Lies from the AP
Updated below
This morning the AP reports, “Democrats Delay Gonzalez Testimony”
Senate Democrats postponed on Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ first chance to testify in his own defense over the firings of eight federal prosecutors.
The decision to shelve next week’s Senate Appropriations hearing frustrated the White House, which wants Gonzales to quickly give lawmakers his side of the story amid calls for his resignation.
This is a false statement. It is a demonstrably false statement. The writer is either lazy or has an agenda. I know this because on April 4, 2007, Patrick Leahy sent a letter to Gonzalez that is available at Talking Points Memo (and at Pat Leahy’s site) for anyone who’s interested in accurate reporting.
In theVERY FIRST PARAGRAPH Leahy writes,
Dear Attorney General Gonzales:
You have agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 17, 2007. As you will recall, my staff had suggested earlier dates, in March and earlier in April, but you had declined those offers and suggested the 17th. The Committee set the hearing for that date to accommodate you.
You may remember Lara Jakes Jordan: she’s the ace reporter who uncovered the school bus jihad plot that didn’t exist. She’s also the reporter who introduced us to Rick Santorum’s man-on-dog fetish (that turned out to exist), which earned her a lot of attacks from the right.
I’m going to assume this is laziness on Jordan’s part, but it’s an insidious kind of laziness that botches facts. Will Jordan issue a retraction like I did yesterday? Doubtful.
Update I spoke to Ms. Jordan this afternoon. Interesting conversation. First off, she said I was confused. I guess I am confused, considering she argued in the article that Gonzales’ appearance before the Appropriations committee “postponed on Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ first chance to testify in his own defense over the firings of eight federal prosecutors.” But that’s not exactly why AbuGonzo was appearing before Appropriations: it’s for a Budget hearing, as Mikulski states. “It would be very difficult in this environment to give the department’s budget request the attention it deserves until the Senate has examined the department’s leadership failures.” The reason for appearance is misrepresented. Furthermore, the article said nothing about the fact that the reason for the cancellation was because DoJ refused to turn over thousands of document related to the attorney purge scandal. As leahy’s spokeswoman said, “Senator Leahy can certainly understand why Senator Mikulski did not want the attorney general to turn an important appropriations hearing on the department’s budget priorities into a trial run for his appearance before the Judiciary Committee”.
So yes, perhaps I was confused since Jordan equated Gonzo’s budget request to Appropriations with his testimony to the Judiciary. Silly me.
After explaining to me that I had misread this article (and upon review I hadn’t), she expressed her concern that I might call into question her accuracy. When I responded that the past 6 years have given people plenty of reason to be skeptical, she got huffy.
When I offered the example of Judy Miller, the media’s failure on WMD, Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch, she started berating me telling that she’s not responsible for others’ mistakes. I agreed, and said “would you like some examples from the AP?” and mentioned the “school bus terrorist plot that wasn’t” (Jordan herself wrote that one, but I didn’t name names). I didn’t even think to mention John Solomon.
And man, did she get angry. “Fine, fine. You have every right to call and criticize and say whatever you want. Fine, you do that, cus y’know if you’re reading I have a job ok, fine!”
And then she hung up. And I wasn’t even being a dick: I was totally polite, well-spoken, etc.
I think Glenn Greenwald was right on the money.
I’m sorry if it makes you angry that I don’t trust you Ms. Jordan, but the media’s record, including that of your employers, is not one that inspires unquestioned faith.
3 Responses to “Lies from the AP”
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April 7th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
heh well she said so herself…what matters is that she has a job.
along the same lines with the lies of the media, here’s a great example from duncan:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_atrios_archive.html#117595681241609223
April 7th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Good for you Brendan and good for us that we have someone like you ta give em’ hell. I’m doing a snoopy dance right now and confetti is falling from the ceiling.
April 8th, 2007 at 7:49 am
That story is so fucking slanted I almost fell off my chair trying to digest that loaded lead paragraph. Media-induced vertigo. Nothing less. And you should copyright “AbuGonzo”. Genius.