Galley Slaves: Booing the AP

Friday, September 03, 2004

Booing the AP

When the AP story about a Republican crowd booing President Bush's well-wishes for Bill Clinton first broke at 2:12 p.m., the story carried the byline of Tom Hays. After coming under fire, the AP pulled the story down. The original link now brings you to a dead page.

After a brief interlude, the AP reposted the story, minus the claims that the crowd had booed Clinton's heart scare. The revised story is here. It carries the time stamp of 2:31 p.m. and, curiously, no byline. It also carried no mention of the story's previous version, nor any mark that the new version is indeed a revision. (For those looking for it, there was one tell-tale sign in the AP's URL: The URL for the first version ended in "bush_clinton_1", while the URL for the second version ends "bush_clinton_2".)

So the AP: (1) Puts out a story with falsified reporting; (2) Pulls the story; (3) Removes the faulty reporting; (4) Makes no note of its mistake; and then (5) Pulls the byline of the reporter who made the error. If you were going to impute bad faith to the folks at AP--and at this point that's not unreasonable to do--you might suspect that they have pulled Tom Hays's byline to protect him.

Behold the power of Lexis-Nexis. The AP was able to cover their tracks on the web, but Lexis-Nexis keeps all versions of stories which carry different time-stamps. The Hays original is preserved there in its entirety:

September 3, 2004 Friday 2:12 PM Eastern Time
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NEWS

LENGTH: 649 words

HEADLINE: Bill Clinton hospitalized with chest pains, will face bypass surgery

BYLINE: TOM HAYS; Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: NEW YORK

Former President Bill Clinton checked into a Manhattan hospital Friday with chest pains and will soon undergo bypass surgery, his office announced.

An angiogram given to Clinton revealed "significant blockage," said a Democratic official, who had discussed the condition with the former president's staff and spoke on condition of anonymity. It did not appear that Clinton suffered a heart attack, the official said.

Clinton, 58, was admitted to New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia after undergoing initial testing near his suburban home, his office said. Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea, were to be with the president in the city, the statement said.

Clinton canceled a two-day joint trip with his wife across upstate New York.

Sen. Clinton made a brief appearance Friday at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, after which she noted that her husband was hospitalized and would need heart surgery, and apologized for leaving right away. "He's in excellent hands," she said.

Dozens of reporters and camera crews were assembled outside the city hospital, which is north of Clinton's Harlem office. Hospital officials had no immediate comment.

There was no word on when the surgery would take place. A source speaking on condition of anonymity said the surgery was not likely to take place Friday, but instead at a later date.

In Little Rock, Arkansas, Clinton's mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, said Clinton had called her to tell her about the situation.

"He sounded wonderful as usual and very upbeat, as he always is," she said. "I just told him how much I love him."

She said she didn't know if he was in the hospital when he called.

Clinton had a cancerous growth removed from his back shortly after leaving office in early 2001. It turned out to be basal cell carcinoma, the most treatable form of skin cancer. In 1996, he had had a precancerous lesion removed from his nose and a year before that had a benign cyst taken off his chest.

Other than that, Clinton has had the normal health problems that often accompany aging - periods of slightly elevated cholesterol and hearing loss - and an appetite for junk food. In 1997, he was fitted with hearing aids. He has also suffered from allergies.

Clinton went to Northern Westchester Hospital on Thursday after suffering "mild chest pain" and shortness of breath, his office said in a statement. He spent the night at his Chappaqua home, but checked into the Manhattan hospital after further tests Friday revealed the medical problem.

"He's going to be fine," Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said at a rally in Newark, Ohio.

"But every single one of us wants to extend to him our best wishes, our prayers and our thoughts and I want you all to let a cheer out and clap that he can hear all the way to New York," Kerry said to cheers. Clinton had been expected to campaign extensively for Kerry.

President George W. Bush, campaigning in Wisconsin, wished Clinton "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."

"He's is in our thoughts and prayers," Bush said. Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wisconsin, booed. Bush did nothing to stop them.

In June, a Clinton spokesman characterized the ex-president as "doing very well" health-wise. The 42nd president has struggled with a weight problem, but had recently seemed much leaner at public appearances.

During his two terms as president, Clinton was known for his love of fast food. But in January of this year, Clinton said he had gone on "The South Beach Diet" and started a workout regimen.

Clinton has led an active lifestyle since leaving office. Most recently, he was on the road plugging his memoirs, "My Life."

Associated Press writers Ron Fournier and Frank Eltman in New York, David Hammer in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Marc Humbert in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.

The next nugget on the Lexis-Nexis trail is a shortened, corrected, un-bylined version of the story that is time-stamped 2:41 p.m.:

September 3, 2004 Friday 2:41 PM Eastern Time
SECTION: NATIONAL POLITICAL NEWS

LENGTH: 118 words

HEADLINE: Bush Offers Best Wishes for Clinton

DATELINE: WEST ALLIS, Wis.

