In the article “Andrew Breitbart’s Video ‘Evidence’ Of Lying Congressmen Is Anything But” published August 6th at Mediaite, author Tommy Christopher makes a number of factual errors and unverifiable claims that ought to be corrected or clarified.  The problematic sentences are identified in block quotes with explanations of the errors beneath each quote:

Earlier this week, conservative media figure Andrew Breitbart seized upon a New York Times story correction as proof that Civil Rights hero John Lewis (D-Ga) and others were “lying” when they claimed that a crowd of protesters had hurled the “n-word” at them as they walked to the Capitol to vote on health care reform.

Breitbart did not accuse John Lewis of lying in his Big Journalism post; in fact, the only reference to Lewis at all comes by way of a quote from the New York Times correction. Breitbart did, however, accuse Rep. Andre Carson of lying: “Which [media outlet] will be the first to admit that Congressman Carson lied about the events of that day?”

…its important to go over the other evidence that the incident did occur, at least as told by the corroborating testimony of three credible eyewitnesses. In a court of law, that’s called evidence.

There is only one corroborating witness, not three.  Rep. John Lewis has never gone on record saying he heard the n-word used at this event.  Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said he heard racial slurs like “a chorus” as he walked a “few yards behind” Rep. Lewis, but video evidence proves Cleaver was not walking to the Capitol with Lewis and Carson when the events in question occurred. (more…)

This last Sunday on ABC’s This Week, round-table contributor Cokie Roberts said the following:

There was racism that came up during the health care debate with the vilification of John Lewis at the Capitol.

BigGovernment.com has posted numerous videos proving that no racial vilification of Rep. John Lewis occurred at the Capitol during the health care debate.

We kindly request that Cokie Roberts correct the record.

In the Associated Press article “GOP invites blogger Breitbart to fundraiser” published yesterday, the AP states:

Breitbart was behind an edited video clip of a former Department of Agriculture official that suggested Shirley Sherrod, who is black, denied a white farmer aid. The speech, when viewed in full, shows the opposite.

The written report authored by Breitbart that accompanied the aforementioned video acknowledges that her “humanity” did compel her to help the white farmer:

Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help. But she decides that he should get help from “one of his own kind.” She refers him to a white lawyer.

The AP claims Breitbart suggested that Sherrod “denied a white farmer aid.”  His multimedia presentation, when viewed in full, shows the exact opposite. (more…)

A good faith search of the Media Matters for America website found that the term ”heavily edited” was used no less than 4 times in this article and 5 more times [captured in screen caps below the fold] to describe a video or videos that are not edited in any way whatsoever.

Both videos clearly represent full unedited excerpts of Sharon Sherrod’s speech before the NAACP.

To refer to full excerpts as “heavily edited” or even “edited” is misleading and not true.

We respectfully request that Media Matters For America correct the record.

(more…)

In Media Matters’ piece “Warning to the media: Breitbart bites the hand that feeds him” of June 2nd, the Senior Fellows falsely claim Andrew Breitbart “lashed out” at David Shuster (via a blog post at BigJournalism.com) after Breitbart had gone on the air for an interview with the MSNBC host.  Emphasis mine:

After a heated appearance on MSNBC, Breitbart accused David Shuster of tricking him into an appearance on the show and attacked Shuster’s objectivity. On January 28, following an interview about O’Keefe’s Louisiana arrest, Breitbart assailed host David Shuster for luring him “into this story based upon the false premise of his objective neutrality.”

Breitbart’s fisking of Shuster was posted online while the two were on the air together, not afterward.  Breitbart prepared the piece prior to going live with Shuster and in no way did the piece address the interview itself, just the events leading up to it.

The premise of Media Matter’s “Breitbart bites the hand that feeds him” piece is to demonstrate that Breitbart tends to report on the journalists to whom he grants interviews.  And why not?  We at BigJournalism are of the opinion that the media are frequently the message.  But whether or not you support MMFA’s thesis that Breitbart is mereley “lashing out” after interviews, the David Shuster example they reference is an invalid piece of evidence and should be omitted from a corrected version of the article.

We kindly request Media Matters for America issue a formal correction.

