I'll be on tonight (about 5:45 pm) debating Larry Korb on the
Rumsfeld speech yesterday. Interesting part of that is the AP
story which kicked off the misreporting of what Rumsfeld said.
Kudlow's producer sent the first to me yesterday, and it didn't
sound right. Checking with the Pentagon proved it materially
wrong.
Their first version -- since rewritten at least twice -- said
Rumsfeld, "...accused critics of the Bush administration's Iraq and
counterterrorism policies of trying to appease a 'new type of
fascism.'" But Rumsfeld never made that accusation.
After the Pentagon raised hell with AP, the
third re-write said, "Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday the world faces 'a new type of
fascism' and warned against repeating the pre-World War II mistake
of appeasement."
The third version is accurate: the first was agenda-driven
fiction. The reporter - Robert Burns - is a good guy. But this is
only the latest of AP's ventures into fiction and intentional
mis-reporting of Rumsfeld. Who's responsible? Editor Alan Fram?
Bureau Chief Sandra Johnson? AP needs to fess up and fix a problem
that's ruining their brand. They're rapidly becoming the Jayson
Blair Wire Service.
topics:
Iraq, Fascism
