Wash. Post edits Bush's comments on Iraq

[sabra]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200608210004

Wash. Post edited Bush's comments on Iraq, removed his admission: "Sometimes I'm happy"

During an August 21 press conference, President Bush faced a question regarding whether he is -- as The New York Times recently reported -- "frustrated" by news from Iraq and the lack of gratitude among the Iraqi people. Bush responded, "Frustrated? Sometimes I'm frustrated. Rarely surprised. Sometimes I'm happy. You know, this is -- but war is not a time of joy. These aren't joyous times. These are challenging times." In an August 21 article on the press conference, Washington Post staff writer Daniela Deane included this answer, but removed from the middle of the quote Bush's admission, "Sometimes I'm happy." Deane offered readers no indication that she had edited the quote.

From the August 21 Post article:

Asked if he wasn't frustrated by the seeming lack of progress there, Bush replied, "Sometimes I'm frustrated, rarely surprised. War is not a time of joy. These are challenging times."

But when asked by NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell if he was indeed frustrated by the lack of progress in Iraq, Bush not only said that he is occasionally frustrated and "rarely surprised," he also claimed to "sometimes" be happy:

O'DONNELL: But are you frustrated, sir?

BUSH: Frustrated? Sometimes I'm frustrated. Rarely surprised. Sometimes I'm happy. You know, this is -- but war is not a time of joy. These aren't joyous times. These are challenging times, and they're difficult times, and they're straining the psyche of our country. I understand that. You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists.

[MADem]

1. Still trying to pretend he speaks in normal sentences, they are!!! NT

[Supersedeas]

30. who is the puppet...the President or the Corp Media

[magellan]

2. Hey, the WaPo editor should do SOMETHING to earn his crust

And editing Bush** to make him sound statesman-like is a full time job.

[arewenotdemo]

17. That's a fact.

[Beetwasher]

3. Please Report To The Ministry of Re-Education Immediately

for your mind-wipe. You'll feel much better! Trust me!

[zbdent]

5. Could you please give me directions? I can't remember where it is

since my last one ...

[grasswire]

4. please protest this

It's outrageous.

[e-mail]

Len Downie, publisher.

[femmedem]

9. Here's my e-mailed response:

Dear Mr. Downie:

I am writing to express my dismay that your paper is printing inaccurate quotes.

Your reporter Daniela Deane misrepresented what President Bush said during his August 21 press conference.

According to Ms. Deane, when asked by a reporter whether or not he felt frustrated by the news from Iraq, President Bush responded, "Sometimes I'm frustrated, rarely surprised. War is not a time of joy. These are challenging times."

However, what he actually said is this:

"Frustrated? Sometimes I'm frustrated. Rarely surprised. Sometimes I'm happy. You know, this is -- but war is not a time of joy. These aren't joyous times. These are challenging times, and they're difficult times, and they're straining the psyche of our country. I understand that. You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists."

Ms. Deane deleted "Sometimes I'm happy." It is neither ethical nor truthful for her to edit quotes without giving some indication that she is doing so.

Your readers have every right to know what the President actually said, not what Ms. Deane thinks he should have said.

Now that this has been brought to your attention, I trust you will issue a correction and an apology.

[glitch]

14. Good letter. nt

[laura888]

19. great letter! n/t

[femmedem]

20. Mr. Downie e-mailed me back:

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Ms. Deane was writing for
the
web as the president was speaking and may have missed the phrase you
cited.
Our later stories depended on a transcript. Len Downie"

I received his comment within minutes of sending my complaint--so quickly that it was obvious he's been receiving a number of complaints, and had already prepared a response.

[Vanje]

35. In other words...

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Ms. Deane was writing for
the web as the president was speaking and pretty much pulled the quote out of her ass.
Our later stories depended on a transcript. "

[Buzz Clik]

39. Misrepresented? The quote most certainly did NOT misrepresent Bush.

Clean up the spastic speech? Yes. Improve the clarity? Yes.

Change the intent? Absolutely not.

This is a tempest in a teapot and a non-issue.

Compared to the wink and a nod that the media gave Bush throughout the 2000 and 2004 campaigns and the turning a blind eye to blatant lies in the run up to the Iraq invasion, this is not worth on calorie of energy. Let's move on to significant matters.

[Ino]

6. Must edit out those Freudian slips!

It just wouldn't do to have the Pretzeldent say he's happy about the lack of progress.

[elehhhhna]

7. YEAH? Well I edited his last para for CLARITY:

BUSH: Frustrated? Rarely. Sometimes I'm happy. You know, I likes to see innocent people die.

[depakid]

8. The Washington Post earned its reputation

as paper lacking any credibility or integrity.

The sooner everyone figures out what they're all about, the better.

Good news is that several people I know who in the DC area that actually used to take their paper have come around recently. You can only pull the wool over people's eyes so long. Eventually, even the most loyal, longtime readers find that they've had enough.

