RedState.com falsely claimed McCain "confirmed" on Hannity that he was heckled by CNN's Ware
SUMMARY: RedState contributor "haystack" falsely claimed that Sen. John McCain had "confirmed [that] there was talking and laughing coming out of" Michael Ware's "mouth while he (McCain) was speaking" during a recent press conference in Baghdad. In fact, during McCain's appearance on The Sean Hannity Show, he stated that three other Republican members of Congress at the press conference said "there was laughter and chuckling going on." McCain did not mention "heck[ling]" or say that his colleagues attributed the purported behavior to Ware.
In an April 9 post on the weblog RedState.com, RedState contributor "haystack" falsely claimed that, "on Hannity," Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "confirmed [that] there was talking and laughing coming out of" CNN international correspondent Michael Ware's "mouth while he (McCain) was speaking" during a recent press conference in Baghdad. In fact, during McCain's April 9 appearance on ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show, to which "haystack" was referring, McCain did not confirm host Sean Hannity's assertion that McCain "got heckled by the CNN reporter Michael Ware," nor did he claim to have heard any heckling. Instead, McCain stated that "according to [Sen.] Lindsey Graham [R-SC] and [Reps.] Rick Renzi [R-AZ] and Mike Pence [R-IN], who all saw it -- I was talking at the time -- there was laughter and chuckling going on." McCain did not say that his colleagues attributed the purported behavior to Ware.
As Media Matters for America has noted, on April 1, Internet gossip Matt Drudge posted an "exclusive" alert on his website, the Drudge Report, claiming that during a press conference in Baghdad, Ware "heckled" McCain and Graham. Drudge's only source for this "exclusive" was an anonymous "official at the press conference" who claimed that Ware was "laughing and mocking their comments," adding: "I've never witnessed such disrespect." Ware denied the heckling allegation on the April 2 edition of CNN's American Morning, saying: "I did not heckle the senator. Indeed, I didn't say a word, I didn't even ask a question." On April 2, the website The Raw Story posted video of the press conference, which it claimed "appeared to show a short press conference without any interruptions and with Ware himself asking no questions during the question and answer session." Nonetheless, as Media Matters noted, various conservative media figures and outlets highlighted Drudge's accusation.
On The Sean Hannity Show, Hannity questioned McCain about allegedly being "heckled by the CNN reporter Michael Ware." McCain replied:
McCAIN: Well, according to Lindsey Graham and Rick Renzi and Mike Pence, who all saw it -- I was talking at the time -- there was laughter and chuckling going on while we were talking, while I was talking. I mean, it's not believable. It's not believable. And there were other witnesses in the room, embassy people and others, who saw the same thing. I was astonished.
McCain added: "It's a serious issue. Should we be chuckling and laughing?" Hannity responded: "[T]his guy's supposed to be a journalist for, you know, for a credible news network. It's a disgrace, and why he wasn't fired, I don't know." McCain answered: "[M]y job is not to worry about people like that." At no point during the interview did McCain state that Ware had either laughed during the press conference or heckled him.
The RedState post concluded that "Ware's childish antics notwithstanding, a case can be made that the media should stop being taken so seriously, and that Ware is a poster child for the childishness they exhibit in telling us what they want us to hear, rather than what they actually saw."
The Hotline's Blogometer linked to the RedState posting, but did not highlight the posting's false claim that McCain "confirmed" that he was heckled by Ware at the Baghdad press conference.
From the April 9 broadcast of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:
HANNITY: Let me ask you this. What --
McCAIN: Sure.
HANNITY: What happened at this press conference? You were in Baghdad you were with Senator Graham.
McCAIN: Yeah. Yeah.
HANNITY: And you got heckled by the CNN reporter Michael Ware. What happened there?
McCAIN: Well, according to Lindsey Graham and Rick Renzi and Mike Pence, who all saw it -- I was talking at the time -- there was laughter and chuckling going on while we were talking, while I was talking. I mean, it's not believable. It's not believable. And there were other witnesses in the room, embassy people and others, who saw the same thing. I was astonished.
