On July 16, The New York Times published a seriously flawed, Web-only article by reporter Anne E. Kornblut on a recent speech given by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) during a trip to Arkansas. Kornblut falsely reported that Clinton accused her fellow congressional Democrats of “wasting time” by focusing on “issues that arouse conservatives and turn out Republican voters rather than finding consensus on mainstream subjects.” But as blogger Duncan Black noted following the article's publication -- and as is evident from the audio clip of the speech posted by Media Matters for America -- Clinton was actually criticizing the Republican-led Congress -- not her Democratic colleagues. Despite the fact that this flaw undermines the article's central premise, the Times has failed to correct the piece. Meanwhile, it has been picked up by the weekly publication Arkansas Times, as well as by The Drudge Report, National Review Online, NewsMax.com, RedState, and News Copy New York.

In the article, Kornblut reported that Clinton, in a July 15 speech before the Arkansas Federation of Democratic Women, had “chastised Democrats ... for taking on issues that arouse conservatives and turn out Republican voters rather than finding consensus on mainstream subjects.” Kornblut went on to quote Clinton saying, “We do things that are controversial. We do things that try to inflame their base. ... We are wasting time.” But while Kornblut assumed that the “we” in these statements referred to Democrats, an audio recording of the speech makes clear that Clinton was in fact expressing frustration with the priorities of the Republican-led Congress.

Nonetheless, Matt Drudge touted the article and the purported angry response by Democratic activists, using the headline "ACTIVISTS RAGE: Hillary Says Democrats Are 'Wasting Time.' " Similarly, National Review Online's Sixers weblog highlighted the piece, as well as did conservative website NewsMax.com, which published an article on the Kornblut report headlined “Hillary: Don't Inflame Conservatives”:

Warning Arkansas Democrats to avoid doing things that inflame the state's conservative base, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton advised they seek “consensus on mainstream subjects.”

“We do things that are controversial. We do things that try to inflame their base,” Clinton, D-N.Y., told the Arkansas Federation of Democratic Women, according to the New York Times. “We are wasting time.”

Concentrating on contentious issues only brings out the conservative base, she warned, without specifying such hot-button issues as gay marriage that inflame conservatives and drive them to the polls to vote for Republicans.

A July 18 post on the right-wing weblog RedState used the Times article to argue that Clinton had advised her fellow Democrats to avoid issues that rile the conservative base out of fear that Democratic voters “simply won't turn out to vote”:

I'm sure the “Framers” advising Hillary Clinton think this sounds very smart. Don't talk immigration, don't talk gay marriage, don't talk abortion, don't talk war. Talk about health care for all; just don't mention who is going to pay for it. Talk about a “living wage;” just don't mention those at the bottom of the economic ladder who it will forced [sic] into a permanent underclass because their skills just are not that sought after. Talk about choice; just don't mention the 800,000+ instances of safe, legal, and rare abortion every year.

Whatever you do, don't get the conservative base aroused because, she seems to admit, our base doesn't believe in diddly-squat and simply won't turn out to vote.

Further, News Copy New York, a site focused on New York state politics, highlighted Kornblut's article under the headline "Hillary Lodges Complaint against Fellow Dems." The Arkansas Times also posted a large excerpt from the article on its weblog.

On July 17, blogger Greg Sargent of The Horse's Mouth contacted Clinton's spokesperson about the Kornblut article:

Now Hillary's spokesperson, Philippe Reines, has weighed in. When I asked him for clarification of her remarks, he emailed:

Senator Clinton's speech doesn't need to be clarified -- it's crystal clear that she was referring to the Republican leadership in the Senate, and was taking issue with the issues and legislation they have prioritized for their own political purposes. She was not in any way shape or form criticizing Democrats....Any reporting to the contrary should be corrected.