So okay, we've all read D Wreck's diary this morning about Rudy Giuliani's massive fail on Good Morning America today:
"We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we've had one under Obama."
Here's the thing. Giuilani is being rightly lollerskated all over the place for this. But he doesn't own it alone. And we can't let the folks off the hook who enabled people like him to get away with this kind of outrageous misstatement.
If you were like me, my first reaction when I read the story was, "Where the hell does this guy get the nerve?" Such a blatant and easily disproved lie, on national television. Then I read the rest of the article. As jaded as I am about the national media, it still shocked me to see that no one else on the program called him out on it, not even the ostensibly Democratic George Stephanopoulous, who just sat there and let Giuliani tell one of the most blatant lies of his career. Which is really saying something.
And it wasn't just George. Take a look at the headlines of the articles documenting Giuliani's interview:
Giuliani: We Are 'Trying Most Dangerous Terrorists in the Wrong Place'
ABC News - Chris Cuomo, Lauren Pearle - 1 hour ago
Giuliani lauds Obama for declaring fight with terrorists a 'war,' says more ... Los Angeles Times
CBS News
6:23 AM EST 1/8/2010
Giuliani: Obama 'turned The Corner' On Terrorism
Giuliani Lauds Obama For Declaring Fight With Terrorists A 'war,' Says More Toughness Needed
Everybody buries the lede. The AP article doesn't even mention the quote.
I'm sorry, but there's no way this is accidental. I have to believe people are looking at these articles and deliberately cherry-picking which quotes go in and which ones stay out. There's just no way this many people can be this stupid and make the exact same mistake.
Anyway, so I guess George was starting to sweat a little, so to cover himself, he posted a blog entry about the interview:
Rudy Giuliani: 'No Domestic Attacks Under Bush. ... One Under Obama' - 2 hours ago
President Obama yesterday took personal responsibility for failures in the Christmas day terror plot, but Rudy Giuliani still isn't convinced. ...
ABC News (blog) - 191 related articles »
That's the headline from Google. I'll get back to that in a minute.
"What he [Obama] should be doing is following the right things that Bush did -- one of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama," Giuliani said. "Number two, he should correct the things that Bush didn’t do right. Sending people to Yemen was wrong, not getting this whole intelligence thing corrected."
Giuliani isn’t quite correct in his assessment. The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks happened during the Bush administration, as well as the case involving shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Now, the reason I quoted the Google headline was because that was the headline of Stephanopoulous' article originally. However, if you go to it now, the headline reads:
Rudy Giuliani Assails Obama Administration’s National Security Decisions
And I'm not sure, but I don't remember that second paragraph being in there, about "Giuliani isn't quite correct" when I first read the article. I may be wrong, but I think it was added. Which would mean that Stephanopoulous let the quote go by without comment a second time. If someone can dig up a cached copy of the original article, that would be great.
Anyway, why the revision? It couldn't have had anything to do with his blog getting comments like this:
Shame on George for not calling Giuliani out on his ridiculous lapse in memory. One of the contributing reasons why our politicians act so partisan is because the media lets them get away with this kind of behavior.
Posted by: Sarah | Jan 8, 2010 9:14:41 AM
Oh, and when I listened to Obama, he did not say "war on terror" - a tactic, but a "at war with Al Qaeda" - a group that attacked us.
Come on, George! Push back! Don't let that stuff go unchallenged.
Or is that the game? Throw a camera in front of these guys because controversy sells soap.
Posted by: Dub | Jan 8, 2010 9:15:32 AM
Did you even bother to challenge Giuliani on this ridiculous statement? What do you consider 9/11 if not a domestic attack? Surely Rudy remembers it! The biggest loss we have suffered under the Bush regime is the loss of journalists willing to challenge these ridiculous revisionist history statements and instead treating them as if they are facts. Journalists, we need you to do your jobs!
Posted by: Shannon | Jan 8, 2010 9:18:57 AM
Here's the point. Guys like Giuliani are going to get away with this kind of obfuscation as long as the media lets them. And the only time the media steps up is when their credibility is at stake. So let's make George squirm. Let's invade his comments section. Spread the TPM article around. Get "#georgefail" to trend on Twitter.
It's high time someone in the media took the fall for its generally craven, lackluster efforts to report the truth. George has given us an opportunity to make an example of him. Let's make the most of it.
Update: Look at that, the headline's changed again: "Rudy Giuliani Wrong in Saying ‘No Domestic Attacks Under Bush.’" Third time's the charm!
Update 2: And again:
"What he [Obama] should be doing is following the right things that Bush did -- one of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama," Giuliani said. "Number two, he should correct the things that Bush didn’t do right. Sending people to Yemen was wrong, not getting this whole intelligence thing corrected."
Giuliani seems to have forgotten about the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Keep at it, George. You'll get it right eventually.