Reporting the Report: In Which I Ask NBC's Brian Williams for an On-Air Correction

On last night's episode of NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams introduced a short profile of Todd Palin by NBC reporter John Larson. A little more than halfway through the segment, Larson reported --- as fact --- that last week's Troopergate report found that Sarah Palin "did not break any laws."

Problem is, the lead finding of the report --- the lead finding! --- is that "Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39/52/110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act" (emphasis mine). The finding --- all 67 words of it --- is on page 8 of the report. The one-page section titled: "Findings." Top of the page. "Finding Number One." Underscore in the original.

How much clearer could the report be? Perhaps I'm being generous, but one would have thought that, faced with such an abundance of clarity, an NBC national reporter and who knows how many producers and editors --- including Brian Williams? --- could have kept from creating, finalizing, signing off on, and broadcasting on the national airwaves a piece on Todd Palin --- Todd Palin! --- that got one of the two key findings of the Troopergate report utterly wrong. Was it really too much to ask, simply that NBC say what the report said so plainly --- that Sarah Palin broke the law?

But fair enough. Let's be even more generous. After all, even NBC reporters and producers and editors are human. People make mistakes.

What would be unacceptable --- especially given how neatly NBC's misreporting of the Troopergate findings dovetails with the McCain campaign's spin on the report right now --- would be for NBC, once presented with its error, to leave it uncorrected on the table.

In an effort to keep that from happening, I sent Brian Williams and his executive producer, Alexandra Wallace, the following email this afternoon:

From: John Lumea
Date: Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Subject: FACT CHECK --- NBC Misleadingly Reports That Investigation Said Palin "Did Not Break Any Laws"
To: brian.williams
----------------

Brian,

Do you plan to issue an on-air clarification of the following?

Starting at 1:32 in the profile of Todd Palin that aired last night on Nightly News, John Larson reported that (emphasis mine):

State investigators noted in their report the pressure Todd Palin used to try to get his brother-in-law fired, and that Governor Palin's firing of Monegan, who resisted that pressure, was an abuse of power, though she did not break any laws.

As will be obvious to you, the last half of that sentence makes a complete hash of what the Branchflower report says.

The report does not say that Palin's firing of Monegan was an abuse of power. In fact, Finding Number Two of the report says that the firing itself was "a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority."

The abuse of power citation has to do with the pressure that Palin and her delegates applied to Monegan and others to get Wooten fired.

Moreover, Finding Number One of the report --- the finding that addresses the abuse of power issue --- states that it was precisely by breaking state ethics law that Palin abused her power (emphasis mine):

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39/52/110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

"The legislature reaffirms that every public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

Incredibly, the McCain campaign has been trying to spin Finding Number Two --- the one which states that Palin was within her constitutional and statutory rights to fire Monegan --- as the sum total of the report.

It is only from the perspective of someone who lives in that fantasy bubble --- in which moose fly and Findings Number One, Three, and Four don't exist --- that Sarah Palin in recent days has been able to tell reporters --- here and here --- that

(1) "there was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired"; that

(2) "that report...showed there was no unlawful or unethical activity on my part"; and that
(3) "I'm very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing...any hint of any kind of unethical activity there."

Regrettably, NBC's report last night put its viewers --- most of whom also are voters --- in Palin's bubble.

But wrong as it was to report, in unqualified terms, that the Troopergate investigation found that Palin "did not break any laws," it would be even more wrong simply to leave that error uncorrected and on the table.

The Branchflower report's top finding is that Sarah Palin broke state ethics law.

I strongly urge you to take a moment on tonight's broadcast to correct last night's report by saying so.

Best regards,

JOHN LUMEA
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Comments

[blood1]

and Fox News thinks that are in this alone...not with help like that!

Fortunately, most of us can read and know the real truth of the matter, but NBC should clarify their statement.

[mom2sons]

If he doesn't, I'm finished with NBC too! Rethuglican shill like Tom Brokaw. Tim you are sorely missed! VOTE OBAMA-BIDEN 08! They all have enough money, but like Charlie Gibson, scared of paying a little bit in taxes for our country and the least fortunate. They have made a lot of money the last 8 years too!