[seafan]

10. Did they also edit out the "Nothing" answer to 'What did Iraq have to do

with the attack on the World Trade Center?'


I need to go purchase a new truckload of outrage surge protectors.

[seafan]

11. delete dupe post

[KoKo]

12. Oh Dear God...NYT's and WaPo...Bush Shills and CoverUps FOREVER!

How many years have they been doing this...reporting Repug Swill. Reading lots of stuff since I've been on DU says they've been at this since well before Clinton. But they "hit their stride" in PsyOps for Repugs during Clinton... there's no doubt about that..:-(

[Vinnie From Indy]

13. The Washington Post? Who reads that piece of crap anymore?

The WaPo and the NYT have irrevocably showed their true colors over the last few years. The are merely stenographers and lapdogs of the high and mighty in America. They both stand naked to the world as pathetic, disgusting whores for this President and his goulish Administration. They are, in short, unbelievable and unreliable as well as dishonest and corrupt.

[brentblack]

23. So you read the Washington Times

For better or worse, the Post is much better than the Washington Times as far as Repug leanings.


I have to disagree with your statements about the Post. Not everyone is as progressive as those here and sometimes they have moderate\conservative columnists in the Op\Ed page, but to say they shill for the 'high and mighty' is not true - in my singular opinion. I would say, as far as major newpapers go, that the Post is liberal leaning. I live in the DC area and read both papers to get a clear picture of the world. Then I read the City Paper and the Blade to see my world.

Anyway....the Times sports pages suck.

[JohnyCanuck]

36. LOL

I would say, as far as major newpapers go, that the Post is liberal leaning. I live in the DC area and read both papers to get a clear picture of the world.

Part 1 of a two part-series
Secret admirers: The Bushes and the Washington Post

By Michael Hasty

SNIP

With a 21st-century perspective, where internationalism has become globalization, and monopoly capitalism is so powerful it no longer needs to mask its agenda with welfare programs, we can see the Establishment's "liberalism" for the ruthless neoliberalism it has always been. Yet the more powerful and elite the ruling class, the greater its need for an effective propaganda system to maintain that power; and the Washington Post remains, as writer Doug Henwood described it in 1990, "the establishment's paper."

In an article published by the media watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), Henwood traced the Post's Establishment connections to Eugene Meyer, who took control of the Post in 1933. Meyer transferred ownership to his daughter Katharine and her husband, Philip Graham, after World War II, when he was appointed by Harry Truman to serve as the first president of the World Bank. A lifelong Republican, Meyer had been "a Wall Street banker, director of President Wilson's War Finance Corporation, a governor of the Federal Reserve, and director of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation," Henwood wrote.

Philip Graham, Meyer's successor, had been in military intelligence during the war. When he became the Post's publisher, he continued to have close contact with his fellow upper-class intelligence veterans�now making policy at the newly formed CIA�and actively promoted the CIA's goals in his newspaper. The incestuous relationship between the Post and the intelligence community even extended to its hiring practices. Watergate-era editor Ben Bradlee also had an intelligence background; and before he became a journalist, reporter Bob Woodward was an officer in Naval Intelligence. In a 1977 article in Rolling Stone magazine about CIA influence in American media, Woodward's partner, Carl Bernstein, quoted this from a CIA official: "It was widely known that Phil Graham was somebody you could get help from." Graham has been identified by some investigators as the main contact in Project Mockingbird, the CIA program to infiltrate domestic American media. In her autobiography, Katherine Graham described how her husband worked overtime at the Post during the Bay of Pigs operation to protect the reputations of his friends from Yale who had organized the ill-fated venture.

After Graham committed suicide, and his widow Katharine assumed the role of publisher, she continued her husband's policies of supporting the efforts of the intelligence community in advancing the foreign policy and economic agenda of the nation's ruling elites. In a retrospective column written after her own death last year, FAIR analyst Norman Solomon wrote, "Her newspaper mainly functioned as a helpmate to the war-makers in the White House, State Department and Pentagon." It accomplished this function (and continues to do so) using all the classic propaganda techniques of evasion, confusion, misdirection, targeted emphasis, disinformation, secrecy, omission of important facts, and selective leaks.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040405042234/http://onlinejournal.com/Media/020504Hasty/020504hasty.html

[Vinnie From Indy]

41. Thanks B Black!

Your straw man attack is pretty funny. Have you stopped beating your wife?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

15. "Sometimes I'm happy..."

..like when I get to pretend to be a Navy pilot and land on an aircraft carrier and say "Mission Accomplished", because (jump for joy) it's not my stop-lossed redeployed for the 3rd time ass gettin' IED'd the hell out of his armorless HMV and into a Walter Reed hospital bed with no limbs left to salute his commander in chief who AWOL'd his sorry ass out of harm's way when it was his time to step up and honor his country with service.
That could be frustrating"

[samsingh]

16. when is the corruption at the media going to stop?

[FormerOstrich]

18. I actually watched that press conference...

Not only is the quote terrible on it's own, his delivery was so peculiar.