HANNITY: It really is shocking, in the fact that this --
McCAIN: It's a serious issue. Should we be chuckling and laughing?
HANNITY: Well, and not only that, this guy's supposed to be a journalist for, you know, for a credible news network. It's a disgrace, and why he wasn't fired, I don't know.
McCAIN: Well, you know, these things happen. And my job is not to worry about people like that. My job is to keep my eye on the ball, tell the American people what's at stake.
McCAIN: Well, according to Lindsey Graham and Rick Renzi and Mike Pence, who all saw it -- I was talking at the time -- there was laughter and chuckling going on while we were talking, while I was talking. I mean, it's not believable. It's not believable. And there were other witnesses in the room, embassy people and others, who saw the same thing. I was astonished.
Pretty close to confirmation?
WTF?
Confirmation that Michael Ware was heckling McCain?
Even by wingnut standards, that's a stretch.
If Michael Ware was the one laughing, then have Graham or McCain come right out and say it was him. Both are just dancing around the issue here.
And if someone did laugh at McCain, he deserved it. He said you could walk around the Baghdad market. He implied it could be done without 100 armed troops or 5 gun-ships hovering above.
This was a political stunt by MCCain. It put the lives of more than 100 Americans at risk so that he could have a photo-op. He should be ashamed of himself.
Besides, laughter does not necessarily mean heckling. By using such hyperbolic language, conservatives have set the bar pretty high to prove their argument. We shouldn't lower that bar because they appear to be having some difficulty proving their point.
The accusation was "heckling". "Laughing" doesn't even cut it.
I agree that McCain deserved to be ridiculed. When you stand in front of a crowd and say something stupid, don't be offended if somebody laughs at you. The only reason nobody laughs at Puddinhead George when he makes a speech is that no one over a certain IQ is allowed in the audience.
Per MMFA Redstate said laughing and McCain said there was. Looks like MMFA added heckling. Sounds like McCain confirmed laughing, now should McCain be upset about is another story.
The point is that RedState said McCain attributed laughter to Ware, when McCain, in reality, did not. He said there was "laughter and chuckling going on." Either McCain doesn't know if Ware laughed at him OR he know Ware didn't laugh at him and doesn't want to say so in order to keep the innuendo from the right wing alive.
"Looks like MMFA added heckling."
No, the original charge was heckling.Now the offense is laughing? Laughing isn't heckling, and I'd laugh too, if I saw McCain taking carefully posed photographs with the security of about a hundred troops in the immediate vicinity, making sure that his safety is ensured in an area that is decidedly not safe.
Sorry it is in the title but not the main body.
CNN strated the heckling word.
Who cares what RedStates says any way?
Heckling was the original claim.
We don't know who was laughing or what they were laughing at by what McCain says. Of course, conservatives have been known to have some amazing mind-reading skills.
Ah, no, not in the reality based universe it isnt. In fact its not within MILES of a confirmation of Ware heckling McCain. First of all laughing itself would not constitute heckling second NO ONE specified Ware as the laugher. Considering what McCain was saying at the time its amazing the whole room didnt fall down on the floor and half of them pass out from hysterical laughter.
Ah, no, not in the reality based universe it isnt. In fact its not within MILES of a confirmation of Ware heckling McCain. First of all laughing itself would not constitute heckling second NO ONE specified Ware as the laugher. Considering what McCain was saying at the time its amazing the whole room didnt fall down on the floor and half of them pass out from hysterical laughter.
does mccain close his eyes when he talks or is it that he is just passing the buck
blogger haystack on the media: "....telling us what they want us to hear, rather than what they actually saw." maybe haystack could mention that to mccain, because i "heard" him say his little walk through the market was proof of how safe things are, and then i "saw" him marching with a vest and surrounded by soldiers with weapons in their hands.
Personally, I'm quite disappointed that there wasn't any laughing and heckling directed at McCain. Michael Ware is an 'in-the-tank' conservative who thinks Iraq's two main ethnic groups are Al-qaeda and not Al-qaeda. He does still have a functioning brain though, so obviously he can tell that life is not all peachy and happy in Iraq. But seriously, McCain, not to mention Hannity, is so deserving of ridicule. People like Ware should be telling him off, in the strongest terms possible. The man is a joke.
