Comment Re:Interesting allegation... (Score 1) 837
It wasn't that a "dumbass Web master misquotes a speech" - the documents that were posted to the web were the press backgrounders and press releases that were sent from the White House to the media to encourage coverage of this story. Press releases provide both a ready-to-print (in the sender's opinion) story and a headline, in the hopes that the whole thing will be published "as is" in the media.
That's the primary goal of any press release - to get the sender's view published, preferrably with as few changes to the headline or text as possible. So what's sent out is the precise message that the sender (be it the government, a celebrity, a company or some other entity) wants to have publicized, and any such releases are going to be carefully reviewed and approved before they're go anywhere. The website then posts a copy of the press release/backgrounder document, as an archive of what was sent.
After the President's Air Carrier stunt earlier this year, the White House sent out press releases/backgrounders with a headline and story saying that the President had declared "combat operations" had ended in Iraq. It was a very widely reported story in May, and just about everywhere it was printed or broadcast, the "combat operations" phrasing was used instead of "major combat operations". Even the GOP's own site had it listed as "combat operations" at the time.
Even though the "combat operations" phrasing was being widely used, no one from the White House tried to correct it, no one issued a statement that it should, instead, be "major combat operations" or anything else to indicate that there might be any misunderstanding about the phrasing.
By August, however, there were a lot of questions starting to be asked about how the situation in Iraq was going and why there were still so many attacks and so forth. During a press conference, a reporter asked President Bush about his having declared "combat operations" over, and Bush corrected him, pointing out he had said "major combat operations". It was immediately after that incident that the White House went back through the posting of the press releases/backgrounders on the site and changed the headlines and story text to now read "major combat operations" rather than "combat operations". This means, though, that the copies posted at the website no longer accurately reflect what was sent to the media, even though they're still labeled as being the press release or backgrounder that was sent out, and there's no notation that a change was ever made. As a result, to anyone who's not aware of what happened, it looks like what the White House sent out had ORIGINALLY said "major combat operations", not "combat operations".
This makes it MUCH easier for the administration to claim that the PRESS misrepresented what the President had said, instead of making it clear that the press was following the White House's lead in shortening the phrasing of the quote.
That's the primary goal of any press release - to get the sender's view published, preferrably with as few changes to the headline or text as possible. So what's sent out is the precise message that the sender (be it the government, a celebrity, a company or some other entity) wants to have publicized, and any such releases are going to be carefully reviewed and approved before they're go anywhere. The website then posts a copy of the press release/backgrounder document, as an archive of what was sent.
After the President's Air Carrier stunt earlier this year, the White House sent out press releases/backgrounders with a headline and story saying that the President had declared "combat operations" had ended in Iraq. It was a very widely reported story in May, and just about everywhere it was printed or broadcast, the "combat operations" phrasing was used instead of "major combat operations". Even the GOP's own site had it listed as "combat operations" at the time.
Even though the "combat operations" phrasing was being widely used, no one from the White House tried to correct it, no one issued a statement that it should, instead, be "major combat operations" or anything else to indicate that there might be any misunderstanding about the phrasing.
By August, however, there were a lot of questions starting to be asked about how the situation in Iraq was going and why there were still so many attacks and so forth. During a press conference, a reporter asked President Bush about his having declared "combat operations" over, and Bush corrected him, pointing out he had said "major combat operations". It was immediately after that incident that the White House went back through the posting of the press releases/backgrounders on the site and changed the headlines and story text to now read "major combat operations" rather than "combat operations". This means, though, that the copies posted at the website no longer accurately reflect what was sent to the media, even though they're still labeled as being the press release or backgrounder that was sent out, and there's no notation that a change was ever made. As a result, to anyone who's not aware of what happened, it looks like what the White House sent out had ORIGINALLY said "major combat operations", not "combat operations".
This makes it MUCH easier for the administration to claim that the PRESS misrepresented what the President had said, instead of making it clear that the press was following the White House's lead in shortening the phrasing of the quote.