In the article “O’Keefe: ‘I’d do it again’,” published June 1st on CNN’s “Political Ticker,” it is alleged that James O’Keefe and three activist colleagues attempted to tamper with the phones in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans offices:

The conservative videographer who plead guilty to entering federal property under false pretenses following an attempt to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office phone system says that if given the chance, he’d do it again.

O’Keefe and company pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor crime of entering a federal building under false pretenses. As Patterico pointed out in a similar correction request to New York Magazine issued last week, “the government couldn’t prove that he attempted to tamper with the phones in Landrieu’s office — which is why the charges were reduced to the far less serious misdemeanor charge.”

We kindly ask CNN to issue a formal correction.

In an article published May 28th at CBSNews.com by Carlin DeGuerin Miller, it is twice alleged that James O’Keefe and three activist colleagues plead guilty to attempting to tamper with the phones in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans offices.  First, in the headline:

“James O’Keefe and Co. Plead Guilty to Tampering with Senator’s Phones”

And again in the body of the article:

O’Keefe and three  cohorts pleaded guilty Wednesday to dressing up as telephone repairmen in order to tamper with the phones in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office.

O’Keefe and company pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor crime of entering a federal building under false pretenses.  As Patterico pointed out in a similar correction request to New York Magazine issued yesterday, “the government couldn’t prove that he attempted to tamper with the phones in Landrieu’s office — which is why the charges were reduced to the far less serious misdemeanor charge.”

We kindly ask CBS News to issue a formal correction.

Over the past several months I have had the honor of being Big Journalism’s official Correction Alpaca.  I’ve requested over two dozen corrections at Big Journalism and many others on Big Hollywood, Twitter, and via email.  Some of the news organizations I’ve addressed have done their journalistic duty and set their respective records straight, while others have neglected to fulfill this journalistic responsibility.  Others still have delivered what Patterico refers to as “stealth corrections,” that is, where a post is corrected without formal acknowledgment by the publication that the public record had been amended. We acknowledge there is a time and place for this, but it’s done far, far, far too often in the internet age.

If you recall, my responsibilities as Correction Alpaca commenced in order to alert the blogosphere of the mainstream media’s culpability and ineptitude in its mostly incorrect reporting of the James O’Keefe caper at Senator Landrieu’s Louisiana office earlier this year.  As of Wednesday, this saga, dubbed “Watergate Jr.,” by MSNBC has come to an end, with O’Keefe pleading guilty to mere misdemeanor charges of entering federal property under false pretenses and getting a proverbial “slap on the wrist” sentence.

So, in memory of “Watergate Jr.,” I would like to draw your attention to these sites, which at the time of this publication, still have published unforced errors regarding the prank in New Orleans:

Newsweek
The Los Angeles Times
The Atlantic… (more…)

In the New Jersey Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk post “James O’Keefe, three others plead guilty in New Orleans senator phone prank” of May 26th, 2010, the writer says that James O’Keefe and three other conservative activists attempted to “wiretap” the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu:

O’Keefe, known for his stunt with ACORN while posing as a pimp, was involved in a scheme where two activists posed as telephone repairmen as they entered the office, attempting to wiretap it.

O’Keefe and company pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of entering federal property under false pretenses.  There were never any allegations of a wiretap plot in the FBI affidavit and a law enforcement official conceded months ago that the four men were not attempting to wiretap or intercept calls.  Despite all that, the reporter from the Star-Ledger makes a definitive and erroneous claim that the activists attempted to wiretap Landrieu’s phones.  What’s more, legal representation for the accused went on record in January, almost immediately after the arrest, stating there were no intentions to tap phones in the Senator’s office.

The bogus media meme that O’Keefe was trying to bug or wiretap a U.S. Senator was proven false four months ago.  We advise the Star-Ledger and its reporters to bring themselves up to speed on this story before they report on it further.

We respectfully ask the New Jersey Star-Ledger to issue a correction/retraction.

