Citing NPR story, Wash. Post's Kornblut falsely claimed Obama was "unresponsive to a voter in a campaign stop"

In a November 8 entry to washingtonpost.com's The Trail weblog, Washington Post staff writer Anne E. Kornblut wrote that Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) presidential campaign "t[ook] a hit" in a National Public Radio story "for being unresponsive to a voter in a campaign stop." The report, which aired on the November 8 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition, featured White House correspondent David Green interviewing Geri Punteney, an Iowa woman who told Obama about her brother's cancer at a campaign event. Green reported that Obama told Punteney he would "[m]aybe ... write him [her brother] a note" and played an audio clip of Obama saying, "Maybe I'll write him a note before -- before you leave today." Later in the report, Green played a clip of Punteney explaining that she never got a note from Obama, saying, "He didn't have time, I guess." However, in claiming that the Obama campaign was "unresponsive" to Punteney, Kornblut ignored other facts in Green's report: that Obama went over to Punteney and held her hand and that Punteney said, "[J]ust knowing that, you know, he knows, that means more than a note." Additionally, when Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep asked Green, "Note or no note, David Green, did she feel that she got what she came for when she went to that presidential campaign event?" Green replied, "She says that she got exactly what she came for, that she just wanted to be noticed."

Kornblut's claim about the Obama campaign was deleted -- without notation -- from her November 8 blog post at some point after it was posted. Below is a screenshot of Kornblut's entry as it originally appeared:

Kornblut also later updated her Trail blog entry to note that, with regard to the story about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) visit to a Maid-Rite diner in Iowa, the manager "confirmed that Clinton aides did, in fact, leave" a tip "during a visit there last October."

From the November 8 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition:

INSKEEP: And David, I want to ask, after that experience, is Anita Esterday going to vote for Hillary Clinton, this candidate who mentions her on the campaign trail?

GREEN: She says she actually might, even though she got no tip. She says that she likes a lot about Hillary Clinton. She's also thinking about another Democrat, Barack Obama. She's looking in both directions. And, actually, Barack Obama was the other candidate that I was following on this trip to Iowa, and he stopped in a little town called Independence, and that's where he came in contact with the other woman we're going to meet. So, Barack Obama was standing there in a fairgrounds. He asked if anyone in the crowd had questions, and a woman in the front row stood right up.

[begin audio clip]

OBAMA: I'm listening to you. Yeah, we got a mic -- mic coming up.

PUNTENEY: Hi, Obama.

OBAMA: Hi.

PUNTENEY: My name is Geri Punteney. I have a brother who is dying of cancer.

OBAMA: Oh, take your time.

PUNTENEY: Sorry.

OBAMA: No, no, no. I know what this feels like.

PUNTENEY: And for him to be able to keep his insurance, he has to work. He has lymphoma and leukemia, and they're both in stage three.

[end audio clip]

GREEN: Steve, this entire event just came to a stop, and, you know, this is a different kind of moment. We just heard from a waitress who was working, and suddenly Hillary Clinton pops in and causes a lot of commotion. This woman came to see Barack Obama with, you know, a whole crowd around her, but wanted to see if there was something that this presidential candidate could do for her brother. And she got her moment. Barack Obama came over and held her hand and said it's not fair that her brother has to keep working when he's so ill, and also he said that he thinks that every American should have access to health insurance.

OBAMA [audio clip]: And that's something that I'm committed to doing as president of the United States, but tell your brother that we're thinking of him. Maybe I'll write him a note before -- before you leave today. All right, this gentleman right here.

GREEN: So, I wanted to go find Geri Punteney, and she lives with her mom in the town of Oelwein, Iowa. I go to visit on one of those cold, windy nights in the state of Iowa, and the first thing you notice outside Punteney's house is these beautiful-sounding wind chimes. She says she got them a few months ago after a friend died in a jet-ski accident.

[begin audio clip]

PUNTENEY: I've always loved wind chimes, but I got it in memory of him. It feels like when that blows and I hear that, that he's around.

GREEN: Punteney's faced a lot of tragedy. One of her brothers was burned, as a boy, in a Fourth of July fireworks accident, and he later died. The brother she mentioned to Obama has late-stage cancer, and Punteney says she cries a lot of the time, and she says something just inspired her to go see Obama when he was coming to the area.

PUNTENEY: Well, I've seen the commercials, and he just seemed sincere, and he is for people like my mom, my brother, and me.

GREEN: A lot of people would say a politician is the last place to turn if you really need help, but you seemed confident.

PUNTENEY: Yeah. I mean, he just seemed like he really cared, and, you know, and I never had anyone pay attention to me and my needs. And he held my hand.

[end audio clip]

GREEN: So, at this point, I have a tape recorder, and I played back the moment for Punteney.

[begin audio clip]

OBAMA [audio clip]: Tell your brother that we're thinking of him. Maybe I'll write him a note before -- before you leave today.

GREEN: So, he said he was going to write a note to your brother?

PUNTENEY: He didn't have time, I guess. You know, I mean, I understand, you know, 'cause he was being bombarded by so many people. But just knowing that, you know, he knows, that means more than a note.

[end audio clip]

GREEN: And Steve, Punteney tells me that she sometimes promises that she'll write notes to friends, and then she ends up not having the time, and so she really does understand Obama.

INSKEEP: Note or no note, David Green, did she feel that she got what she came for when she went to that presidential campaign event?

GREEN: She says that she got exactly what she came for, that she just wanted to be noticed.

INSKEEP: NPR's David Green covering the presidential campaign. Thanks very much.