Wash. Times misled about attendance at Clinton library

In a February 10 article titled “All's quiet in the library,” the Washington Times drew a misleading comparison between the attendance figures of the Clinton Presidential Center and the libraries dedicated to former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to suggest that Clinton library officials had overstated the number of visitors it had received. The Washington Times also attempted to diminish attendance to the Clinton library dedication ceremony by inflating the number of people it claimed were expected to attend, and misstated the impact that the Clinton library has had on the Little Rock, Arkansas, economy. Later that evening, FOX News Washington managing editor Brit Hume echoed the Times' faulty account on the “Grapevine” segment of FOX News' Special Report with Brit Hume, declaring that the library had attracted “far few visitors than expected.”

In fact, the Clinton library received far more overall visitors in the six weeks following its opening than the Reagan and Bush libraries received in the two months after they opened; the library's opening ceremony attendance was in line with expectations; and the library has already had a strong impact on Little Rock's economy.

The Washington Times based its report on the January 24 print edition of U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers" column (reproduced here), which asserted that Clinton officials' attendance figures were “inflated” because they included nonpaying visitors. That account was subsequently picked up by conservative news website NewsMax.com in a January 17 article titled “Clinton Library Attendance Disappointing.”

The Times echoed U.S. News by reporting that the Clinton library overstated its attendance numbers, and then erroneously suggested that the Clinton library has received fewer visitors in its opening weeks than those dedicated to former presidents Reagan and Bush:

Although the [Clinton] library originally said it had drawn more than 100,000 visitors in the first six weeks of its opening, the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates the library, told U.S. News & World Report that only 42,045 visitors actually paid the $7 to enter. The rest of the visitors were VIPs, journalists and other nonpaying guests. ... By comparison, Mr. Bush's presidential library on the campus of Texas A&M in College Station -- which also has a presidential apartment -- drew 67,677 paying visitors in a comparable period in 1997, between Nov. 5 and Dec. 31. In 1991, the Ronald Reagan library at Simi Valley, Calif., drew 69,152 paying visitors between its Nov. 4 dedication and Dec. 31.

As the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on January 21, citing library spokesmen, the Clinton library received 123,697 paying and nonpaying visitors in its first two months compared to 96,577 paying and nonpaying visitors to the Reagan library between November 4 and December 31, 1991.* The 67,677 people who visited the Bush library in 1997 were the total number of visitors over the first two months, not just the paying visitors as the Washington Times claimed. According to the Democrat-Gazette, “A spokesman for the Bush library in Texas said the library drew 67,677 visitors in 1997 between Nov. 5 and Dec. 31. ... [But] he didn't have a breakdown of the paid versus free visitors.”

Further, as the dates provided by The Washington Times comparison indicate, the paid attendance figures it included for each library did not actually cover a “comparable period.” While the numbers for all three libraries -- which were obtained from the National Archives -- covered a period from the opening of the library until the end of the calendar year, the Clinton library opened two weeks later than the Reagan and Bush libraries.

The Times' claim that all guests to the Clinton library beyond the 42,045 figure were “nonpaying guests” is also false. The Democrat-Gazette reported on January 21 that that number does not include “more than 3,000 individual and 3,700 family memberships” which require an annual fee, although not all those members have necessarily visited the library already.

The Times also attempted to diminish the attendance at the Clinton library's November 18 dedication ceremony by inflating the number of people it claimed “Clinton supporters” expected to attend. The Times wrote: “Although Clinton supporters predicted that 50,000 persons would attend ... the true number was closer to 20,000, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.” The Times failed to specify who the “Clinton supporters” were that predicted that 50,000 people would turn out, and a November 14 United Press International article previewing the event -- which was published by the Times -- indicated that “More than 30,000 people are expected to attend.” The actual numbers were mostly in line with the UPI prediction -- the Democrat-Gazette reported in its January 21 article that the ceremony was attended by “an estimated 27,000 people,” and the Times itself placed the number in attendance at 30,000 in a report the day after the library opened.

Finally, the Times article misstated the impact that the Clinton Presidential Center has had on the Little Rock economy by erroneously reporting that it is not on track to meet financial expectations: “City officials and library organizers predicted that the Clinton library would bring in hundreds of thousands of tourists and conventioneers, who would boost the economy annually by millions of dollars. Those predictions now seem optimistic.”

Yet numerous news reports contradict the Times' account. In a January 5 report titled “Clinton Center Opening Made Big Economic Impact,” Little Rock television station KTHV noted: “Room revenue for Little Rock hotels totaled $8.7 million in November, up $2.1 million from 2003, according to the STAR report, an independently produced study by Smith Travel Services.” And as the Associated Press noted on February 3, “Arkansas' statewide tourism tax receipts for November 2004, the month in which the Clinton Presidential Library opened, were up nearly 22 percent over the previous year.”

And the library made a large impact even before it opened. According to an October 3 Cox News Service report, which was also published in The Washington Times, “The Clinton Library has served as an anchor for more than $1 billion in investments in Little Rock's downtown.”

When this item was first published, it incorrectly stated: “As the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on January 21, citing library spokesmen, the Clinton library received 123,697 paying and nonpaying visitors between its November 18 opening and December 31.” In fact, the Democrat-Gazette reported that "[a]fter six weeks, the library celebrated the 100,000th visitor to the center." The 123,697 figure was the total number of visitors for the “first two months.”