Correcting the Media on Webb v. Bush

This morning I was listening to "Weekend Edition" on NPR.  Daniel Schorr does his wise old man commentary and ends it talking about the exchange between Jim Webb and Bush.  He doesn't criticize Webb, rather puts it in the context of turbulent times coming in DC.  What bothered me is that Schorr reported the exchange as Bush asking about Webb's son, and Webb responding "that's between me and my boy," omitting the part where Bush does his nasty-thing.

So I emailed the letter below to NPR.  It's important to constantly call them out on stuff like this because we have seen repeatedly how an episode can get repeated endlessly in error, until it's accepted as fact.  (Eric Alterman gives us multiple examples in his great book "What Liberal Media?")

By the way, they do read their mail at NPR.  Once I wrote to protest some comments on Ned Lamont that were made on the Diane Rehm show (I can't remember by whom, it was one of their reporters), and he actually wrote me back.  Here's my letter:

To Weekend Edition Saturday and Daniel Schorr,

Daniel Schorr referred briefly to an exchange at the White House between Sen.-elect Jim Webb and Pres. Bush.  (Paraphrasing) Mr. Schorr said that the President asked about Webb's son, who is in Iraq, and that Webb responded "that's between me and my boy."  Mr. Schorr does not report the whole, brief conversation and has bought into a distortion of the facts.  I would ask him not to do that.  

I first read about this story in the Washington Post, front page on Nov. 29, by Michael D. Shear.  Here is the conversation as reported by the Post:
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"How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.
 
"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

"That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"

"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.
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Soon after, columnist George Will writes about the exchange, conveniently leaving out the part where Bush says "That's not what I asked you," which to me sounds snide and petulant.  Will calls Webb a "boor."  Thus is Washington DC political history rewritten.  

Daniel Schorr did not criticize Webb, but he left out that nasty response by Bush.  To me it changes the whole complexion of the exchange.  If I were a parent of a son fighting in this hideous mess in Iraq, this no-win situation, I would be tempted to say a whole lot more than Webb did.  

These vignettes and how they are reported is important.  They follow a politician around.  For example, the media distorted Al Gore's comments about his role in the establishment of the internet, until it became a laugh line and hurt his standing as a political figure.  Daniel Schorr and Weekend Edition should correct what they said.