When Is a Gaffe Not Newsworthy?

Apparently, when it's committed by somebody who's already in high office, as opposed to when it's committed by someone contending for high office. At least, that's the only sensible conclusion to be drawn from the non-coverage of National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley's habitual conflation of Tibet with Nepal on Sunday morning's This Week on ABC-TV.

A similar episode of serial conflation -- when John McCain kept insisting that Iranians were arming Sunni insurgents, when he (probably) meant Shiites -- at least got a bit of media oxygen. Hadley's repeated reference to Nepal as an issue tied to the question of President Bush's attendance at the Beijing Olympics rated only a final-paragraph reference in the NYT. But more egregiously, the Times duplicated the practice of the AP and Reutersand, inexplicably, Agence France Presse, in rewriting Hadley's quote in the body of the story, taking the liberty of substituting "Tibet" for his "Nepal." Once it occurs just outside the quotation marks, but the AP actually has Hadley saying "Tibet," in quotes, when a check of the video at ABCnews.com will show he said "Nepal."

Is it Times "style" -- or wire-service policy -- to clean up erroneous quotes by high government officials? If so, why? If not, what happened in the Hadley case?

N.B.: ABC News on its website correctly identifies, with a (sic) after each reference, Nepal as the country Hadley referred to.

Comments

[barackobam]

hey professor : when you say McCain I say what? the old guy for Prez! He is so 20th Century and thinks like it. Get on board with the future!!!

[twofish]

Just for laughs -- I'm picturing George Bush sitting in a meeting saying "We invaded IRAQ? Is that what I said? Wait a minute, I meant..."

What the hell. It's all a mush to these mush-heads. If we don't getcha today, we'll come a-bombin' tomorrah. It's the war against everybody. And then Jesus will step in and wrap it all up and we'll be eating pie in heaven by morning.

[professor]

When you say Obama, say McGovern.

[rich3324]

And you wonder why we went into Iraq. Maybe we should all chip in and buy Hadley a map.

[fogbreath]

perhaps the msm has finally taken to heart the comment of mayor daley, the elder's press secratary :
"now guys, you know you are not supposed to quote what the mayor says you are supposed to quote what the mayor means."

[Durango]

Makes Jon Stewart and John Olivers skewering of FOX using their own words all the more impressive.

Apparently the Daily Show is the only media outlet that expects officials and the media be held accountable.

[bigeugene]

It might be somewhat understandable for the press to report it in a corrected manner if 1. he'd made the mistake once and 2. it was corrected on air. Neither of those happened. He referred to Nepal about 5 times and never once said Tibet.

Interesting to note as well that Stephanopolous did not correct him--is he as clueless as Hadley (that is rhetorical)?

Can people comment on the topic at hand (noting the off topic Obama posts above). I'm sure you can find presidential posts elsewhere.

Thanks Harry!

[Chumleysmom]

Typical of the MSM, Stephanolous was going for a soundbite and not listening.

[richcpl]

Stephen Hadley is still in his job? Talk about keeping a low profile.

[luziannagirl]

ABC, in my opinion, is with no close second, the least worst of all corporate mainstream media regarding news coverage. My guess is that we can attribute it in part to the high journalistic standards of the late news anchor Peter Jennings, whose influence appears to have persisted well beyond his untimely and unfortunate passing.

ABC News is still the only mainstream commercial media broadcast to which I routinely pay attention.

[Durango]

I agree. Least worst. Faint praise.

[LittleBrother]

Whether it's done by the corporate media or their official sources, cleaning up errata without even an editor's note disclosing the alteration(s) is reprehensible at best. Then again, what would such note even say? "We fixed some errors, because we just hated to think that the speaker would look bad if we merely reported the actual words"?

It's another example of corporate media's bias towards power. If a CANDIDATE misspeaks, it's absolutely necessary to showcase the precise slip. Because it's a GAFFE, and a GAFFE = a story! A GAFFE can be sensationalized, hysterified and ginned up to engage clueless yahoo voters for days.

Provided, that is, that the candidate hasn't tamed the press with BBQ food and Quality Time, in which case the media infotainwhores affectionately minimize and downplay even a continuous penchant for prevarication or rank hypocrisy. See, a Preferred Candidate is treated with kid glove courtesy, like those IN power, e.g. this worm Hadley and his mendacious masters. A Media-Preferred candidate has virtual or potential power, and elicits maximum obsequious deference. Thus, Preferred Candidates simply don't have GAFFES!

To sum up: egregious errors, misstatements, and blatant lies issued by powerful incumbents and their enablers are ignored, downplayed, or smoothed over by the corporate media. Conversely, the slightest unorthodox or spontaneous remark by a Non-Preferred candidate is ripe for the pathological, juvenile game of Gotcha! to which Amerikan political coverage has degenerated. Glad I could clear up the seeming contradiction presented in your thoughtful post.

[aceholiday]

there are two kinds of people: the doomed, and the screwheads

[richcpl]

"F!@# the doomed." Richard Nixon to Hunter Thompson/Bill Murray, "Where the Buffalo Roam. "

[Disparaged]

Thank God ABC actually put out the news out just like it had been stated. Most of the MSM continue to report only what they "think the public should hear , propoganda or their own personal opinions", rather than "fact". The sooner the American public realize and revolt against this type of "news (entertainment), the sooner we will go back to the days when the news consisted of, "THE FACTS AND NOTHING BUT THE FACTS". I will be happy to return to watching the "news" again when that occurs, but until then, I refuse to pay their salaries any longer. I hope the rest of the American public will learn to do the same. They are better off getting on their computers and finding out what is really happening by doing research in order to establish the truth.

[LeoMarvin]

Changing the quote? That's journalistic fraud. What an outrage.

[chlllfactor]

Senator Obama is an intelligent, articulate, religious man. He scored many points this evening in the forum held in PA. He was applauded many times during the Q & A time and received a standing ovation when he was done. He also scored points when Hillary shot herself in the foot - putting Kerry and Gore in the same 'elitist' class she accuses Senator Obama of being in. Gore is still the granddaddy of the Democratic party - Hillary made a grave mistake this evening by throwing Kerry and Gore under the bus.

[charon]

I think Obama has been scaring a lot of the powerful people in this country. He's articulate, honest, was right about Iraq, and is likely to be a threat for the White House, but (unlike HIllary and McCain) he's not vetted by the rich and powerful as being willing to protect their interests. They want to see him attacked at every opportunity--and there haven't been many. Labeling him "elitist" (coming from the elite themselves) is the most effective attack they've had yet. Of course they won't unload why his statements make him "elitist," they'll just repeat it until Fox News-type fools take it as a truism.
He will probably survive this attack, but the attack machine that helped bring down John "Swift Boat" Kerry and Al "I invented the internet" Gore is hard at work here, trying to create an epithet to attach to Obama. If they succeed he will probably be defeated.
That Hillary sat down for lunch with Richard Scaife-Mellon, the most vile, worker-hating, anti-democratic force in the history of our elite oligarchy, should be much more important than an analysis only slightly off the mark given by Obama.