Did LA Times blogger Andrew Malcolm fabricate an Obama quote?
February 05, 2010 10:21 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Here's the Times headline from the Obama-hating blogger (who used to make a living issuing press releases for Laura Bush):
'Now what?' Obama asks fellow Democrats
Isn't the obvious conclusion readers should reach from the headline is that Obama (rather helplessly) asked Democrats "Now what"? I mean, the "Now what?" part does appear in quotes, correct? And journalists just don't throw any old words in quotes. They put quotation marks around words that people actually say, right?
Well guess what? in Malcolm's snide write-up of Obama's televised Q&A with Democrats this week, readers who bothered to comb through the 11,000 word transpcript of the Q&A session discovered that Obama never said "Now what?" to Democrats yesterday. Not once. (At least not that I can find.)
Malcolm appears to have fabricated the quote. I guess that's what happens when scribes like him succumb to to Obama Derangement Syndrom; they cease being journalists and simply morph into partisan hacks.
UPDATED: And yes, this fabrication appears in the same post in which Malcolm fabricated a claim about a Democratic senator.
UPDATED: The original Malcolm headline was even worse:
'Now what?' Obama told some fellow Democrats
See, Obama told Dems "Now what?" Except that, of course, Obama didn't tell them that.
Now, what Obama told some fellow Democrats | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times
Notice the lack of quotes. Did someone in editorial remove them because it wasn't a real quote?
Take a look at Fox News. About half their smear is posed as 'open' questions but all the 'open' questions are in essence smear. It should indicate to any viewer/reader that the entire story rests on nothing of substance (...the journalist is not willing to put his integrity on the line. So, you know, he is "just asking.") Your story has substance, and you back it up by solid facts. Just get rid of that question mark, will you?