President Bush on Friday offered former President Bill Clinton, who faces heart bypass surgery, "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery."

"He's is in our thoughts and prayers," Bush said at a campaign rally.

Bush offered his wishes while campaigning one day after accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in New York. Clinton was hospitalized in New York after complaining of mild chest pain and shortness of breath.

Bush recently praised Clinton when the former president went to the White House for the unveiling of his official portrait. He lauded Clinton for his knowledge, compassion and "the forward-looking spirit that Americans like in a president."

So what's going on here? Was Hays in Wisconsin reporting, or in New York? What role did Ron Fournier, Frank Eltman, David Hammer, and Marc Humbert have in this story? There are five reporters on the hook for this misreporting, surely one of them will want to clear their name.

P.S.: This is a fine time for Romenesko to be on vacation. Let's hope he digs into this story on Tuesday. Paging Howie Kurtz . . .

9:49 PM | posted by Jonathan V. Last Permalink

Mr. T. Lee Hughes
Bureau Chief
Associated Press (NS-310V)
Milwaukee

918 N 4th St
Milwaukee, WI 53203-1506

Media Phone Number: (414) 225-3580
Media Fax Number: (414) 225-3599
Editor Email: tlhughes@ap.org

Posted by Anonymous | 10:39 PM

I hope this isn't a stupid question... I'm confused about Tom Hays' reporting out of NYC.

Would he have been listening to some sort of audio feed, or getting info from other AP guys? Might one of them still have been Lindlaw or Reichmann?

Posted by SarahW | 12:25 AM

Jonathan,
This story is actually worse than you describe. I believe that Mr. Hays appropriated the section about the "booing" incident in Wisconsin from an earlier AP report. At 13:57 (EDT assumed), an AP report with no byline appeared on the wires with the following headline: "Audience Boos as Bush Offers Best Wishes for Clinton's Recovery" (see full article below). This AP report went to literally hundreds of media outlets, including CBS News, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, WNBC and many others. In sum, the fabricated booing incident was the whole basis of the original AP story which ran under that outrageous headline. Someone at AP should definitely lose his/her job over this matter.

Audience boos as Bush offers best wishes for Clinton's recovery

By Associated Press, 9/3/2004 13:57

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) President Bush on Friday wished Bill Clinton ''best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery.''

''He's is in our thoughts and prayers,'' Bush said at a campaign rally.

Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wis., booed. Bush did nothing to stop them.

Bush offered his wishes while campaigning one day after accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in New York. Clinton was hospitalized in New York after complaining of mild chest pain and shortness of breath.

Bush recently praised Clinton when the former president went to the White House for the unveiling of his official portrait. He lauded Clinton for his knowledge, compassion and ''the forward-looking spirit that Americans like in a president.''

Gary
gmahon@yahoo.com

Posted by Anonymous | 1:38 AM

Jonathan,

Here's the link to the original AP report from boston.com which is the website for The Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/247/region/Audience_boos_as_Bush_offers_bP.shtml

Posted by Anonymous | 1:44 AM

Jonathan,

I forgot to add. Notice the title of the boston.com link: Audience.boos.as.Bush ...

This shows that this fabricated incident was the SOLE reason for this story. As I posted above, this story went out to hundreds, if not thousands, of media outlets. Unbelievably outrageous.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:47 AM

Hi Guys,
You can drop him a line if you wish:

thays@ap.org

Posted by Anonymous | 7:51 AM

What a story! This is the kind of thing that would have made Pravda proud.

Perhaps there will be a follow-up story on a Kerry rally: "Thousands of Undecided Voters Swoon as They are Moved by Candidate's Soaring Oratory."

Below the headline the AP will write, "Candidate's first ever true account of harrowing mission to Cambodia inspires audience."

Congratulations AP! By the middle of next week you'll be a national punchline.

Posted by Dean Barnett | 7:53 AM

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

Posted by Anna | 3:28 PM

(Tried to edit a rebellious link, can't...)AP needs to have a "bad press" week, and fire more than one of their "Jayson Blair"s (post #218).

Posted by Anna | 3:35 PM

KWWL in Iowa still has the story displayed.

I called Friday evening and emailed today, but no luck.

I've listed the station management with their names, phone numbers, and email addresses here:

http://state29.blogspot.com/2004/09/tell-kwwl-to-get-rid-of-false-story.html

Posted by Editor | 5:12 PM

Amazing! Now the Boston Globe story has changed its title to "Bush offers best wishes for Clinton's recovery" and the story body now says: "The crowd reacted with applause and with some "ooohs," apparently surprised by the news that Clinton was ill." There is no reference to boos, although the URL still contains the old title!

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/247/region/Audience_boos_as_Bush_offers_bP.shtml

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