[marrig]

I am very disappointed in Brian Williams. If this is not corrected, I am finished with his "news." I expected more courage and integrity.

[Durango]

The trouble is that NBC and Brian Williams in particular, has no idea what news is any more.

I watch the evening newscast and it is filled with all kinds of stories. But almost none of it is real news. And what they report is ALL screwed up.

The only people who know what news is any more are Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and their writers.

And David Letterman has a clue.

[redpepper]

Sarah Palin did not break the law you idots. It stands to reason that if you have a Democratic Committe, sent to Alaska to do this report and/or other Democratic affiliated people in the committee and investigation team that, of course, the Democrats will find something wrong. However, Palin released a document which clearly states the reasons for the firing. The trooper, by the way, threatened her family, and is still working. Now, if the Republicans put together their own committee, investigation, of course, Palin would be found to have done nothing wrong, She didn't do anyting wrong , but the way. Of course, you would have to read the doucment she has and other legal documentation to do that. However, if you are liberals/Democrats, you wouldn't have the time.
She did nothing wrong, read.

[horizonr]

The 12-member legislative panel that issued the report was bipartisan, with a strong Republican majority --- 8 Republicans, 4 Democrats.

The report is based on an investigation, by STATE legislators, of the highest elected official of the STATE.

The top finding of these STATE legislators is that Sarah Palin broke STATE law.

Given the STATE-circumscibed parameters of the investigation, the finding could hardly have been more damning.

The panel was not required to make the report public, but it did so on a 12-0 unanimous vote.

[Durango]

So according to you justice is entirely dependent upon political considerations.

Quite a concept in the Land of the Free.

But of course you are wrong both about the details of the investigation and its conclusions.

A Bipartisan Committee found she violated the law.

Try and leave your alternate universe where truthiness prevails and get back to the real world.

[MsKadiJ]

I gotta go with the majority here. You are living in a fantasy world. the committe, made up of more republicans than democrats) found she abused her power. No matter how you slice it. She was wrong, you know it. This investgation was going on long before she was picked to be John McCain's running mate. She broke the law. She probably won't see the inside of a prison for it, but none the less she broke the law.
There are some people in this world, who for them, justice is different. It's not weighed the same for everybody.
You repeated over and over again in your comment that "she did nothing wrong". Who are you trying to convince?

[Wigelah]

The only way she didn't break the law is if you don't consider ethics laws to be laws. THAT, from current behavior, seems to be the Republican way.

[Nedemocrat]

See the above comment. Or better yet, just get it into your head that she is the worst kind of political opportunist. She cares about and believes in NOTHING except herself, and her own need to be in power. She's Bush/Cheney with Lipstick. She acted unethically, which is not acceptable, and which it should not take a legal panel to point out. Are we so blinded to the notion of ethics because of the demoralizing Bush Regime that we cannot see this? Her lack of ethics, moreover, constituted a VIOLATION of Alaska law. Period. It's in the report. Which we've read. It wasn't her first unethical act and it won't be her last, and when you allow someone to act in this manner you invite them to do it again. Next time it might be you that crosses her. How wonderful will she be then? Keeping politicians honest is important for EVERYone, not just for the ones that are benefitted by their lapses in ethics.

[tel8034]

President Obama is in for a rough 8 years (2 terms) with the MSM.

During the primary and now in the general, Obama has been very good for their ratings and profits, but the Republican bias from many of the media has come through loud and clear.

Expect trivial non-issue stories about Obama for the next 8 years + stories which focus on "spot the Obama boo-boo". They will play down his successes and will highlight his trials and tribulations.

But what they fail to realize is that Obama always takes his lemons and makes sweet and delicious lemonade, and he will continue with this tactic during his 8 year Presidency.

