NY Times article reported on McCain surge falsehood but not CBS' role in disappearing it
SUMMARY: Reporting on a false assertion by Sen. John McCain during an interview with CBS News, The New York Times' Michael Cooper falsely suggested that CBS News actually aired McCain's false statement. In fact, the falsehood was expunged from the version of the interview aired on the July 22 broadcast of the CBS Evening News and, in its place, CBS spliced together three separate statements made by McCain, one of which responded to a different question from the one resulting in the falsehood.
In a July 24 New York Times article, Michael Cooper reported that in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, Sen. John McCain falsely asserted that the 2007 U.S. troop surge "began the Anbar Awakening." But while noting McCain's falsehood and that it occurred during the interview, Cooper did not point out that CBS News did not actually air the falsehood; indeed, in the clip aired during the July 22 broadcast of the CBS Evening News, the falsehood had been expunged, and in its place were three separate statements made by McCain spliced together, one of which responded to a different question from the one Couric asked that resulted in the Anbar falsehood.
Cooper wrote that "Mr. McCain bristled in an interview with the 'CBS Evening News' on Tuesday when asked about Mr. Obama's contention that while the added troops had helped reduce violence in Iraq, other factors had helped, including the Sunni Awakening movement, in which thousands of Sunnis were enlisted to patrol neighborhoods and fight the insurgency, and the Iraqi government's crackdown on Shiite militias. 'I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened,' Mr. McCain told Katie Couric, noting that the Awakening movement began in Anbar Province when a Sunni sheik teamed up with Sean MacFarland, a colonel who commanded an Army brigade there. 'Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others,' Mr. McCain said. 'And it began the Anbar Awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history.' " At no point did Cooper report that the CBS Evening News did not actually air McCain's false assertion that the surge "began the Anbar Awakening" or that it had spliced the video.
As Media Matters noted, Couric had asked McCain, "Senator [Barack] Obama says while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shia government going after militias, and says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?" But rather than airing McCain's direct reply, including the false claim that the surge "began the Anbar awakening," Couric aired comments by McCain spliced together from three separate statements he gave during the interview, one of which responded to a different question. Couric gave no indication that these comments had been edited in any manner, nor did she otherwise note McCain's falsehood.
From Cooper's July 24 Times article:
Senator John McCain was chiding Senator Barack Obama for "a false depiction of what actually happened" in Iraq in a television interview this week. But in giving his chronology of events in Iraq, Mr. McCain gave what critics said was his own false depiction.
Mr. McCain has been using Mr. Obama's trip overseas this week to argue that the improved security situation in Iraq shows the success of the troop escalation that just ended, of which he was an early, fervent supporter, but which Mr. Obama opposed.
Mr. McCain bristled in an interview with the "CBS Evening News" on Tuesday when asked about Mr. Obama's contention that while the added troops had helped reduce violence in Iraq, other factors had helped, including the Sunni Awakening movement, in which thousands of Sunnis were enlisted to patrol neighborhoods and fight the insurgency, and the Iraqi government's crackdown on Shiite militias.
"I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened," Mr. McCain told Katie Couric, noting that the Awakening movement began in Anbar Province when a Sunni sheik teamed up with Sean MacFarland, a colonel who commanded an Army brigade there.
"Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others," Mr. McCain said. "And it began the Anbar Awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history."
The Obama campaign was quick to note that the Anbar Awakening began in the fall of 2006, several months before President Bush even announced the troop escalation strategy, which became known as the surge. (No less an authority than Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, testified before Congress this spring that the Awakening "started before the surge, but then was very much enabled by the surge.")
In a statement reported by The Washington Post on July 24, CBS News now acknowledges that it erred in splicing the video of the McCain interview. But in the reported statement, as Media Matters noted, CBS News senior vice president Paul Friedman maintained, falsely, that the error "did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying."
WITH...it should be on the FRONT PAGE of the NYPOST...Or on every Con Blog/Newspaper in the country.
Hell, catching CBS in a lie/fabrication. Catching CBS in falsifying a story. Catching that ultra-liberal Katie Couric performing journalistic juggling. I thought that the Cons were looking for this stuff. Weren't they in an uproar when Dan Rather showed "bad info" about the deserter George Bush? Go get 'em Rush. Go get 'em Seannie. And go get 'em Savage while you still can.
Am I the only one who actually read the article and saw that it was very critical and unflattering of Sen. McCain?
So the article didn't include everything that Media Matters wanted. So this is "conservative misinformation"?
Uhhh ... O.K.
Nah, you aren't the only one, Shoes...
I'm sure the rest of the Clueless Clown Posse will be along shortly to back you up. It's almost shift change time at the bridge ...
