Editor&Publisher: 'NYT' Counts Rudy's Time at Ground Zero: Not So Much
By E&P Staff
Published: August 17, 2007
NEW YORK The controversy over GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani claiming that he spent as much time at Ground Zero in New York during the cleanup "as anyone" has lasted for a week now, and finally someone decided to do a thorough fact-check.
An article today in The New York Times by Russ Buettner takes a balanced look at how the former New York City mayor's 9/11 record both helps and hurts him on the campaign trial. But it also includes the following bit of investigative reporting:
"A complete record of Mr. Giuliani’s exposure to the site is not available for the chaotic six days after the attack, when he was a frequent visitor. But an exhaustively detailed account from his mayoral archive, revised after the events to account for last-minute changes on scheduled stops, does exist for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. It shows he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts."
Giuliani had said that he was susceptible to "every health consequence that people have suffered....I spent as much time here as anyone...I was here five, six times a day for four months. I kind of thought of it as living here."
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