[nvr2late]

Very well said. I have been at a loss as to why McCain repeats over and over and over again that main stream media is biased against him. Fox News is so in the tank with Republicans that I will never watch them again. I hear they've hired Glen Beck and are romancing Hasselbeck (s) from the View. These are two very right-wing people. Someone powerful should bring suit against Fox News for liable and slander, not to mention their fair and balanced trademark, which to me is false advertising. (I don't even think a false advertising claim holds any weight these days).
CNN also swings to the tight, just a lot more subtle, but it's there, and that includes Larry King Live. See if he would do an hour show with people behind Troopergate and the legal ruling. He wouldn't do it without their being the other side to defend. BUT a rulling is a rulling, and there's nothing to defend. Todd and Sarah are guilty of wrongdoing, period.

[Durango]

Like the Clinton Travel Office "scandal" that "erupted" in the first days of his Administration.

Remember? The scandal was that Hillary fired some Bush political appointees and replaced them with Clinton political appointees.

A totally fictional "scandal" that set the tone for the next 8 years of phony scandals.

[TexanJane]

In the bag for McCain/Palin? Too dense to read the Branchflower report?

Either way, it smells to high heaven.

Brian Williams: FIX it !!!

[averygard]

I've noticed a real reluctance on the part of the MSM, especially CNN, to tell the whole truth when it comes to allegations against the McCain-Palin team. This is so odd to me, given that team's fake outrage at the 'liberal media elite'. Are they that afraid of lawsuites? Are there that many McCain supporters in their upper echelons? It's been a real eye-opener for me. Not many mainstream journalists have done their job at all. Katie Couric asked real questions and did the country a service in her interview with Palin....Olbermann and Maddow bring up real stuff....SNL, of all things, seems to have forced Americans to take a look at what's going on out there, and the Daily Show and Colbert. Where have all the good, old-fashioned, truth-seeking journalists gone? I feel like it takes the viewers FORCING them to get them to do their jobs.

[R.W. Sanders - Huffpost Blogger]

I too found that incredible. I also found it incredible when I heard it on CNN. I heard numerous pundits, including democrats, state the same. I did hear someone questioned, I believe on C-SPAN, and the answer went something like " No federal law was broken, though a minor Alaska state statute was cited." So I inferred that the networks and the pundits that feed off them must consider state laws to be of minor consequence and not worth mentioning. Simply pitiful!

[schwinnrider]

Isn't there a real similarity between the so-called "Troopergate" scandal and the Bush administration's firing of U.S. Attorneys? Bush and Palin both had the authority to fire the people they fired, but broke the law by firing them for political reasons. There is an independent counsel investigating the justice department. Troopergate is not over either. If McCain somehow wins the election, it will be great to have the vice president elect be indicted.

[lovable]

WHY DID HE LEAVE OUT AIP THAT STILL STUMPS ME WHY THAT IS NOT ON THE NEWS EVERYDAY .TODD AND SARAH WERE PART OF THAT AND ACCORDING TO THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE ORGANIZATION SHE WAS A MEMEBER UNTIL SHE RAN FOR MAYOR

[tompoe]

John needs to remind himself, he's giving too much power to corporate media. It matters little, if at all, what corporate media does, anymore. There are no journalists working in corporate media that adhere to professional journalistic ideals. There is no attempt to inform the public. The corporate media serves the propaganda needs of the owners and the corporate "clients/owners" of the corporate media. Did I mention I despise the corporate media?

[horizonr]

Corporate media is waning, but it is nowhere near dead yet.

Too much discussion here about the latest from Time, Newsweek, the NYT, the LAT, the WaPo, or MSNBC, to think otherwise.

Although it is true that, for many of us who frequent HuffPost, those mainstream venues are just one small part of a larger, more diverse news menu, people over 40 in vast swaths of the country still get their primary national coverage from the evening news. And as long as that remains the case --- i.e., as long as voters are tuning in to Brian Williams, in large numbers --- we still must monitor what happens on his program.

There will come a time when we can afford to be less concerned about the networks. But in 2008, corporate media still matters. There's far too much at stake to pretend that it doesn't.

[Vixter]

What is truly scary are the people who don't watch world news at all, but depend on all the commercials, & bits in the local news for their info.