The article's degree of fairness to McCain is, in fact, irrelevant to the NYT omission of CBS Evening News' deception
Many analysts and observers have seized upon this fact to argue that the movement in Anbar had nothing to do with the surge, began before the surge did, and would continue even without the surge. This argument is invalid. Anbari tribal leaders did begin to turn against AQI in their areas last year before the surge began, but not before Colonel Sean MacFarland began to apply in Ramadi the tactics and techniques that are the basis of the current strategy in Baghdad. His soldiers and Marines fought tenaciously to establish a foothold in Anbar’s capital, which was then a terrorist stronghold, and thereby demonstrated to the local leaders that they could count on American support as they began to fight their erstwhile allies. Even so, the movement proceeded slowly and fitfully for most of 2006 and, indeed, into 2007. But when Colonel John Charlton’s brigade relieved MacFarland’s in Ramadi and was joined by two additional Marine battalions (part of the surge) elsewhere in Anbar, the “awakening” began to accelerate very rapidly. At the start of 2007 there were only a handful of Anbaris in the local security forces. By the summer there were over 14,000. Before the surge, Ramadi was one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq; now it is possible for Americans to walk through its market with limited security details and without body armor. David Kilcullen describes the relationship between the surge and the movement very well in his Small Wars Journal posting, and I have also addressed the issue in detail in a recent Weekly Standard article . The fact is that neither the surge nor the turn of the tribal leaders would in itself have been enough to turn Anbar around — both were necessary, and will remain so for some time.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MGM2YWI4ODI0MDA1ZjczOTFjNDNkMGQzMzM0MGQ4Mjg=Nice history lesson by WITH....I was mistaken and thought this was about CBS playing fast and loose with the truth a/k/a switching around answers. (Unless I am posting on the wrong thread). Nope, just peaked it is about CBS.
AA, once again, thank you for the history lesson but did Katie and CBS play a little game?
AA,
Apparently Kagan's revisionist account has some counter arguments:
Colonel MacFarland explaining the Anbar Awakening to Pam Hess of UPI, on September 29 2006:
Colin Kahl in Foreign Affairs
(cut, pasted and revised for brevity only)
I'm not saying you're wrong, Barn. Just...
Neon,
Where does your account counter my earlier post? Thanks.
I was under the impression that you were defending McCain by using Kagan's article (in the National Review, no less...sheez) which claims that the surge was instrumental in 'the awakening', and, in fact, began it.
That assumption is countered by the two quotes I posted.
If I misinterpreted your defense of McCain, I apologize. I admittedly gave it a cursory reading, today being Friday and all.
No problemo.
(btw, I appreciate the wit that you provide in so many of your posts! )
the error "did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying."
Oh, nonsense. Of course it did. It took a bit of boneheadness displaying either deceit or ignorance, something that would have been news fodder for days and would have reappeared in October had Sen. Obama been the source, deleted it, and spliced together other statements to make the response seem more sensible than it was.
And by the way, just when did it become the media's job to cover for politician's screw-ups?
As I said in another thread, this was no "error." It was a lie. And should be labeled as such.
First off, the NY Times did not cover McCain's mistake, they reported it in full, what they covered up was CBS' editing of it. Secondly, you cannot say for certain this was a lie on McCain's part, it could very well have been a mistake on McCain's part - why would he intentionally lie about something this verificable? For you to so boldly make that assertion is ridiculous.
McCain's gaffe here should be judged accordingly by voters for it's importance in their decision making, you needn't falsely categorize it as a lie without proof.
Tommy,
McCain should be one to complain. The part cut out clearly shows he knew the Anbar allegiance started with Col. McFarland, but he can also argue that the great success of the surge brought about the victory.
If one argues, as Kagan does, that McFarland's tactics were the tactics of the surge, one can stretch that argument that Col. McFarland's actions were the first step in what later became the surge. Even if one does not make the same argument, it is still a point of view that the surge actually got the ball rolling and in that sense started the awakening.
All in all, I agree that McCain misspoke. However I do not see that is much of big deal.
AA,
McCain did misspeak, he said the surge began the Anbar Awakening and that clearly is factually inaccurate - that being said, that is why I also said voters decide how critical it is. I agree, in the scheme of things, it's minor, at least for me.
Much to much is made nowadays of verbal mistakes.....and the media, and their watchdoggers, get all caught up in it - and other far more important issues of policy get lost, it's too bad.
Gotcha politics. It's all the rage these days. Easily digested by the uninformed masses, cheap to produce, creates long discussions without end to fill 24/7 news networks. A product of laziness - not laziness by the reporters, but by the consumers.
It's likely to be the reason that the U.S. will never have a government envisioned by Jefferson, Adams, etc.
"Gotcha politics. It's all the rage these days."
McCain's cluelessness is forcing MSM to spoon feel the savage and starving masses! I want more! Please McCain, keep forcing MSM's greedy hand. I still hungy!
oops meant ...spoon feed...
(that was unseamly)
"Much to much is made nowadays of verbal mistakes....."
The Anwar Awakening began on the border of Chekoslovakia in 2002. It was the first major conflict since we were attacked on 9/11.
You think McCain simply "misspeaks" here and there and I'm the one who's popping pills.
like this ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jhy6PBnmsE
But still, safe as clown's milk.
;-)
Couric-Gate...
Since Katie is the SMFIC at The Big Eye's news shop, I'm waiting for the right-o-sphere to explode with outrage over her ever-so creative Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V adjustments to her interview with St. John the Disrememberer.
Still waiting....