Atrios: NYT distorts Lamont letter to Lieberman beyond all recognition

[swag]

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_09_03_atrios_archive.html#115781364141511491

The article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/09/nyregion/09LAMONT.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Lieberman Points Out a Turnabout by Lamont


By JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: September 9, 2006


NEW HAVEN, Sept. 8 — Ned Lamont, who this week chastised Senator Joseph I. Lieberman for his public rebuke of President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, wrote to Mr. Lieberman at the time praising the eloquence of his speech on the Senate floor.

“I supported your statement because Clinton’s behavior was outrageous: a Democrat had to stand up and state as much, and I hoped that your statement was the beginning of the end,” Mr. Lamont, then a cable television executive, wrote in an e-mail message to the senator’s Washington office on Sept. 16, 1998, two weeks after Mr. Lieberman’s speech.

Mr. Lamont defeated Mr. Lieberman in last month’s Democratic primary in Connecticut, but will face the incumbent — now running on his own party line — in November. In an interview with reporters and editors on Wednesday night in Washington, Mr. Lamont said he shared Mr. Lieberman’s “moral outrage” over Mr. Clinton’s sexual misbehavior but thought the senator should have handled it behind closed doors before making a public speech.

“You don’t go to the floor of the Senate and turn this into a media spectacle," Mr. Lamont said of Mr. Lieberman’s remarks. "You go up there, you sit down with one of your oldest friends and say you’re embarrassing yourself, you’re embarrassing your presidency, you’re embarrassing your family, and it’s got to stop.”

At the time, Mr. Lamont wrote that he had “supported the moral outrage” Mr. Lieberman expressed reluctantly because he “thought it might make matters worse,” adding that “unfortunately, the statement was the beginning of a process that has turned more political and morally offensive.” He urged Mr. Lieberman to “stand up and use your moral authority to put an end to this snowballing mess,” and suggested that “It’s time for you to make up your mind and speak your mind as you did so eloquently last Thursday.”

. . .

The actual letter:



Says Duncan: "Medina's been pretty good on this race most of the time, but I have no idea how a responsible journalist could spin Lamont's letter into that article."

[Joanne98]

1. HAHA! The "librul" media. Yay right!

[Kagemusha]

2. We have no idea what role an editor played in this.

Having said that, ... well frankly I'm at a loss for words. Acting as if the eloquence was the main subject of the letter is pretty brazen.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. Unbiased reporting at its best.

:sarcasm:

[acmavm]

4. Are there really people left who still see the NTY as a legitimate media

organization? They are working on being the paper/internet version of ABC-Disney.

[femmedem]

5. K&R edit to add: oops, I meant to reply to OP. n/t

[Eugene]

6. K&R - The AP version paints Lamont as a hypocrite.

Lamont lauded Lieberman's 1998 rebuke of Clinton in E-mail

The AP article gives a hint of the context of Lamont's e-mail several
paragraphs down, but it give more ink to the righteous outrage
from the Lieberman camp.

Thank you for posting this.

[swag]

7. That AP story is awful.

Some Lieberman media guy got a couple big "reporters" on the phone and gave them a chill-out-Saturday-night steno story.

[Nikki Stone 1]

8. What can we do about this?

Somehow, I think emailing the NYTimes won't help. But, I'll do it if you think it can be of some good.