This weekend, I made
a call to arms on actually doing something with the great work of
Media Matters. When a "reputable" journalists (i.e., not Bill O'Reilly and his ilk) makes an untrue statement or such, we shall blog about it and scream about it until that untruth becomes news and until that person feels the heat - apologizes, retracts, resigns, gets fired, whatever.
It's time to clean up the mess, and we're starting with you Andrea. As I noted (via Media Matters), she made this doozy of a comment recently on national television:
Joe Wilson went on television with us and in interviews and said he had been dispatched by the vice president . . . He led people to believe, he said publicly, that he had been dispatched by the vice president. And that was clearly not the case by every bit of reporting that I have been able to do."
You were wrong Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC, and you must let your viewers know.
Here is most of that latest Media Matters entry on Mitchell's charge:
Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC, on the October 13 edition of Hardball . . . claimed: "Joe Wilson went on television with us and in interviews and said he had been dispatched by the vice president," apparently referring to Wilson's appearance on NBC's Meet the Press on July 6, 2003, which Mitchell guest-hosted. Mitchell added: "He led people to believe, he said publicly, that he had been dispatched by the vice president. And that was clearly not the case by every bit of reporting that I have been able to do." But Media Matters could find no example of Wilson claiming that Cheney sent him to Niger. In the July 6, 2003, interview, Wilson alluded to the origins of his trip: "[T]he question [of Iraq seeking uranium from Niger] was asked of the CIA by the office of the vice president."
Of course, the whole notion that Wilson claimed that he was sent to Niger by Cheney is a serious untruth, which Media Matters had debunked as far back as July, many months before Mitchell made her misleading charges against Wilson. Even more amazing, Mitchell is even wrong about the content of her own show, about an interview she watched in person.
Here is why this matters:
[T]his claim echoes a false RNC talking point that misrepresented Wilson's July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed and his August 3, 2003, interview on CNN's Late Edition. Wilson did not claim that the vice president sent him to Niger; rather, Wilson stated that the CIA sent him to Niger to answer the vice president's office's questions regarding the purported Iraq-Niger uranium deal. Claiming that Wilson stated or insinuated that Cheney's office sent him to Niger lends false justification to the argument articulated by defenders of the Bush administration that, in outing Plame, administration officials were merely setting the record straight by disclosing that Plame -- not Cheney -- had authorized the trip.
In other words, by making this false statement, Andrea Mitchell is (knowingly or negligently) carrying the GOP's water of lies.
So, Ms. Mitchell, you must make an on-air correction of these previous false claims. You thought this "fact" was important enough to tell a national audience, so you must believe that it's at least as important to make an equal correction.
In the meantime, to her fellow brothers and sisters in the media, you must report on this. If some questionable sources about guard service several decades ago is breaking news, than outright false statements about a current treasonous scandal should be on every ticker in all the land. Do your job - Media Matters makes it easy for you.
Update [2005-10-25 10:58:52 by VirginiaDem]:
NBC News contact info here. Andrea is most affiliated with Today/Weekend Today, the Nightly News with Brian Williams, and Hardball (where the untruths were told). It wouldn't hurt to hit the others as well (esp. Dateline NBC, Meet the Press, and MSNBC TV).
Update [2005-10-25 15:2:38 by VirginiaDem]:
CALL FOR BLOGS! If you blog about this, post a link and I'll update continually (and in future diaries) with a blog roll. Letters and emails to NBC is an important first step, but widespread blogging is critical for creating the buzz needed about this issue to generated the heat necessary to force a response from Mitchell or coverage from her competitors.
BLOG ROLL!
A Faerie's Farthing - thank you Cedwyn for being first!
Penndit (Newsie8200)
akou (georgia10)
On the Left Tip (RenaRF)
Far Shooting Politics (Hekebolos)
Lair of the Blue Cat (Rodneid)
LJ's Blogorific (The 1n Only Leoni)
GOTV
and from before my diary
No Quarter
Truth Be Told
Crooks and Liars
Daily Kos (Armando)
josie's cranial cavity
the sawpit
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