Patterico's Pontifications

10/31/2014

Sharyl Attkisson Book: White House Pressured C-SPAN, Plus, Bonus Video of Hacker Controlling Her Computer

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:41 pm



Erik Wemple at the Washington Post:

Among the juicier tidbits in the new book “Stonewalled” by former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson relates to a tiff between C-SPAN and the White House. As Attkisson tells the story, C-SPAN eminence Brian Lamb interviewed President Obama on Aug. 12, 2010, for a documentary on the White House. In the session, Lamb asks Obama about the Oval Office: “What have you changed in this room?”

The president responds, “We have not yet redecorated this room . . . Given that we are in the midst of some very difficult economic times, we decided to hold off last year in terms of making some changes.”

Two weeks later, reports Attkisson in the book, a White House official contacts C-SPAN to say, “the Washington Post will be breaking the story of the President’s reported multi-million dollar renovation of the Oval Office,” reads “Stonewalled.” According to the author, the White House official, then-TV liaison Dag Vega, wanted to “make sure” that C-SPAN didn’t run its Obama interview snippet after the story in The Post surfaced. “The one taped just days before in which President Obama had implied, that in the spirit of austerity, there would be no Oval Office redecoration,” writes Attkisson. Actually, the president merely said that they’d made a decision to “hold off last year” on the changes — not that the changes wouldn’t be coming soon.

In any case, the White House, via Vega, wanted C-SPAN to drop the footage later, to coincide with the release of its full documentary about the White House. Not when it was most relevant, and when it would raise questions about why the president had spoken of austerity.

It’s almost as if they were liars! Speaking of Attkisson, she released this video of her computer doing odd things:

Here’s a genius analysis: it’s a stuck key!

Really? A stuck key? With all that selecting and mouse movement and clicking and purposeful motion towards a button on the screen?

It doesn’t seem like secret hacking so much as a psychological game. Someone was telling her, in no uncertain terms: “We have control of your computer.” And they did a bunch of really obvious stuff — highlighting text, closing a document, etc. — to make sure the message was seen.

That, or a stuck key.

CNN Misquotes Lindsay Graham in Story About Joke About White Men at Male-Only Clubs

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:31 am



CNN (falsely) reports on Lindsay Graham making a joke about white men at male-only clubs:

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is toying with the idea of a presidential bid, joked in a private gathering this month that “white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency,” according to an audio recording of his comments provided to CNN.

Here’s the false part:

In the recording according to CNN, Graham is heard saying: “I’m trying to help you with your tax status. I’m sorry the government’s so f——- up. If I get to be president, white men in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency.”

Nope. That implies that the two quotes were strung together — that the first quote is the context for the second. But that is clearly not the case. Here is what the story should have said:

In the recording according to CNN, Graham is heard saying: “I’m trying to help you with your tax status. I’m sorry the government’s so f——- up.” Graham also says: “If I get to be president, white men in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency.” The context for these quotes was not supplied by the Democrats who supplied the recording to CNN.

The video below captures the three quotes the way CNN presents them — the same way, I assume that CNN received the quotes from the Democrat operatives who provided them. Namely, separated and out of context.

Without the context, you can’t even know what the “joke” is.

You’re not going to hear anyone talk about this, because Democrats hate Graham for being a Republican, and almost every Republican or conservative I know hates Graham for his amnesty and other self-righteous RINOisms. This is not about defending Graham. It’s about defending accuracy. CNN did not engage in it.

CDC Quietly Pulls “Droplets” Poster From Website

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:58 am



[guest post by Dana]

As Patterico posted about here, the CDC acknowledged earlier this week that Ebola can be spread through “droplets” (via a sneeze). You can see their now-scrubbed poster at link above.

Yesterday the CDC changed its mind:

The ​U.S. ​​Centers for Disease Control on Thursday yanked a poster off its Web site explaining how Ebola can be spread by contaminated droplets — from a sneeze for example — a day after The Post reported on the frightening revelation.

The fact sheet was taken off line, and a link that led to it a day before now sends viewers to a different page with a different message.

“The ​’​What’s the difference between infections spread through air or by droplets?​’​ ​f​act sheet is being updated and is currently unavailable. Please visit cdc.gov/Ebola for up-to-date information on Ebola,” it read​ Thursday​.

​Officials ​with the CDC ​remained mum on the issue, refusing to respond to questions for the original story and again on Thursday.

–Dana


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