Drudgery: Gratuity Story Grows Gratuitous

NPR ran a story this morning that describes what happened to Iowa resident and waitress Anita Esterday when her "chance encounter" with presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton at the Maid-Rite diner where she worked became an official part of Clinton's campaign narrative. Plenty of interesting grist for commentary, not the least of which is how Esterday suspects this encounter led to her hours at a second job getting cut because her supervisor there "isn't a big Hillary Clinton fan."

But that isn't the part of the story that Matt Drudge seized upon. In the middle of the piece, Esterday said, "I mean, nobody got left a tip that day," and despite the fact that the very next paragraph reads, in part, "Still, Esterday said Clinton might have left her something: 'Maybe they don't carry money. I don't know,'" that became the basis by which Drudge starting leading the media by the short hairs. Drudge added a "Nobody Got Left a Tip" link to a burgeoning list of Clinton-critical stories at 9:40 this morning. ABC News and MSNBC followed almost immediately.

While avoiding explicit mention of the tipping incident, even the Obama campaign linked to the NPR story at 1:32pm, calling it "incredible audio" and "a must listen."

As it turns out, the feeding frenzy gathered around a non-existent morsel. From FOX:

Hillary Clinton's campaign may not know in which staffer's hands landed the tab at an Iowa restaurant on Oct. 9, but all sides agree the Democratic presidential frontrunner is no slouch when it comes to leaving a tip.

National Public Radio was forced to correct a story it issued Thursday that had suggested Clinton left waitress Anita Esterday high and dry after Esterday served the candidate and her entourage when they stopped in to the Maid-Rite diner near Boone, Iowa.

Turns out, however, that the campaign paid $157 for the meals and left a $100 tip. Campaign spokesman Phil Singer said he doesn't know what happened to the money, but Maid-Rite manager Brad Crawford confirmed to FOX News that the bill and tip were paid. He wouldn't say the check's amount.

Corrections to the story now run at NPR, ABC News, and MSNBC. All of them carry statements both from the Clinton campaign and the manager of the restaurant. Drudge has a correction of sorts: a linkless sentence carrying the campaign's statement on the matter. In lieu of the widely available exculpatory statement from the Maid-Rite manager, Drudge has recycled a story on a similar incident that transpired eight years ago, reported by the no-doubt entirely non-critical Washington Times.

Comments

[bluesky49876]

01:47 PM on 11/10/2007

People are stupid if they don't understand how the corporate media operates. They (CNN, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, Public Television, and on and on) clobbered Gore to death. They will try to do the same to Hillary or any other opposition to GOP. They will use any strategy to sow the seeds of doubt in the electorate and they will use or create million false stories to do. HuffPost will play a dutiful role in this as well.

[godlessclif]

10:31 AM on 11/10/2007

Thsi is familiar. Didn't they accuse Al Gore's wife of stiffing a waitress.

It was a complementary meal so there was no bill
to add the tip too. Gore's wife forgot or thought
the tip was included.

We all know Al Gore's wife is usually a good Tipper.

[poopdeck]

09:21 PM on 11/09/2007

I am getting sooo tired of your swift-boating of Hillary and adulation of Barak. I need information, not propaganda.

[GhostintheMachine]

05:31 PM on 11/09/2007

A Clinton campaign staffer called on Esterday at the restaurant Thursday after the story aired. The staff member apologized to her and gave her a $20 bill, according to Esterday. The Clinton campaign confirmed that visit. The campaign also produced photocopies of receipts showing $157.46 was paid to Maid-Rite on a VISA card on Oct. 8 for meals consumed by the candidate's entourage. The tip was supposed to have been paid in cash, and the campaign insisted such a payment was made but has declined to make available a staff member who was present at Maid-Rite and left tip money.

Esterday, speaking to NPR from home later Thursday, said the Clinton campaign staffer who visited the diner apologized to her and said a $100 tip was left on a credit card the day of Clinton's visit. Esterday said the staff member said the money was meant to be shared.

"I explained to her that our credit card machine, you know, doesn't add on the tip," Esterday said. "And she said, 'Well, then, they left a $100 bill there.' And I said, 'Well, it didn't get divided up amongst us, because I had gotten nothing.'

"She just said, 'Well, there was one left,'" Esterday said. "She just kept repeating, 'There was one left.'

