Sunday, January 30, 2011

Politico makes things up, blames Reno reporter

A tangled web indeed
*
Politico has been making things up about Sarah Palin again:
Palin’s putting the safety catch on her references to weapons in the wake of Rep. Giffords's shooting.

Her speech last night to the Safari Club in Reno was closed press, but thanks to the Reno Gazette-Journal's David Jacobs putting his ear to a closed door, we’re hearing the former Alaska governor’s new line.

Palin dropped the "reload" phrase from her routine, telling the audience of hunters "don't retreat, stand tall" — a shift from her now infamous and well-known "don't retreat, reload" line that played on a loop on cable in the after the Tucson shooting.

In the wake of the tragedy, Palin came under attack for having put Giffords's district in crosshairs on her website.
Andy Barr wrote the brief article from which the excerpt above was taken. Notice that Politico makes the assumption, based on what another reporter wrote after trying to listen to Gov. Palin's address through a closed door, that the Mama Grizzy had somehow been forced to retreat from her often used "Don't retreat, just reload" phrase. Barr or his editors had titled his piece "Palin retreats, won't reload", and published it on Politico's website.

But SarahPAC's Rebecca Mansour wouldn't let Politico get away with making things up, and she showed just how unfounded was the website's assumption when she tweeted:
For the record, this story is inaccurate http://j.mp/h5g5xG Yesterday in Reno Gov. Palin did say her trademark line "Don't retreat, reload."
Politico quickly scrubbed Barr's article and then posted a rewrite to the original story's url:
Palin’s firing back after a Nevada newspaper reported she put a muzzle on her trademark "Don't retreat, reload!!" phrase in the wake of Rep. Giffords's shooting.

Her speech last night to the Safari Club in Reno was closed press, but the Reno Gazette-Journal's David Jacobs put his ear to a closed door.

He reported Palin dropped the "reload" phrase from her routine, telling the audience of hunters "don't retreat, stand tall" — a shift from her now infamous and well-known "don't retreat, reload" line that played on a loop on cable in the after the Tucson shooting.

But Palin aide Rebecca Mansour denied that the former governor dropped the line, suggested to her by her father.

"The governor actually did use the phrase 'Don't retreat, reload,'" Mansour told POLITICO in an email. "She also said, 'Don't retreat, stand tall.'"

"Her father, Chuck Heath, was present at the speech yesterday, and the crowd cheered when she pointed to her Dad and repeated this favorite saying of his," the aide added.
The rewritten article is titled "Palin retreat? She's reloading," and Poltico never printed a retraction or an apology. Politico's editors instead are trying to put the blame on the Reno Gazette Journal's David Jacobs. But here's what Jacobs wrote:
“Don’t retreat, stand tall,” Palin told the crowd as she emphasized the importance of “responsible conservation.”
Jacobs never mentions in his article that Gov. Palin also said, "Don't retreat, reload" in her speech, but he also never implied that she didn't say it. There was no reason for Barr's editors to make that assumption, but make it they did. Why? Because Politico is also looking for an angle on a Palin story where Gov. Palin can be portrayed as inconsistent, weak, backing down, etc. In other words, any type of negative spin the leftist website can try to associate with the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, it will pursue.

Bad enough that Politico scrubbed the original article, but pointing a finger at a local reporter is really unprofessional, not to mention low down. We couldn't find a cache of the original Politico article, so thoroughly was the scrub job, but fortunately some newspapers and associated websites republish Politico news articles. One of those sites is Philly.com, where we found the original piece intact.

To paraphrase Sir Walter Scott, "Oh what a tangled web the media left weaves, for they always practise to deceive!"

- JP

No comments:

Post a Comment