Tribute to the Military

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Update: Swiftboat II? Newspapers issuing correction on reporting.

Re-posted with permission from the editors at The Infozone News - 'Following the truth, and reporting on the journey'.

DISCLAIMER: The different points of views on the The Info Zone are not supported nor do they reflect the views and beliefs of the Bosun Locker or any entity affiliated with the Bosun Locker.

As reported at The Infozone News:
June 28, 2006 - US Congressman John Murtha D-PA was in Florida over the weekend at a Townhall meeting at Florida International University. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported, Murtha saying, "American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran to a crowd of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon." Teri Hayt, Managing Editor of The Arizona Star emails, "Sharon Rosenhause(Managing Editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel) from Ft. Lauderdale has just sent me a note saying that Rep. MurthaÂ’s office has contacted them saying he was quoted out of context. Sharon will be issuing a correction that will will run."

The Arizona Star version of the story, which was linked on Sunday night by Matt Drudge has yet to issue a correction. Both the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Arizona Daily Star have now published corrections.
Bosun comments: The Press and the blogosphere got spanked on this one. Folks, we have to get the facts right. Or, we turn out to be like those we critique, on both sides of the pundit aisle. Fortunately, The Infozone checked the facts before they leaped on the story. But then again, The Infozone has been good at that. "Bravo Zulu in honest reporting" to the folks at The Infozone.

Britt Hume of Fox News has not updated his story, which reported on the comments alleged to have been made by Murtha. Hume however has not issued a correction to his earlier story.

John Fund, who wrote on Murtha's comments in The Wall Street Journal has neither corrected his article, or offered a correction. When the South Florida Sun-Sentinel corrected their story, both the Fox News story by Brit Hume and John Fund's Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal are no longer accurate representations of what happened. Yet neither writer has corrected their story.

The News Media Guild "The News Media Guild's Professional Activities Committee is a group of reporters, editors, photographers, and broadcasters who work to foster quality journalism." This incident demonstrates the need for such a universal standard. In the article, reporter Elizabeth Baier quoted several other of Congressman John Murtha's statements in her article, as well as a quote from others at the event, but did not quote the comments alleged to have been said by Murtha in the first paragraph of her article. Melissa Sanchez of the Miami Herald replying to an email, says that while Murtha made the comment, "That was in reference to international polls. It was not so much his own conjecture, but a conclusion drawn from polls in various countries."

So this alleged and most controversial statement, written by Baier appears to have taken his comments out of context.

The article has become a hot topic on the blogsphere. Conservative bloggers picked up the story and are repeating Baier's first paragraph of her article as a statement of fact. This started Sunday night, when Matt Drudge picked up the story on his web site.

June 27, 2006
Rep. Murtha Responds to Misquotes

Rep. John Murtha D-PA in a statement issued today says, "I was recently misquoted following a speech I gave at a Veterans forum at the Florida International University Biscayne Campus on June 24, 2006. During the speech, I made a point that our international credibility was suffering, particularly due to our continued military presence in Iraq and that we were perceived as an occupying force. For illustrative purposes, I provided the example of a recent Pew Poll which indicates a greater percentage of people in 10 of 14 foreign countries consider the U.S. in Iraq a danger to world peace than consider Iran or North Korea a danger to world peace.

Pew Poll Murtha added, "It is imperative that these issues be discussed in an open and informative manner. I will continue to insist that this administration face the true realities of its policies with respect to Iraq and insist that they change direction."

Read Murtha's Press Statement

Link to original story: Swiftboat II? Has 'Jerry Springer Journalism' Hit the Mainstream Media?

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3 comments:

chancuff said...

This story continues to take quite a few turns. To see how far this has gone, see:

http://theinfozone.net/JohnMurtha.html

Check back regularly. There are quite a few breaking stories not yet published there.

Chancuff

chancuff said...

Looking at the large number of blog posts I've placed throughout the blogsphere in the last 2 weeks, I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking they look like spam.

My apologies to all.

Some interesting things happened yesterday. I received an email response from Bill Pasco(e) of Diana Irey's campaign responding to the letter I wrote Ms Irey.

In responding Mr. Pascoe's email, I found it useful to CC that response to him to Elizabeth Baier and her editor Ms. Rosenhause (Managing Editor Sun-Sentinel).

The topic of those emails was "Rovian Architecture Unplugged". If you are interested to learn more, feel free to write them.

