Retracto, Call Your Office!
There is a certain wooly mammal that I’m sure will be interested in this, from the Greensboro News & Record:
Greensboro Republican Rep. Howard Coble, who has taken to the House floor to denounce the community organizing group, was one of 31 congressmen to co-sponsor Rep. Pete Olson’s resolution “Honoring the fact-finding reporting done by Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe III” back in October.
O’Keefe was busted last week and charged with attempting to bug U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phone in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans.
No, he wasn’t.
“When I signed on initially, I was very comfortable doing that because these two people exposed an outfit that was doing illegal things and using taxpayer money,” Coble said.
But he said that nobody should take his backing of the resolution, filed months ago, as an endorsement of O’Keefe’s attempted phone tapping.
Indeed, nobody should — since O’Keefe attempted no such thing. I have already obtained corrections from CBS News and the Washington Post on nearly identical claims.
Now it’s y’all’s turn.
The “O’Keefe accused of trying to wiretap Landrieu” meme that took off when the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that O’Keefe was accused of wiretapping — and then did a stealth correction, changing the language of the article without notifying readers.
Retracto, do your thing.
I have to believe that some of this is pure laziness & failure to fact-check. Which is not to say that it’s excusable or acceptable, just understandable when dealing with the lamestream media.
Icy Texan (ca0a8d) — 2/1/2010 @ 5:51 amSee, THIS is the sort of newspaper article that O’Keefe could win a libel suit against.
[Name withheld] (46e187) — 2/1/2010 @ 6:30 am*sign* Time to clear the cookies…
Scott Jacobs (46e187) — 2/1/2010 @ 6:31 amDONE (with scolding):
> O’Keefe was busted last week and charged with attempting to bug U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phone in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans.
Um, NO.
There are no allegations of any attempt to “bug” or wiretap Sen. Landrieu in the FBI affidavit, and a law enforcement official has conceded that the four men were not attempting to wiretap or intercept calls.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/27/2187074.aspx
Furthermore, legal representation for the accused has gone on record stating there were no intentions to wiretap.
The original reporting by the AP and others was in error, and there has been more than ample time for your reporters to have actually learned of this change, had they been seriously performing their jobs. Thus one may conclude that the filer, presumably either Mark Binker or Amanda Lehmert, is not a particularly good reporter. Clearly they cannot be bothered to actually seek any additional information which has become subsequently available by performing a simple internet check before filing a report. Note to Mark and/or Amanda: After several days, such checks are what separate good reporters from hacks.
We kindly ask the Greensboro News-Record to issue a correction/retraction to this story.
Retracto T.C. Alpaca (79d71d) — 2/1/2010 @ 6:31 am[…] Offices? Mayrant&Rave: Breitbart’s O’Keefe Arrested Patterico’s Pontifications: Retracto, Call Your Office! and Should James O’Keefe Be Prosecuted? Should Ellie Light? and Retracto the Correction Alpaca […]
More Media Mayhem: David Shuster vs. Andrew Breitbart on the Media’s False Reporting of Facts in O’Keefe’s Arrest (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 2/1/2010 @ 6:48 am[…] A tale of two protection rackets: ACORN’s — and the media’s Patterico’s Pontifications: Retracto, Call Your Office! and Should James O’Keefe Be Prosecuted? Should Ellie Light? and The Powers That Be: Guy Who […]
Journalist James O’Keefe: Looking More Innocent by the Day, to the Dismay of ACORN, Liberals, & the Media « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 2/1/2010 @ 6:49 amWhat is Contact information for Rep. Coble’s office? It is time to find out who the lamebrain on his staff wet their pants and whispered in Coble’s ear to throw O’Keefe under the bus.
PCD (1d8b6d) — 2/1/2010 @ 6:50 amAlso, another Democrat supporting rag needs to issue a correction/retraction, the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald. Oh, the executive editor of this “newspaper” is the president of the Iowa Newspaper Editors Association.
Maybe the Alpaca needs to make this paper an example as a “leader” of the lame stream, Democrat lapdog media.
PCD (1d8b6d) — 2/1/2010 @ 7:23 amRetracto, do your thing?
you did not just say that
happyfeet (713679) — 2/1/2010 @ 7:59 amMark Twain said “The lie is half way around the world while the truth is still getting its boots on.”
Mike K (2cf494) — 2/1/2010 @ 8:20 amSomeone needs to tell Retracto about Mediaite’s serial liar Glynnis MacNicol (or, as I call her, Glynnocchio.) Somehow, she must have a sweetheart deal with Dan Abrams (the site’s founder and ex-MSNBC host) by which she isn’t required to correct factual errors in her stories.
L.N. Smithee (ecc5a5) — 2/1/2010 @ 9:15 amThe Greensboro News & Record isn’t very good at updating its Web site. This is from the list of Q and As.
Why won’t you get rid of Molly Ivins?
Why won’t you get rid of Cal Thomas?
Bradley J. Fikes (9f6515) — 2/1/2010 @ 1:56 pmWe won’t get rid of either Ivins or Thomas because they express extremely divergent schools of thought. They provide a spicy, provocative yen and yang on the editorial pages that lends a voice to many of our readers’ views and pricks at the foibles of liberals and conservatives.
Coble is simply far too old. Bless the guy… I have nothing against him even when he says something I disagree with, but his remarks show that he didn’t follow the story.
It’s ridiculous to claim that O’Keefe’s behavior here, good or bad, have anything to do with ACORN’s attempts to thwart the law repeatedly, lie about themselves and show a desire to cover up injustice. Why dignify that notion at all? O’Keefe is one of the good guys who had a dumb plan he obviously got from famous old media methods. He’s going to be around forever, too, no matter how hard the left tries to turn him into Michael Moore of the right.
Coble is a powerful congressman, and a pretty good argument for term limits, even though I think he’s better than 90% of the folks on the hill.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 2/1/2010 @ 2:01 pmdamn foible prickers
happyfeet (71f55e) — 2/1/2010 @ 2:03 pm[…] Offices? Mayrant&Rave: Breitbart’s O’Keefe Arrested Patterico’s Pontifications: Retracto, Call Your Office! and Should James O’Keefe Be Prosecuted? Should Ellie Light? and Retracto the Correction Alpaca […]
James O’Keefe’s Interview on His Arrest by FOX’s Sean Hannity (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 2/2/2010 @ 8:04 am[…] Offices? Mayrant&Rave: Breitbart’s O’Keefe Arrested Patterico’s Pontifications: Retracto, Call Your Office! and Should James O’Keefe Be Prosecuted? Should Ellie Light? and Retracto the Correction Alpaca […]
Alinsky Smear Tactic FAIL: Andrew Breitbart KO’s Leftist Max Blumenthal at CPAC (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 2/21/2010 @ 7:39 am[…] Offices? Mayrant&Rave: Breitbart’s O’Keefe Arrested Patterico’s Pontifications: Retracto, Call Your Office! and Should James O’Keefe Be Prosecuted? Should Ellie Light? and Retracto the Correction Alpaca […]
Chuckle: Left-Wing Zealot Hack David Shuster in Boiling Hot Water with MSNBC for Shooting CNN Pilot Without Notifying His Bosses (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone (a66042) — 4/5/2010 @ 12:44 pm