WPost Admits Bungling Obama Quote
By Robert Parry
Consortium News
August 10, 2008
The Washington Post’s ombudsman says the newspaper’s original source for a quote that was used to portray Barack Obama as a megalomaniac now disputes the Post’s negative interpretation that has spread across cable TV, the Internet and even into a John McCain attack ad.
Post ombudsman Deborah Howell also acknowledges that neither Post reporter who relied on the misleading quote spoke directly with the source, checked out its accuracy, or made any independent effort to determine the context of the remark, which was made to a closed Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on July 29.
In her column, “The Anger Over an Obama Quote,” Howell adds that she has been contacted by about 160 people, including congressional officials, who said the Post twisted the meaning of the quote by taking it out of context. But the newspaper still refuses to run a full-scale correction or a clarification or even print a letter protesting the distortion.
Howell’s column, appearing in the Post’s Aug. 10 editions, does chide the two reporters – Dana Milbank and Jonathan Weisman – for not checking out the disputed quote more carefully but her criticism is mild.
Generally, she treats the quote as a case study on the risks of anonymous sources, not a clear-cut case of shoddy journalism. She also demeans critics of the Post's handling the issue by calling them “partisans.”
“An anonymous secondhand quotation from Sen. Barack Obama at a closed House Democratic caucus meeting on July 29 caused an uproar among partisans; it is an excellent example of how the pernicious use of unnamed sources, so pervasive in Washington, can backfire on journalists and sources,” Howell wrote.
The quote – first appearing in Weisman’s online column and then as a centerpiece of Milbank’s print article depicting Obama as a delusional narcissist – had Obama saying, “This is the moment … that the world is waiting for. … I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”
(Continued here.)
Consortium News
August 10, 2008
The Washington Post’s ombudsman says the newspaper’s original source for a quote that was used to portray Barack Obama as a megalomaniac now disputes the Post’s negative interpretation that has spread across cable TV, the Internet and even into a John McCain attack ad.
Post ombudsman Deborah Howell also acknowledges that neither Post reporter who relied on the misleading quote spoke directly with the source, checked out its accuracy, or made any independent effort to determine the context of the remark, which was made to a closed Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on July 29.
In her column, “The Anger Over an Obama Quote,” Howell adds that she has been contacted by about 160 people, including congressional officials, who said the Post twisted the meaning of the quote by taking it out of context. But the newspaper still refuses to run a full-scale correction or a clarification or even print a letter protesting the distortion.
Howell’s column, appearing in the Post’s Aug. 10 editions, does chide the two reporters – Dana Milbank and Jonathan Weisman – for not checking out the disputed quote more carefully but her criticism is mild.
Generally, she treats the quote as a case study on the risks of anonymous sources, not a clear-cut case of shoddy journalism. She also demeans critics of the Post's handling the issue by calling them “partisans.”
“An anonymous secondhand quotation from Sen. Barack Obama at a closed House Democratic caucus meeting on July 29 caused an uproar among partisans; it is an excellent example of how the pernicious use of unnamed sources, so pervasive in Washington, can backfire on journalists and sources,” Howell wrote.
The quote – first appearing in Weisman’s online column and then as a centerpiece of Milbank’s print article depicting Obama as a delusional narcissist – had Obama saying, “This is the moment … that the world is waiting for. … I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home