Here's a classic example of Media Manufacture: a story that is reported wrong (i.e. the incident never happened), gets picked up by various op-ed blowhards, and becomes "fact".
Yesterday, the pool reporter following Obama reported the following:
He left to check in on other classes, thanking teachers and students. He then came back to the room where the children were drawing pictures. Stooping over a table, he autographed a number of drawings. The children were delighted; one girl held her picture to her cheek after Obama signed it.
As he left, a boy tried to give him a fist bump. Obama said no.
"If I start that ..." his voice trailed off.
http://thepage.time.com/...
Oh no! Obama doesn't want to fist-bump a little boy! You know where this is going...
Helped along by an RNC mass mail blast, we get this:
Is Obama ditching his signature fist bump?
According to Tuesday's press pool report, the Illinois senator refused to bump fists with a boy as he was touring the Eastside Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio.
As the boy outstretched his first, Obama said no and added, "If I start that ..."
His voice then trailed off.
The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate popularized the move last month when he and his wife Michelle bumped fists on the night he formally captured the party's presidential nomination.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...
And this:
He just keeps moving to the center.
As Barack Obama toured the Eastside Community Ministry here, the children in for tutoring oohed and ahed, asking for the usual autographs and posing for the cameras.
But as Obama left, a boy tried to give him a fist bump. "If I start that...'' Obama's voice trailed off, and he turned away.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/...
I think we've got a meme!
Minor problem...this never happened.
Here is the actual exchange based on a review of ABC's video:
Child: Can you sign my hand?
Obama: If I start that...plus Mom might not be happy when she comes home. She'll be like, 'what is the dirt on your hand?'...see ya.
Child: Can you sign it in pen so it will come off?
The child rose his hand in a fist to get Obama's attention as he asked for a signature – perhaps prompting the fist bump portrayal.
Obama instead signed the autographs for the children in crayon on drawings they were working on during class.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
That's right...the pool reporter "reported" something that never happened.
But don't worry, we've already got a meme. Witness today's NYTimes:
He must simultaneously defend himself for being too exotic and, because of recent moves, too conventional. (So conventional that he even refused to do a fist bump with a boy at a tutoring session for kids in Zanesville, Ohio.)
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Nothing like the Queen of innuendo, Maureen Dowd, to get this going. Yup, a perfect case of Media Manufacture.