf or hard-copy only and the attorney got reported to the state bar association.
and yes ellen it is a big deal, it changes the substance of the accusation enormously and it shows that the GOP is never ever to be trusted.
I had actually read that article by Thrush when it came out and had already chalked it up to Thrush’s clear rightward slant in his Politico writing (like pretty much everyone over there at Politico trolling for a Drudge link).
Whatever. It’s Politico. When are people going to understand that the Republican-owned and Republican-financed Politico, which has been skewing more and more to the right recently, has a seminal role in amplifying right-wing attacks. [Have people not noticed how often they pick up Drudge and Fox's more scurrilous attacks? Examples: Obama overexposed; Michele Obama "racist" remarks, etc. They also have given Michael Steele TWO columns in two weeks -- haven't seen one from Tim Kaine. Also, their guest columnists tend to be right-wingers OR elected Republican officials. And, has anyone even tried to read their comment threads?!]
So, my question remains: Given the prominent and frequent examples of bias/favoritism/sloppily right-skewing writing (whatever you want to call it), why in the world are they still considered mainstream by many Washington-establishment types?
Sorry, but Thrush’s actions only underscore Politico’s willingness to run, without critique, with the Republican viewpoint. They are so beholden to the right that they don’t even bother to verify information given to them from a partisan group. And this is not the first time this type of thing has happened. How many times has Ben Smith put up posts that conveniently overlook crucial information, getting himself an apparently coveted Drudge link? Then, he often sheepishly updates with a correction. It’s not a mistake, folks.
Politico has an agenda: amplify Republican talking points and criticism.
I find the admission by Politico, that they just accepted what was pushed to them, by a known republican spin doctor, and that Politico did not even attempt to confirm that it was factual, before publishing the doctored document, to be the biggest revelation.
I wonder how often that has happened in the past.
This places Politico in the same category as FOX, and Drudge.
If conservatives are convinced about the rightness of their positions, why do they lie right out of the box? It seems that they know that their positions are untenable because they don’t even try to offer up their positions in a truthful and honest fashion.
If they feel they are right on this issue, why must they mislead, obfuscate, and lie?
You know, it is exactly this kind of story that keeps me away from most of the M$M. Do these reporters just sell their soul for any access? I find it completely disgusting that he didn’t even slow down long enough to verify the information handed to him. wtf?
Considering how often this type of thing has happened, wouldn’t most journalists at least vet the speech before publishing its “content” handed to them from the NRSC? Seriously, it’s not like the Republicans have just started doing this type of thing.
NRCC is defending the move, see update…
Not only that Trinity, buried in the i’m-not-sorry apology:
“”"As I was transcribing, I got an email from a NRCC spokesman Andy Sere, who wanted to comment on it, appending what appeared to be a full a transcript of the exchange.
A time saver, I thought, so I cut-and-pasted.”"”
Ya get that? A TIME-SAVER. Posting a GOP operative’s text word-for-word w/o fact checking as a TIME-SAVER. Time-saver. That absolutely kills me.
If G-O-Politico had any sort of journalistic ethics he would be fired immediately.
I’m sorry if Thrush is your friend, but he should be fired for published a “transcript” with ellipses… and without either asking Tom Perreillo for a comment or getting an “official” transcript.
That is just bad journalism.
Period.
I could cite worse selectively edited and out-of-context quotations from the left every day, including ones on this blog. And dowright false attributions of words conservatives never said. It’s routine procedure by Greg and the liberal commenters here. But it’s so, so wicked when a Republican operative puts in a couple of elipses.
Give me a break.
I’m beginning to not understand this debate. Is there ANYBODY who in reality doesn’t understand there is at least SOME racism in the response to Obama. I get that many people…including Dems do not agree with Carter’s characterization of “overwhelming”…but surely NOBODY can claim there is not racism interwoven through this debate. The only REAL question is how much.
It’s just like Q.B’s false equivalence yesterday of calling me a racist because I referred to Condi Rice as simple…What is so hard to understand here…calling somebody an idiot..simple..dumb..may be rude at worst but not racist…bringing out monkeys, witch doctors, spooks and pics of the W.H. with a watermelon patch is RACIST!!! Can anybody truly disagree with that simple observation?
