Facts is Facts

We all, as human beings, make mistakes. Journalists, too. Including me, of course. And when that happens, the record should be corrected.

I bring this up not just because our friends at NBC are mis-reporting (LINK) the excellent reporting of our ABC News colleagues Jan Crawford Greenburg and Ariane DeVogue (LINK).

I bring it up because sometimes this mis-reporting has consequences. Public figures expect that we’re getting our facts right, and they react accordingly.

Case in point: when the AP reported that Rudy Giuliani had joked that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were discussing whether or not to invite Osama bin Laden to the White House.

That is not what Rudy said.

And hence, this correction:

"LONDONDERRY, N.H. (AP) — In an Oct. 29 story about Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani criticizing Democrats on Middle Eastern policy, The Associated Press erroneously reported Giuliani’s mention of Syrian President Bashar Assad as a reference to Osama bin Laden.

"Giuliani said: ‘This is the world we live in. It’s not this happy, romantic-like world where we’ll negotiate with this one, or we’ll negotiate with that one and there will be no preconditions, and we’ll invite (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad to the White House, we’ll invite (Syrian President Bashar) Assad to the White House.’"

Yikes. Obama, not surprisingly, had reacted angrily to the quote when the world still thought Rudy had made a reference to bin Laden.

And now we have the example of whether earlier in the week former President Bill Clinton had implied Democrats were "Swift-boating" his wife.

That’s how it was reported (LINK):

And thus, Obama said, " was pretty stunned by that statement….How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody’s military record is a reach."

And Chris Dodd called the comments "outrageous."

But here’s the full text of the relevant part of Bill Clinton’s remarks Monday night in Las Vegas. Read the whole thing and tell me if you think he was saying that Hillary’s rivals were Swift-boating her:

"The point I’m here to make to you is whoever you’re for, this is a really big election. We saw what happened the last seven years when we made decisions in elections based on trivial matters. When we listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff.

"And when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he’d done in his life. When that scandalous Swift Boat ad was run against Senator Kerry. When there was an ad that defeated Max Cleland in Georgia, a man that left half his body in Vietnam. And a guy that led several departments… with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden because he dared to vote against the president’s version of the Homeland Security bill. Most Americans still don’t know the truth. The president was against the Homeland Security Bill for 8 1/2 months. And Karl Rove told him they were going to lose the 2002 election unless the American people were scared about terror again. So they decided to be for a bill they opposed. And they put a poison pill in it. That bill was designed by the president to take the job rights away from 170,000 federal employees that had no access to secure information, no access to secure technology. No business being treated like CIA. We need to be able to fire CIAs. .. But we don’t need to treat secretaries at FEMA that way. The whole thing was a scam.

"So Max Cleland said, I didn’t go to Vietnam and leave one arm and two legs to come home and hold my job by stripping the job rights of 170,000 good, hardworking Americans. I don’t want to do it. So they put an ad on comparing him to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Why am I saying this?

"Because, I had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy land again. Ya’ll raise your hand if you’re for illegal immigrants getting a driver’s license. So, we then let the Republicans go ahead saying all the Democrats are against the rule of law.

"I think it’s fine to discuss immigration. We should. I believe immigration needs to be discussed. And it’s fine for Hillary and all the other Democrats to discuss Governor Spitzer’s plan. But not in 30 seconds, yes, no, raise your hand. This is a complicated issue. This is a complicated issue.

"So do I hope you vote for my wife? You bet I do. It’d be good for America, and good for the world. But, more than that I came here to tell you today, don’t you dare let them take this election away from you. This belongs to you. Don’t be diverted, don’t be divided. Thank you."

Now, I disagree with Bill Clinton’s take on the debate. I don’t think it takes longer than 5 seconds, much less 30, to give a straight answer as to whether or not you support  illegal immigrants having drivers’ licenses, and I do think this issue says something larger about your attitude on this complex issue.

But that said, I don’t think he was saying Democrats were Swift-boating his wife. But what do you think?

– jpt