None of this happened. I went back and watched footage from the news conference. Its a lie. Ware didn't say anything. He sat there expressionless until toward the end of the news conference. When he raised his hand to ask a question, the conference was abruptly ended. If McCain is saying that this happened, he's lying.
I can't believe these rightwing hacks are still pushing this!
I watched the video at Raw Story and everything I saw and heard completely backs up Michael Ware's version of the event, right down to Ware raising his hand to ask a question as the press conference abruptly ended.
Yet the rightwing B.S. factory keep hammering it home. Have I gone competely insane?
Haystack seems to have limited reading skills, if he/she thinks that McCain confirmed anything, other than that there was talking and laughing during his speech. Which happens at all press conferences. This whole "heckling" thing is as contrived as McCain's trip to Baghdad.
One can only imagine what a horrific accusation it must be for a MSM stenographer to be accused of heckling a right wing presidental candidate.
As is common knowledge, the typical MSM hack considers right wing politicans sacred (at least their talking points are considered sacred).
So for a American reporter to be accused of heckling somebody of McCain's caliber must be a fate worse than death.
Michael Ware is Australian.
Law, language, whatever. These people corrupt everything they touch.
Were McCain's remarks drowned out, interrupted or disrupted? No. He was told afterward that there had been some chuckling and laughing. That means there was no heckling. But did he talk straight, as he did in 2004, when he decried the Swift Boat smears of John Kerry? Also no. In another pathetic display of the new, weasel-mouthed 2008 candidate, he gave a "non-confirmation confirmation," agreeing with Vannitty that laughing and chuckling about such serious issues was outrageous. Personally I would suggest that reporters who've been risking their lives on the ground in Baghdad for years would have a right to laugh at the absurdity of four pols jetting in for a highly protected photo op, and then touting that as evidence of pacification. "Like a farmers' market in Indiana?" What are these guys smoking?
But McCain desperately needs to change the narrative of that day. If the right wing disinformation machine can do that for him by making Michael Ware the story, he'll go along. He certainly doesn't want us to think about the 21 merchants from that market who were murdered a couple of days later. This was a completely predictable answer to his assertion that the "normalcy" of the market showed the surge to be working. A nice end to John, Lindsay, Rick and Mike's excellent shopping adventure, don't you think?
well hell its fox news what do u expect them to do tell the truth???
kudos to MMFA for exposing blog misinformation in addition to main stream media misinformation.
As blogs increase in importance and readership, their lies can dupe the average reader into believing nonsense.
I can't play or download the video. Is the link messed up?
had i been there and heard mccains assertions as to how safe it was,and he failed to mention the two blackhawks, and two apaches, the humvees,and the 100 marines, plus the fact that he was flown to that market, i would have laughed to.mccain says it was not believable that they were laughing. what did he expect after the baldface lies he was trying to tell the american people. when he got caught up in the lies, he says he mispoke, so i guess he mispoke when he said gen. patreaus was riding around in an unarmed humvee. he's plainly lied to us, we'vehad to much experience with george bushs lies to go for this kind of crap, and as for hannity i put him in the same class as al sharpton
The real villains here are Hannity and McCain. Hannity asked him about being heckled by Ware - long after the story was proven false. Regardless of the definition of heckling, McCain apparently interpreted laughing as heckling or at least considered it as offensive as heckling. When Hannity says, "...this guy's supposed to be a journalist for, you know, for a credible news network.", it's clear he was talking about Ware and not someone unknown in the crowd.
The real story here is that this incident never took place. We shouldn't be surprised that Hannity has no regard for facts. McCain, on the other hand, is learning that in order to be a serious GOP presidential contender you have to sell fairy tales to regressives.
Are Hannity's fans going to take him to task for admitting that CNN is a credible news network?
Nice turn of phrase there. "Fairy Tales for Regressives" sounds like a list of Republican talking points.
didnt the right drag moore over the coals for saying that iraq was safe before the invasion and is that not exactly what THEY are doing now ?? a little off topic just wondering