Stossel sock puppet in the house!
quarterback–you “could” cite instances from this here blog but yet you don’t. We’re all big kids here–go ahead and post them. we can handle it.
To borrow Dan Froomkin’s spot-on phrase, Politico and its right-wing ilk are nothing but “stenographers to liars.”
Hopefully and I do mean hopefully this will lead to bothpeople being more skeptical of Politico in general and in Thrush being a helluva lot more thorough but I am not holding my breaht on either count. While what the NRSCC did is deeply misleading and reprehensible, if they did in fact link to the original the full responsibility falls on Thrush for running the story without fact checking at all if you ask me. How hard is it to click on the included link?
ruk,
“It’s just like Q.B’s false equivalence yesterday of calling me a racist because I referred to Condi Rice as simple…”
You don’t read very carefully, but I already knew that. Please supply the quotation of me calling you a racist. Or retract.
nerd,
Just off the top of my head, pull up the recent post about Rush Limbaugh and racism. Greg and folks here see nothing wrong with taking a statement out context of a transcript that goes on for pages. Or pull up Greg’s posts about Dick Cheney, torture, and the CIA reports, where he repeatedly suggested that Cheney was a liar and then couldn’t substantiate with citations of actual lies — just distortions of what Cheney said. Yeah, there are plenty more. Should we start on the liberal cottage industry of misquoting G. Bush?
Cliff notes version:
Ken Spain and his NRCC lie blatantly and pathetically over and over for years, Politico and Thrush dutifully print their lies like good little stenographers in the hopes that Drudge links to them giving them extra page views in order to drive up advertising revenue, then Ken Spain stands by his lies and the process repeats itself.
The problem is that Politico cares more about page views and clicks than honesty and veracity, and the NRCC knows that the initial lie gets a million more views than the follow-up corrections.
Oh, and posters like quarterback dutifully continue to the muddy the waters with nonsensical parsing about how it’s not racist if only a hundred people carry Obama the whichdoctor signs because that means that hundreds did not carry those signs.
The good news is that within 12-18 months there will be a noticable reduction in unemployment, the economy will be recovering and the Republican party will have fewer members than Nader and the green party and America will be all the better for it.
hmmm, last comment deleted or is there a glitch/bug?
Wow, Republicans that LIE? Who would have thought! If the NRCC sent me a letter that said water was wet, I’d check to make sure.
quarterback,
“I could cite worse selectively edited and out-of-context quotations from the left every day, including ones on this blog. And dowright false attributions of words conservatives never said.”
Once again, you make outrageous allegations and fail to provide ANY evidence. Who are these nameless liberals and what are their offenses? Cite chapter and verse, please, or are you unable to do so? You claim to be able to produce evidence, yet somehow it never materializes.
In Greg’s post, we have concrete evidence of a lazy reporter simply regurgitating GOP slant without even bothering to do his job. That is evidence. You, as always, toss out unsubstantiated rumors and gross generalities.
Politico has been essentially cutting and pasting Republican press releases since it was created. Just surprised they got called on it and apologized on this one. Politico only has any influence due to trolling for Drudge links.
I was viciously attacked with racist remarks by a dem at town hall. I have vid
Of course they stand by it, what else would you expect from this bunch?
1) Post the vid, Joe. And don’t edit what you said to the dem that provoked him or her either.
2) I hope this gets a LOT of play, Greg. Politico has been taken much too seriously since its inception, and now we have proof why it doesn’t deserve serious consideration as a news medium
Sorry, you can’t use ellipses to cut out one word, much less an important qualifier. That’s just hackery, and intentionally misleading hackery at that. So the NRCC position is just BS. And I’d call Democrats on it if they do the same.
Seems to me that with the NRSC condemning Tom Periello for the following: “‘if he does have proof and it did happen, why did he remain silent as he heard people say it aloud in a forum he hosted?” they would probably need to think about their members who have not only stood idly by as racist rhetoric was said or displayed but at times have agreed with publicly and through dog-whistle politicking. Seems like a whole fund raising campaign by the Dems could be based around this…
Doesn’t the fact that the NRSC is blatantly exxagerating this statement prove the point that they are actively playing to these racial politics?
I love this place – I’ve bookmarked it and will come back