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.”