CBS Edits Out McCain’s False Claim
Referring to Obama’s claim that the surge was not soleley responsibile for increased scurity in Iraq, McCain made the false claim that the surge began the Anbar Awakening, a term used to refer to the Sunnis coming on board to work with the coalition forces.
McCAIN: I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.
Crooks and Liars has the transcript that shows that instead of airing what McCain said, above, CBS edited into that answer audio from an earlier question:
Q1 Sen. Obama has indicated that by his failure to acknowledge the success of the surge, that he would rather lose a war than lose a campaign.
Meanwhile, McCain’s falsehood was edited out, and didn’t air as part of the CBS interview. CNN did, however, air the omitted footage, as Think Progress reports:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWy9-TgAwQw&eurl=http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/22/mccain-anbar-history/]
In April, 2007, the New York Times reported that the turnaround in Anbar had begun the previous fall, in September, 2006. The surge wasn’t announced until January, 2007.
This reminds me of the claim this war is just a continuation of the first Gulf War. Not sure why, but it does.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
http://www.newswithviews.com/DeWeese/tom114.htm
Do we really need this now? My opinion is that we need to stop this, not increase it.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Wait a minute! Didn’t Sean Hannity whine yesterday that the press is catering to Obama? What happened here? Looks like they gave grandpa a break.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Let’s hear Limbaugh and Hannity spin this one!
Lord, this is ridiculous. I have so much respect for John McCain you wouldn’t believe it. I really, really like him. But every week something pops up that illustrates that he is not a suitable POTUS. The man has got a lot of courage and endurance, and he really is an American Hero. He deserves our admiration for his service, but not our vote.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
btw, how did CNN get CBS’s video? maybe the guy who gave them this tape was working together with the guy who released O’Reilly’s WE’LL DO IT LIVE! tape.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Humm, so how do we know that this wasn’t set up by the Obama campaign to make the media look like its supporting McCain? Its obvious the media is biased towards Obama so I woudn’t put it past them.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
“…instead of airing what McCain said, above, CBS edited into that answer audio from an earlier question…”
Sounds deceitful and unethical and utterly indefensible, and nothing less than what I’d expect from a corporate entity where people are unfettered by a profound lack of conscience and answer only to the twin gods of greed and careerism.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I can’t believe anything that comes from Anderson Cooper, he’s another one in love with Obama. There are only 2 people on CNN who have any honesty, Lou Dobbs and Glen Beck.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Ok..He’s willing to say anything under the Sun to get votes..kinda sad to see this old guy just making mistakes on a topic that he called himself “the most experienced” at it.
Damn, that supposed to be his forte! So many bludders, week after week. That’s what you guys (McLame voters) want in the White House? That so called Hero…the guy that broke both his arms during ejection over Vietnam and the leg on landing? The guy that told so much stuff to the Vietnamese for fear of torture? The guy that the guards called him SingBBird McCain?
You voters got to open your eyes, for the love of Peace. I’m not worried about the election tho..I know Obama gonna win and win handily. It’s just that I’m thinking about the next day, when you, McCain voters, realize that you were such a minority that voted wrong!!!!
Just freaking wake up, Obama ain’t a Muslim, Obama has all his faculties running fine, Obama has common sense and he will make the US better, Don’t you want that too?
TC
Thank God I’m Canadian!!!
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
So much for Obama being the media darling. Good job CBS…
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I love Glenn Beck.. he has some courage on him.
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I love Glenn Beck.. he has some courage on him.
That explains why you’re such an idiot…
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Isn’t it time for you to fart or something?
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Glenn Beck is an bigot and an idiot. He makes Bill O’Reilly look like a genius. If CNN had any dignity, they would fire him.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 pm
It should be no suprise that the MSM always bends over backwards to accomodate Republicans.
There was a good article in Vanity Fair:
Going After Gore
THE MEDIA
by Evgenia Peretz October 2007
They started:
“Eight years ago, in the bastions of the “liberal media” that were supposed to love Gore—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN—he was variously described as “repellent,” “delusional,” a vote-rigger, a man who “lies like a rug,” “Pinocchio.” Eric Pooley, who covered him for Time magazine, says, “He brought out the creative-writing student in so many reporters.…
Everybody kind of let loose on the guy.”
“How did this happen? Was the right-wing attack machine so effective that it overwhelmed all competing messages?
Was Gore’s communications team outrageously inept? Were the liberal elite bending over backward to prove they weren’t so liberal?
In this case, two women at the most influential newspapers in the country:
Seelye from The New York Times and Ceci Connolly from The Washington Post.
A prominent Washington journalist describes them as “edgy, competitive, wanting to make their mark,” and adds that they “reinforced each other’s prejudices.”
“They just wanted to tear Gore apart,” says a major network correspondent on the trail.
On December 1, 1999, Connolly—and Seelye—misquoted Gore in a damning way.