After the campaign staffer stopped at the diner Thursday, Esterday said, the $100 tip was a hot topic.

"Two others that had worked with me that day turned around and said, 'We didn't know about any $100 tip,' because they both turned around and said 'We didn't get a part of it.' And they didn't. So, it's like 'OK, where did it go?' That's the mystery question: Where did it go?"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16143435

[wm1066]

03:59 PM on 11/09/2007

mmmmm, Maid-rite! oh they are good, A Sloppy Joe made with onion soup instead of ketchup.
As much as I dislike Hillary, this just makes the Media look bad.

[dragn1]

02:01 PM on 11/09/2007

Seems the waitress thinks she got stiffed. Oh but maybe she is part of the vast right wing group of women who attack Bill and now they are switching to Hillary. That is it. No maybe Ann Coulter without notice to any of the Clinton campaign stuffed the bills in her socks until she got out of there and could stash them in a construction site. Hold it the waitress is a plant and really a well to do republican to make Hillary look bad.

[kj593]

01:23 PM on 11/09/2007

Seems that HRC's campaign had a hard time convincing the waitress that they had in fact left a tip:

"Esterday, speaking to NPR from home later Thursday, said the Clinton campaign staffer who visited the diner apologized to her and said a $100 tip was left on a credit card the day of Clinton's visit. Esterday said the staff member said the money was meant to be shared. "I explained to her that our credit card machine, you know, doesn't add on the tip," Esterday said. "And she said, 'Well, then, they left a $100 bill there.' And I said, 'Well, it didn't get divided up amongst us, because I had gotten nothing.' "She just said, 'Well, there was one left,'" Esterday said. "She just kept repeating, 'There was one left.'"

[MENTAL]

12:56 PM on 11/09/2007

.
"Media Dogpiles Hillary Over False Claim That She Stiffed Iowa Waitress"

Whether true or not isn't the issue here. The issue is that a very large number of people actually believe that the double-talking, moneywhore Conniving Calculating Cackling Clinton would stiff a waitress. That is why over 50% of voters hate her.

Wise up, Dems. Don't support a loser - again!
.

[JimR]

12:10 PM on 11/09/2007

Oh Christ, what non-story are we going to get next?

EDWARDS REQUESTED SUBSTITUTION DESPITE 'NO SUBSTITIONS" SIGN AT CHINESE RESTAURANT

[Jazzylady26]

11:59 AM on 11/09/2007

in 2000, when Hill stopped at that restaurant she was told the food was on the house. Should she have tipped? this time she left an extremely generous tip and everyone has had to retract their stories. Sooooooooo. Have you heard the one about her "Chinese" clapping? look that crap up started by Tweety. DON'T BELIEVE THE CRAP!

[Blutus]

11:53 AM on 11/09/2007

Well, this morning NPR,
part of the liberal press conspiracy,
interviewed the waitress
and still no tip.

Two points of bullshit:
NPR worships Hillary

and this would not be a story at all
if it involved another candidate.

But I'm still not voting for her.

[Pdubya]

11:27 AM on 11/09/2007

maybe it was a compassionate move on her part to not tip her...that way she wouldn't have to pay TAX on her tip...

LMAO

[macfee]

10:55 AM on 11/09/2007

Hey as of this a.m. the waitress claims no tip was left, the manager admits now that he wasn't there when event happened, none of folks questioned so far saw any $100.00 bill

Damage controls requires honesty and truthfulness, if you stiffed the lady admit it and lets move on to issues, if this bump stops Clinton it will be as sad as Dean's scream

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

09:13 AM on 11/09/2007

The media swarms to any 'woman-bites-waitress' story that creates fleeting attention. Editorial standards are a thing of the past.

As for the morning shows, those fluffy, multi-millionaire hosts in their bubbles of luxary dont understand, and dont care about, the real issues of the day. However, they DO understand the consequences of being neglectful of the 'help'.

[StillAmused]

05:54 AM on 11/09/2007

Aren't we about due for another run at the Vince Foster 'stunner'?

3859 U.S. casualties (11/7), possibly a million Iraqis... and most of the GOP candidates declare they don't believe in evolution.

Under these circumstances, can you blame the wingspinners for cranking out a steady flow of this invented distraction gruel?