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Media ignore "bridge to nowhere" falsehood in Palin speech, despite having previously flagged it

September 04, 2008 5:47 pm ET

SUMMARY: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post have previously challenged Gov. Sarah Palin's assertion that she "told the Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere," but they did not report that she repeated the false claim in her September 3 vice-presidential acceptance speech.

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Several media outlets, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, that have previously challenged Gov. Sarah Palin's assertion that she "told the Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere," did not report that she repeated the false claim in her September 3 vice-presidential acceptance speech. Previously, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Post (in four separate articles) had noted that, in the words of a September 2 Post article, "Palin said she told the federal government, 'Thanks but no thanks.'" But, as the Post also reported, "she does not mention that she endorsed the bridge when she was a candidate for governor. And the money did not go back to Washington. It stayed in Alaska for a different road project." While the Post, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times each had reported that Palin had previously supported the bridge, and at least one of those articles in each paper additionally noted that Alaska kept the money that had been appropriated for it, none of the three newspapers -- in two September 4 articles in The New York Times, two articles in the Los Angeles Times, and two articles in the Post -- reported that Palin's nomination acceptance speech included the falsehood.

Moreover, the claim that she "told the Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' " is false, not only because Alaska kept the money, but because, as The Daily Howler's Bob Somerby noted, while appropriating the funds, Congress had abdicated responsibility for how they would be spent a full year before Palin was elected governor. Congress authorized funds to be spent specifically on the bridge project in August 2005. But, a year before Palin took office, in an appropriations bill in November 2005, Congress specified that Alaska could but was not required to spend those funds on the bridge; thus, as Somerby wrote, "no one had to 'tell Congress' anything about the Bridge to Nowhere, because Congress had removed itself from decision-making about the project."

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    • Author by MoonbatYouBet (September 04, 2008 6:04 pm ET)
         
      So what she really said was something more like "Thanks, but if you're going to be all snotty and rude about our bridge we'll just go and buy something else instead.  So there!"
      Report Abuse
    • Author by mefirst (September 04, 2008 6:19 pm ET)
         
      she did not say anything close to "thanks, but no thanks", except in her speech.  what she said back then was:  we want it, but we don't want to pay for it.  revisionist history.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by wzwriter (September 04, 2008 6:27 pm ET)
         

      Here's an interesting op-ed piece about Sarah Palin.....

      http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks4-2008sep04,0,5675222.column

      Report Abuse
    • Author by eweston8542983 (September 04, 2008 6:43 pm ET)
         
      Sounds a bit like the Col. Good article.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Max Dharma (September 04, 2008 6:46 pm ET)
         

      Wallace did not challenge McCain's claim that Palin said of "bridge to nowhere"

      Chris Wallace does not need to challenge anything that is true. If she said that (which she did by the way), then it is a true statement and need not be challenged.

      What MMFA is really trying to do here is to discredit a final decision with earlier considerations. Nice try, lol.

      Palin > Obama, get used to it.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by 1st Republic 14th Star (September 04, 2008 7:32 pm ET)
           

        Max, here's how it works:  If someone says something that is not true, it could be a lie or it could be a mistake.  If he or she says it more than once, and after its incorrectness has been pointed out, well then he or she is lying.

        Simply repeating something that's incorrect does not make it true.

        How do I know Palin is lying, and how can you know it, assuming that you want to?  Check these links:

        This. This. This.  and This.

        Report Abuse
      • Author by historygeek001 (September 05, 2008 1:46 pm ET)
           

        Max:

        You do an excellent job of mocking the right wingnuts.  You are so consistently wrong and completely ignore all facts that prove your talking points are out-and-out lies.  Nice going.

        Report Abuse
    • Author by shaggles (September 04, 2008 7:01 pm ET)
         

      The Daily Howler has been all over this.  Palin never said squat to Congress about the Bridge to Nowhere because the project was cancelled before she took office.  She's lying.

      Report Abuse
      • Author by snoopy (September 04, 2008 9:05 pm ET)
           
        Look up the road to nowhere. It's another boondoggle project for a $300 million dollar road connecting a little fishing shanty of 850 people to juneau. It's underfunded, behind schedule, and traverses dangerous territory subject to severe rock slides and quakes. This Palin project makes the Coke and Whoe's party look conservative.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by tman418 (September 04, 2008 7:23 pm ET)
         
      Maybe Congress should ask for the money back.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by tman418 (September 04, 2008 7:43 pm ET)
           
        Actually, John McCain, as THE "fiscal conservative" should be the one asking Palin for their money back.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by Wisewood (September 04, 2008 9:07 pm ET)
             
          If conservative equals Republican, then "fiscal conservative" is a contradiction in terms.
          Report Abuse
    • Author by Max Dharma (September 04, 2008 9:19 pm ET)
         
      MMFA is grasping at straws now .. and they will be for weeks.

      The liberal Democrats got their butts kicked last night by Gov Sarah Palin and they will whine about how every aspect of her speech was not challenged.

      Weak MMFA, very weak.

      Palin > Obama (deal with it)
      Report Abuse
      • Author by mary59 (September 04, 2008 9:26 pm ET)
        1  
        Max Pharma: Get well soon.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by skeptical (September 04, 2008 9:29 pm ET)
           

        Yeah, those stupid Democrats got so destroyed by Palin that they only got $10 Million in donations since her speech.

        Take that you lousy Democrats!

