In its cropping of AP's misleading Reid follow-up, NY Times compounded distortions

On June 2, The New York Times published an edited version of Associated Press reporter John Solomon's highly misleading May 31 follow-up article (updated June 1) to his flawed (as documented here and here) May 29 report. In the May 31/June 1 article, Solomon falsely suggested that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (NV) had retracted his claim that he did nothing improper in accepting "credentials" from the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) to attend Las Vegas boxing matches. The New York Times compounded the distortions found in that follow-up article by publishing a cropped version, omitting key portions.

The essential falsehood in Solomon's May 31/June 1 article in its entirety and the version the Times published is the suggestion that Reid had originally misinterpreted the ethics rules to his benefit, later correcting himself. He had not. His original misinterpretation resulted in an overly restrictive -- not overly lax -- reading of the rules, and, more to the point, that misinterpretation and his revised statement on what the rules require have no bearing on his position that he did nothing wrong in accepting the credentials to attend the boxing matches. Through a careful reading of Solomon's May 31/June 1 article, a reader might identify Solomon's deception in claiming that Reid "[r]evers[ed] course" in his interpretation of the ethics rules, but the Times' cropping of Solomon's article masked this deception completely.

In justifying his acceptance of the credentials, Reid had drawn a distinction between taking gifts from agencies in his home state, such as the NAC, and agencies from other states. This is, in fact, an overly stringent interpretation of the Senate gift ban, which actually allows lawmakers to accept from the agency of any state the sort of credentials Reid reportedly received from the NAC to attend the matches. Moreover, whether the rules limit the provision of such credentials to agencies from a senator's own state has no bearing on Reid's situation, since the credentials for the boxing matches were provided by his home state agency. Still, Reid spokesman Jim Manley acknowledged that Reid "misspoke when he said the rule applies only to senators who represent the state agency," but maintained that accepting the credentials was permissible under the ethics rules. As Media Matters for America noted, Solomon, in the lead paragraph of his June 1 article, falsely suggested that Reid had altogether abandoned his defense of accepting credentials from the NAC by claiming that Reid had "[r]evers[ed] course" and "acknowledged" that "he misstated ethics rules." Reid, however, had not "[r]evers[ed] course," and only much later in the article did Solomon inform readers how exactly Reid had misinterpreted the Senate rules, writing:

Reid told Las Vegas reporters on Tuesday he would continue to accept such tickets and did not believe he did anything wrong even though fellow Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who joined him for one of the fights, decided to reimburse $1,400 for his seat.

Reid said he believed it was appropriate to accept the free tickets because the gifts were from his home state and that McCain had to reimburse because he was from out of state.

Senate ethics rules generally allow senators to take gifts from any state, not just their home state. But they specifically warn against taking normally permissible gifts if the giver may be trying to influence official action.

Manley said Wednesday night that Reid "misspoke when he said the rule applies only to senators who represent the state agency." But he added he believes Reid still could ethically accept the tickets.

"It was therefore entirely permissible for Senator Reid -- a senator from Nevada -- to have attended a major Nevada sporting event as a guest of Nevada officials," Manley said.

The Times' version, however, omitted the portions of Solomon's article highlighted above:

The Associated Press reported Monday that Mr. Reid had accepted the free seats from the Nevada commission as it was trying to convince him that there was no need for a federal boxing commission. Mr. Reid voted to set up a federal commission, but the measure was never enacted.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, joined Mr. Reid for one of the fights and decided to reimburse $1,400 for his seat.

Senate ethics rules warn against taking gifts if the giver may be trying to influence official action.

Mr. Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley, said Wednesday night that Mr. Reid "misspoke when he said the rule applies only to senators who represent the state agency."

Manley's quote, as the Times' version of the article presented it, has no bearing on the rest of the article, and leaves the impression that Reid had previously articulated a less stringent view of the gift ban and now his spokesman was admitting that the rule was stricter, just the opposite of what Reid had done.