My email to Wash Post's ombudsman about Milbank

[Enrique]

[e-mail]

Dear Washington Post Ombudsman,

I'd like to request you address Dana Milbank's July 30 column whose theme was Obama's "hubris," as Milbank put it.

He quotes Obama saying "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions," but he leaves out Obama saying "all this is not about me."

The omitted quote directly contradicts Milbank's main point, and so I ask, why was it left out.

That highly column of his is getting tons of play in the media, it's been picked up everywhere and has become a big part of the campaign discussion.

And it feeds into a "narrative" which the McCain campaign is obviously pushing, that Obama is arrogant.

Thank you for your attention.

[npincus]

1. thanks! I worte my own:

Dear Ombusdman,

Dana Milbank published HALF of an Obama quote in his July 30 column, to paint his narrative that the candidate is arrogant. Of course, this spread throughout cable TV like wildfire and was repeated ad nauseum, doing massive damage to the candidate. Well, you can do "The Google" to find the ENTIRE quote which actually contradicted the point that Milbank was trying to make.

Milbank owes the candidate and campaign and apology, and the Washington Post should issue a correction forthwith. And not buried at the bottom of page xyz.

A disappointed Reader,
(name)




a few online references to Milbank's misquote:

http://www.newser.com/story/33742/arrogance-charge-dogs-obama-fueled-by-misquote.html

Newser) – Washington Post reporter Jonathan Weisman fed the GOP line that Barack Obama is more presumptuous than presidential last night by quoting the candidate telling a gathering of House Dems yesterday, “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.” Weisman quips,“Perhaps he's beginning to believe the hype.” But Mark Halperin cries foul at Time, noting that a previous unquoted sentence makes it clear that Obama meant the opposite.
The full quote, supplied by a Dem who was in the unrecorded session: "It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.” Weisman today updated his post to include the sentence, but not before the “hubris-as-Obama-Achilles'-heel” story line was all over TV and the Web.



http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/07/30/politics/fromtheroad/entry4306672.shtml
A House Democratic staffer, however, tells CBS News that this quote is taken way out of context.

"The Post left out the important first half of the sentence," the staffer said, adding that the quote was more like, "It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol...”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/30/iwashington-posti-fans-ou_n_115861.html
Washington Post reporters Dana Milbank and Jonathan Weisman gave the McCain campaign a nipple-stiffening moment today after they picked up a statement by Barack Obama, and used it, apparently, entirely out of context, presenting it for the consumption of Post readers in a way that made it look like Obama was being arrogant.

For Milbank's part, it was all because he wanted to wedge the statement into his preferred frame: "Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee." I believe it was Oscar Wilde who cautioned: "Reality is a MADE thing."

And, as it turns out, Milbank's "reality" is something of a deconstruction. Milbank's remake reads:

"This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for," adding: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."
According to a Democratic leadership aide in attendance, the full quote from Obama is:

It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.

[npincus]

5. LOL- return recipt from WaPo ombudsman:

Return Receipt

Your Correction request: Dana Milbank's July 30 column
document:

was Deborah C Howell/visitors/news/TWP
received
by:

at: 08/01/2008 10:00:39

[Mabus]

2. Time for a brief trip back to 2000 to the former WaPo ombudsman's response to criticism

Excerpts from the Daily Howler from the "Typecasting Candidates" article by then-WaPo Ombudsman E.R. Shipp from March 3, 2000.

Readers will know that we have long critiqued Ceci Connolly's Gore coverage in the Post. We thought that Shipp was right on the money in her earlier critique on March 5 (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 3/7/00). In that column, Shipp gave an account of the primary coverage that we thought was right on the mark. Shipp praised the Post for much of its work. But then, she also said this:

SHIPP (3/5): But The Post has gone beyond that kind of reporting in favor of articles that try to offer context—and even conjecture—about the candidates' motives in seeking the office of president. And readers react—sometimes in a nonpartisan way, more often not—to roles that The Post seems to have assigned to the actors in this unfolding political drama. Gore is the guy in search of an identity; Bradley is the Zen-like intellectual in search of a political strategy; McCain is the war hero who speaks off the cuff and is, thus, a "maverick"; and Bush is a lightweight with a famous name, and has the blessings of the party establishment and lots of money in his war chest. As a result of this approach, some candidates are whipping boys; others seem to get a free pass.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h091800_1.shtml

In other words, the WaPo knows that their reporters are using meta-narratives when they write their articles. Writing from their preconceived scripts help give a paper's stories a filling of continuity and anything that doesn't fit their narrative can be discarded or reshaped to fit their narrative. Welcome to the world of the Washington Press Corp. Those intrepid reporters are already working on the novels that Colbert suggest they write, only they are doing it at the expense of doing any actual work.

[asjr]

3. This sort of thing will continue when

newspeople, journalists, reporters become pundits.

[Quixote1818]

4. K and R. This needs us to give it legs. nt