Make "Rovian Architechure Unplugged" your subject heading so they know what your inquiry is about.

Their email addresses:

Bill Pascoe phone: (724) 258-2300

bill@irey.com

Elizabeth Baier

ebaier@sun-sentinel.com

Sharon Rosenhause

srosenhause@sun-sentinel.com

Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too

chancuff said...

The saga continues ...
http://factcheck.org/article415.html

This may help everyone understand my contempt for today's Republican Party.

This is the origination of this Lincoln "quote":

http://www.arthuravenuebronx.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1472

that ran in INSIGHT magazine

http://www.insightmag.com/

which is part of News World Communications (see bottom of page in link above) a wholly owned political mouthpiece of the Unification Church, the "Moonies".

http://www.mediaowners.com/company/newsworld.html

I wrote Diana Irey offering her documented proof of what Lincoln never said, CCing all her campaign staff on, first on July 14th, and again on August 4th.

I wrote her, and her staff, repeatedly warning them of the consequences of their inaction. If you'd like verification, write her campaign manager of record (Bill Pascoe, former Press Secretary of the RNC, is calling the shots behind the scenes) at jason@irey.com and ask him about my repeated warnings.

If you choose to write, use this as the Subject Line "It's showtime.". He'll know exactly what that means.

When all these efforts failed, I contacted factcheck.org with this very same evidence. Brooks Jackson was able to see what Ms. Irey, and her entire campaign staff refused to.

He published this, last Friday:

http://factcheck.org/article415.html
(note the video clip in the top right corner)

I would like to tell you there's quite some honor to Bill Pascoe's "within hours" response here:

http://www.irey.com/news/contentview.asp?c=35681

In conclusion, it warrants mentioning how this "Moonie" Lincoln quote came into common use, without any questions to its authenticity.

Use Google to do a search for this quote. Go back 10-15 pages and you'll find the older dates of its use. You'll discover it was the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth who brought this fiction to life within weeks of Dr. Waller's article.

You will find Larry Bailey of bootmurtha.com has dusted this Moonie quote off and is using it for his "gimme' your money" scheme, all over the net, including this gem written the chairman of Bailey's PAC, in which it is used twice, for emphasis:

http://www.thereaganwing.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&page_id=538

It's no accident that Diana Irey was boons-swaggled into using it.

Bill Pascoe and Kelli Phiel, the folks Robert Novak refers to as her "handlers" in this article:

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15820&o=ENPR003

"Irey, who looks quite young, is a bit green, but her handlers see her as great raw material."

I'll give a dollar to anyone who can decipher the grammar, syntax, period occurring in the middle of the sentence, and random capitalization that occurs in the last sentence of this article.

If you are unfamiliar with who Pascoe and Phiel are, let me introduce you.

Pascoe is the gent who hung tough with Jack Ryan, even after Dennis Hastert rightfully withdrew all GOP support for him in 2004, when Ryan was exposed for insisting his wife go to sex clubs with him and have sex in public.

"Jack Ryan is in the race to stay," said Bill Pascoe, Ryan's spokesman."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0406250361jun25,1,933334.story

Pascoe also the one who called Alan Keyes and convinced him to move from Maryland to Illinois, to replace Ryan. I'll let you Google that and for Kelli Phiel's history working with Pascoe in the 2004 election.

I wish I could tell you that I've not written Diana Irey repeatedly about her "handlers" past, but I cannot make that claim.

Buzz Patterson used this "Moonie" quote at a chapter heading in his book, Reckless Disregard. If you own a copy, check page 65. He was not the only retired military man to adopt this Republican operatives invention. Ollie North was too:

http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0974579335&id=dQipO2AmNrUC&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=oliver+north+lincoln+%22congressmen+who+willfully%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=fBfOMtFSxlavNGKBMbFtreMEwfo


Least you wonder about my interest in all this ...

My family settled in what is now the 12th District of Pennsylvania in 1820, and have lived there ever since.

My great, great grandfather, after whom I am named in honor of, served in Lincoln’s Union Army. He made the supreme sacrifice for our country on March 23, 1862, serving Stonewall Jackson he only defeat in the Civil war.

Lincoln was, to borrow a title, “A Uniter”

When some goofball Republican operative abuses the reputation of our greatest Republican president, in a Moonie publication no less, for the expressed purpose of political gain for today’s Republican Party … it troubles me.

I suspect it will trouble you, too.

Cliff Hancuff
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too