Their error was picked up elsewhere and repeated, and snowballed into a political nightmare.
Gore was speaking to a group of students at Concord High School, in New Hampshire, about how young people could effect change. He described a letter he had received as a congressman in 1978 from a girl in Toone, Tennessee, about how her father and grandfather had gotten mysteriously ill. He had looked into the matter and found that the town was a toxic-waste site. He went on:
“I looked around the country for other sites like that. I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal. I had the first hearing on that issue and Toone, Tennessee.
“That was the one you didn’t hear of, but that was the one that started it all… It all happened because one high-school student got involved.”
Jill Hoffman, a high-school senior in the audience who was helping to film the event, says, “I remember thinking, I really, really like what he has to say.”
Now here’s the key:
“Connolly—and Seelye misquoted him, claiming he said, “I was the one that started it all,” instead of “that was the one that started it all.” The next day, Seelye offered a friendlier account of Gore’s visit to the school. Connolly repeated the misquote.”
They go on to say that the teacher sent the video to the papers, and they printed a correction…. on pp. 20, after the lies had been on TV for a week.
And there are many more examples in this 7 page article.
Meanwhile.George Bush made it easy—he handed them a character on a plate. He had one slogan—compassionate conservatism.
He was also perceived to be fun to be with. For 18 months, he pinched cheeks, bowled with oranges in the aisles of his campaign plane, and playacted flight attendant.
For THIS we got Bush!
Then came John Kerry and the endless Swiftboat coverage.
I hope we have grown up.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
“Beck is a bigot”
Leftists seem to think that making your cliched assertions is the same thing as making an argument. It’s not. Your assertions are already known to everyone. We know that you think anyone who thinks differently than you is a bigot or racist or sexist or blah blah blah.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
So the point is that the liberal left wants the FACTS?
Now we all know the liberal left is handicapped when it comes to telling the truth, so this claim that McCain is wrong? Lets take it one step at a time and see if in fact McCain was wrong.
If it turns out that McCain was right?
Then what? Will the people saying this Anbar thing was an error, then be saying oops McCain was correct all the time?
Or will they be silent and move on to something else?
Its so amusing to hear the left pretend to be upset at the “FACTS” of something.
And as a historical pillar of unshakeable truth, you reference a New York Times article–about the war??? The NYTimes is clearly the MOST unreliable entity that exists in the entire known universe. That is to say, as an entity that outputs information and distributes it, for the amount of information they gather and publish per hour, the trustworthiness of their information is so extremely unreliable they simply cannot be taken seriously.
So if you are going to compare something the GOP candidate has said as it relates to the war, to some historical event? The comparison has to be done with an interest in the actual truth.
The NYTimes and CNN and CBS and NBC and ABC are fully immersed in trying to get Hussein Obama elected, yellow journalism, something that used to be offensive? is typical order of business, ho hum. They do not embrace ethics (whats that?) so whatever gets ‘printed’ is arbitrary.
The issue is a timeline. McCain is talking and describing a timeline. Is his timeline ACCURATE?
Alan you cannot simply quote a biased NYT article, and a biased anti GOP hate group come on thats not how a truthseeker General would seek the truth.
Does Lt Col Oliver North and/or Geraldo Rivera of Foxnews have a statement about this?
Geraldo supported the Clintons, for crine out loud.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:27 am
OldLefty,
Several days in the Middle East is all this Muslim liar needs to conduct our world affairs? You’re willing to bet our nations security and future on this smooth talking heap of dung? Liberals have always made an effort to appear as though they can recognize political rhetoric. Shoot. Even a Muslim has you bamboozled OldLefty.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:14 am
The Conservative,
I have no idea who is “this Muslim liar” is, or what it has to do with pro Republican bias in the media.
I hate this childish name calling, but when you say,
” You’re willing to bet our nations security and future on this smooth talking heap of dung? ”
I can’t see it as being even POSSIBLE that ANYONE can say such a thing after 8 years of Bush/Cheney.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:40 am
>I can’t see it as being even POSSIBLE that ANYONE can say such a thing after 8 years of Bush/Cheney.
bzzt.. invalid logic. Non sequitur
July 24th, 2008 at 8:45 am
OldLefty,
Of course you don’t. How well you justify my point.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Yep,
You just tell yourself whatever you need too.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Obama grew up Muslim, but is no longer practices Islam.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Giovanni,
Your reasoning is just what the Muslim ordered. I’m sure he’s laughing.
July 24th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
OldLefty,
If this antichrist (Obama) gets elected you’ll be the first to begin the whining and complaining during the first year that your taxes begin to rise. Take that to the bank unless you’ve got a tidy undisclosed sum to hold out on. Somehow, I doubt that your expertise is within the realm of financial planning. Do I have that right OldLefty?
July 24th, 2008 at 7:05 pm