The way it seemed to me is he didn't want to give the impression he lives in a bubble which is why he stressed he was "rarely surprised" (I know what's going on, honest). Then I think he was about to say something truthful, sometimes he is happy. But then either he realized that was not the proper thing to say, or someone yelled in his ear that a President should not be so delighted about a war...so he quickly had to clean up. I thought it was a very revealing part of his talk.

[disndat]

25. Bush probably mis-heard

Rove speaking to him in the famous w.m.i.h.d. (wireless magnetic induction hearing device)strapped to his back, and corrected himself right away.

[louis-t]

34. Wouldn't it be fun to hack into wmihd?

I keep thinking of Jim Carrey in "Bruce Almighty". He makes a news anchor start babbling incoherently while on the air. Although, chimpus doesn't need much help when it comes to babbling.

[pazuzu]

21. They don't call it The PentaPost for nothing

Ever loyal the the war machine.

Bob Woodward's "Plan Of Attack", anyone?

[brg5001]

22. "I'm so happy. I can't go on with the scene" - Sound Familiar?

The REAL quote sounds like Norma Desmond as she comes totally unravelled in Sunset Boulevard!

[IWantAChange]

24. cmon Mr Downie

you expect us to believe that what was missed was the key element of his response??? Hey look - there's a pony!!

[LuckyLib]

26. The corporate media "edit" Bush non-stop. By failing to ask the

real questions, then smoothing over his inane language to resemble actual reasonable speech. Just once, I want to hear someone say, or write, "That response makes absolutely no sense. It can't possibly be taken seriously or at face value."

[Pink Slip]

27. I forget....

Are we at war with Eurasia or Eastasia?

[Buzz Clik]

28. Sorry, kids, but this is no big deal.

Anyone who watches the chimp knows he's an idiot. The WP is under no obligation to include every inane or irrelevant comment he makes. Christ, the quotes would be unreadable.

[newspeak]

29. and the quotes should not be edited

no, there are people who read and think this is what he actually said. Journalists are constantly editing what he actually says. Some of his faux pas are actually quite disturbing--it leaves me wondering, subconsciously that is what he really believes. For instance, talking with employees in the Dept. of Labor, he stated that if they do this "we shall surely fail." Then, there was the error in front of his believers "we will not have an all volunteer military." Mark Crispin Miller wrote about these mis-statements in his first term. Maybe we should take some of his mis-speak to heart--maybe he is giving us insight into what he really believes.

[Buzz Clik]

37. In some cases, you are correct. Not in this case.

Editing out "Sometimes I'm happy" changes nothing or than makes him look a little less scatter brained.

[femmedem]

31. I see it differently for two reasons:

First, if someone read the WaPo article but missed the press conference, they would conclude that Bush sounded reasonable. However, if they read an exact transcription or watched the video, they would conclude that Bush is an idiot. These sorts of perceptions influence elections. Therefore, although perhaps one incident is no big deal, when you multiply it by the thousands of times the press has covered for Bush in this manner, it is a very big deal indeed.

Second, a reporter always has to pick and choose which quotes to include in a story. However, all reporters are taught that you don't put something in quotation marks if it isn't word for word what the person said. If you need to paraphrase for clarity, you remove the quotations. Anything else is dishonest.

[Buzz Clik]

38. From a technical standpoint, you are correct. However,

the edits made by the WaPo did not change the point he was making. Political writers frequently are faced with filtering out the nonsense, particularly in Bush's case.

[LuckyLib]

42. Right on target. Any time you reconstruct his quotes, you are

deceiving the American people. He is a bumbling, incoherent idiot. Why shouldn't people know that?

[civildisoBDence]

32. Dot dot dot

The standard practice in journalism is to use ellipses to indicate a break in a quote...like that.

It's a small example of the deterioration of American journalism, and it just happens to give DUHbya a fig leaf.

News and commentary, left to right

[opihimoimoi]

33. The explanations seems to lie in the direction of Drug Abuse

His Brains have been com'd

We are fucked...

How could this happen?

[Tekla West]

40. even when...

... they edit him its not like he comes off looking smart or anything. But this is covering him to a degree that no other president has ever been covered, of course, most of them did not need it either.

[Drops_not_Dope]

43. I saved the WP transcript

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/21/AR2006082100469.html

President Bush Holds a News Conference
...QUESTION: Are you frustrated, sir?

BUSH: Frustrated? Sometimes I'm frustrated. Rarely surprised. Sometimes I'm happy, you know. But war is not a time of joy.

BUSH: These aren't joyous times. These are challenging times, and they're difficult times, and they're straining the psyche of our country. I understand that.

You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists.

And our question is: Do we have the capacity and the desire to spread peace by confronting these terrorists and supporting those who want to live in liberty? That's the question.

And my answer to that question is: We must. We owe it to future generations to do so

Am I missing the point? I know the transcript hasn't been tampered with, I also have this on MS WORD.