On March 20th, McClatchy (whose slogan is “Speak truth to power”) published an article called “Tea party protesters scream ‘nigger’ at black congressman.”  There are a number of factual errors and unverifiable claims in the piece that ought to be corrected and clarified.  The problematic sentences are identified in block quotes with explanations of the errors beneath each quote:

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said he was a few yards behind Lewis and distinctly heard “nigger.”

“It was a chorus,” Cleaver said. “In a way, I feel sorry for those people who are doing this nasty stuff – they’re being whipped up. I decided I wouldn’t be angry with any of them.”

Cleaver’s office said later in a statement that he’d also been spat upon and that Capitol Police had arrested his assailant. The statement praised the police, who Cleaver said escorted the members of Congress into the Capitol past the demonstrators.

As Larry O’Connor has demonstrated, there isn’t evidence to confirm that Cleaver was with Carson and Lewis when walking to the Capitol; they only walked together on the way back from it to the Cannon Office Building.  (more…)

There are no correction requests tonight. Instead, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to share with you, the Big Journalism readers, one of the very finset of my species. Lest you think alpacas’ skill set is confined to grazing, spitting, and collecting corrections from negligent media types, I would like to introduce you to Pisco, the Surfing Alpaca:

As my Executive Assistant often points out to me, when a story lands on your desk that appears too good to be true, it usually is. Case in point, E! Online’s article of March 3rd, “Sarah Palin and Grabby Entourage ‘Like Locusts’ at Oscar Gift Suite” by Ted Casablanca and Whitney English.  The background of the article is that Palin attended a pre-Oscars charity event put on by The Silver Spoon and the Red Cross to support disaster relief efforts in Haiti. E! chose not to properly vet the story and instead unleashed a mocking screed against Sarah Palin loaded with defamatory assertions that require immediate corrections.  The Silver Spoon responded to the misinformation spread by this article and others like it with detailed retraction requests.  Below are statements from E! Online’s article juxtaposed with text from the release from The Silver Spoon:

E! Online:

We’re told Palin was quite the prima donna and that she insisted the suite be opened two hours early so she could come when no looky-loos would be around.

Silver Spoon:

The governor arrived with a small group about 15 minutes prior to our store’s official opening; and upon arrival, she and her entire group gave generous donations to the cause. We offered to open early to accommodate her schedule; she did not ask us to open early. (more…)

**UPDATE: The New Republic issued the following correction:

This was corrected from an earlier version, which incorrectly stated that O’Keefe had to return to “prison.”

We thank them for their diligence.

In Lydia DePillis’s article “Bodacious? Xtremely!,” published February 21st in the The New Republic, Ms. DePillis falsely states that James O’Keefe had to return to prison after he left the CPAC conference this past weekend:

[Hannah] Giles was there to accept the first annual XPAC Award for Impact on behalf of her undercover partner, James O’Keefe, who made it to the conference but had to return to prison earlier that day.

O’Keefe was released from prison jail in January on a pretrial services “signature bond.”  He may travel within the state of New Jersey and out of state with permission from his pretrial services officer.  He did not “return to prison” after leaving CPAC, nor was he obliged to do so.

We kindly request the issuance of a formal correction.

We are requesting Keith Olbermann issue an on-air retraction to his repeated assertions that James O’Keefe required “permission from his parole officer” to attend CPAC in Washington, D.C.

Around :40 into the above video, Olbermann says:

O’Keefe accepting an award there, I kid you not, with permission from his parole officer, according to Politico. Trust the law and order party to check in with its parole officers.

Olbermann’s source, Politico.com, has since corrected the bogus claim that O’Keefe needed permission from a “parole office[r].”  Since Olbermann’s source has been discredited, Olbermann himself should correct the record as well.

Fast forward to about 4:00 into the clip and Olbermann has this to say to The Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel:

We’ll start with the law and order party, honoring the guy who needs to get his parole officer’s permission to attend.

The assiduous Patterico, who made a similar request of Olbermann last night, pointed out that this time, Olbermann neglected to source his false claim: “Note that, in the second passage, Olbermann does not attribute the claim to Politico, but makes it outright. Meaning he owns this falsehood and has an independent duty to retract it.”