        Report Abuse
      • Author by DeminTX (September 04, 2008 9:32 pm ET)
           
        Really, besides smears, what policy issues did Palin discuss?  Yeah, I didn't think you could come up with anything.  Do you really hate America that much?
        Report Abuse
        • Author by mary59 (September 04, 2008 9:36 pm ET)
             
          Well he does hate librul America. Plus Mrs. Palin loves America haters like ole joe vogler, who didn't want nothing to do with the U.S. of A.
          Report Abuse
      • Author by snoopy (September 04, 2008 9:43 pm ET)
           
        Gidget and Geezer = another 40 years in the minority (take that, pembridge scholars!)
        Report Abuse
      • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (September 04, 2008 9:48 pm ET)
           

        Max, all Mrs. Loopner did last night was get a couple hundred old republicans excited (or at least semi-conscious, as close as they can get to "excited") by lying to them. It's not a very difficult thing to do, any second-rate tv preacher or used car salesman could have done it. The only butt-kicking that happened at Concon last night was to the truth and any sliver of dignity the GOP had left.

        Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Grampy & his over-the-hill spokesmodel are out of the race. There are a good number of frightened and ill-informed Americans out there keeping the Republican parties hopes alive.

        If you're watching the convention tonight, they just showed one of those treacly little slide shows about Cindy-Lou's family that was very enlightening. It recounted the day that Grampy and his bride-to-be met at a party. The 41 year-old Johnny introduced himself to the 24 year-old Cindy. He told her he was 37, she told him she was 27. According to the story it was love at first sight.

        That's a Republican "cute meet". They both lied right to each others faces within moments of meeting, and it worked out perfectly.

        The bad news; Cindy's getting a bit long in the tooth.

        The good news: Our hero just met yet another younger woman who can lie with a big smile on her face.

        And she's suckering you just like John McCain and Cindy McCain suckered each other.

        Report Abuse
        • Author by mary59 (September 04, 2008 11:11 pm ET)
             

          I'm listening to McCain give his speech.  (What's up with the green screen and all that grinning) 

          He's sure talking a good game.  He's even using the word "progressive."  Sorry his rhetoric doesn't match his deeds.  He's so jingoistic as is the crowd, it's embarrassing.

          Report Abuse
          • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (September 05, 2008 12:03 am ET)
               

            Mary, I was halfway watching the speech, but I think the green was in the closeups when there was a big picture of the White House behind him (it was the lawn).I was cracking up.After the other unfortunate Green Screen incident, they didn't see this one coming.

            And these people want to keep trying to run the country? Har! Time's up, Goopers.

            Report Abuse
            • Author by mary59 (September 05, 2008 12:37 am ET)
                 
              That was the white house lawn? Geez, everything is a fabrication with these people.  Why not  photoshop some fake easter eggs & happy children to go with?
              Report Abuse
              • Author by Col. Harlan Sanders (September 05, 2008 10:51 am ET)
                   
                Correction; it was a middle school (as corrected in Friday thread) I had only seen a brief glimpse and the close-up.
                Report Abuse
          • Author by CountOlaf (September 05, 2008 12:04 am ET)
               

            It's that kind of grin where he realizes that he'd be amazed if anyone actually believes what he's saying.

            If you notice, he gives us that strange grin an awful lot.

            Report Abuse
          • Author by shaggles (September 05, 2008 11:43 am ET)
               
            I missed McCain's speech but I keep hearing this blip of him saying "I don't work for the party, I don't work for myself, I work for you."  Assuming "you" means the American people then why are his policies so at odds with the wishes of most Americans?  The vast majority of us, for example, want to end the war but not McCain.
            Report Abuse
      • Author by wzwriter (September 05, 2008 11:40 am ET)
           

        Palin > Obama (deal with it)

        Every Liberal In The World > Max Dharma (deal with THAT).

        Report Abuse
    • Author by princeofwheels (September 05, 2008 1:03 am ET)
         
      Speaking of the Princess Sarah, what has her record been for the families with disabled children prior to her own? Has she been an advocate or did she just lean that way since the little ones' birth? Just curious...Hopefully, the speech writer did use this issue for political reasons.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by mblankenship0012882 (September 05, 2008 1:26 am ET)
         
      I was watching c-span throroghly as the "Bridge to Nowhere" was being porked into the bill.  All of Alaska, I heard, would benefit from this bridge, being it was in a "strategic" location.  Why doesn't someone ask her about the Homeland Security money she took for her town, and then her state, citing "strategic" location?   Alaska doesn't seem all that strategically sensitive to me, seeing that the Discovery channel has a whole program about Bering Sea crab fishermen, and they come and go as they please.  All the way up to the ice packs and really close to Russia.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by joseph_b26 (September 05, 2008 10:50 am ET)
         

      One Word:NARRATIVE

      The talking heads got cought talking about it when the mics were cut off the yesterday.  The use of narratives has served the Republicans well. Yet, it does not make the Republican invincible. 

       If you believe the Republican narrative, it follows Sarah Palin speaks just as effective as Barack Obama. In fact, as a Republicans would see it, Palin is better then Obama. In narrative, she is more experienced, she is more of a parent, and she is, of course,  more of an American. Their narrative has a subtle message: Palin is whte and Obama is black. 

      The narrative does not include, she may of had an affair with her husban's former business partner.  The narrative has a careful line that can be blown apart. 

      Joseph

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    • Author by troupadour175 (September 05, 2008 6:20 pm ET)
         
      I wish that Media Matters would investigate Gov. Palen's role in the defeat of Alaska's recent intiative that would have protected the salmon runs in streams and rivers.  Rather than a "reformer" I believe there is every indication that Gov. Palen is in the hip pocket of the big mining corporations which want to continue business as usual in Alaska to the detriment of the fishing/salmon industry and the native population for whom fishing is a way of life.  GM
      Report Abuse

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