(more…)

Update: Politico corrected this piece and issued the following statement:

CORRECTION: This story was altered to reflect that O’Keefe and Basel are on pre-trial release, not probation or parole, as was stated in an earlier version.

We thank them for their diligence.

**

In Kenneth P. Vogel’s piece “James O’Keefe says next video ‘ready to go,’” published by Politico on February 18th, there are a number of factual errors that ought to be corrected.  The problematic sentences are identified in block quotes with explanations of the errors beneath each quote:

O’Keefe – who had to get permission from his parole office to attend CPAC – told POLITICO he wasn’t sure if the terms of his probation would allow him to remain in Washington to accept the award or would require him to return to his parents’ home in New Jersey.

There are multiple problems in this sentence.  First, Mr. O’Keefe did not need “permission from his parole office to attend CPAC,” as he has never been paroled.  We’re not sure Mr. Vogel meant “parole office” or “parole officer” (the latter makes more sense since O’Keefe does not own or operate a New Jersey parole office), but the claim is factually inaccurate either way.   The lead entry for the word “parole” at dictionary.com is, “the conditional release of a person from prison prior to the end of the maximum sentence imposed.” In other words, in order to be paroled, one must first be convicted and sentenced.  Mr. O’Keefe, of course, is still pending trial.  In a statement to BigJournalism.com, Mr. O’Keefe said he was granted permission to attend CPAC from a “pretrial services officer” from the New Jersey Pre-Trial Services Agency.  The role of the officer assigned to him is to “investigate defendants who are charged with federal crimes and awaiting a court hearing.”  The operative word being “charged.”  Politico’s characterization of Mr. O’Keefe implies a conviction. (more…)

It’s hard to believe this mistake is still being made.  Actually, it isn’t that hard.:

In the column “CPAC Goes For X Factor With Young Conservatives” of February 19, 2010, David Gauvey Herbert of the National Journal refers to a wiretapping plot by James O’Keefe at the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu:

Conservatives who celebrated O’Keefe after that takedown distanced themselves from him after he was arrested Jan. 25 in an attempted wiretapping scheme at the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

There are no allegations of any “wiretapping scheme” plot in the the FBI affidavit that was released nearly a month ago, which your reporters could have easily consulted in numerous places. Also, a law enforcement official has conceded that the four men were not attempting to wiretap or intercept calls.  Furthermore, legal representation for the accused has gone on record stating there were no intentions to bug the phones in the Senator’s office.

We kindly ask you to issue a correction/retraction to the story.

We have made similar requests of numerous news sources to correct similar errors. The Washington Post, MSNBC’s David Shuster, Talking Points Memo, CBS News, the Associated Press, Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic and TIME, among others, have already posted corrections or retractions.

No commentary necessary.  But go ahead anyway:

Sing along here.

“Retracto”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Credits:
Shelli Eaton- Lead vocals
Michael Broderick – Lead guitar, background vocals
Gary Eaton – Guitar, bass, drums, tambourine, background vocals
Retracto - Vocals
Music and lyrics by Gary Eaton

Retracto

The ass says he doesn’t have a horse in this race
But Retracto knows he does now he’s got egg on his face
The donkeys on the left got owned by a kid
They can say it was a crime but Retracto knows what he did

Retracto
The Correction Alpaca
Retracto
He’s comin’ at ya (more…)

Whenever one respectable media outlet publishes lies, misinformation, and distortions, an inevitable consequence is that other sites pick up the bogus story, repeat the false or unproven facts, and attribute them to the original source.  The original source is the tentpole, and if it’s broken, the entire edifice crumbles.  Or does it?

Do the writers and publications who merely quoted from the original article have plausible deniability and are thus free from guilt when the truth is fleshed out?  Are they are off the hook entirely?  Just because these sources can shift blame, does it mean they aren’t responsible for what is published on their pages and site?  If the information they publish is later proven to have no factual basis, retractions are still necessary.

All of the sites listed below point to Max Blumenthal’s Salon.com piece as a primary source.  It would be excessive to hash out the individual errors in each because all have been thoroughly documented here in our retraction request to Salon:

Gawker’s Alex Pareene writes a column “James O’Keefe Pals Around with White Supremacists.”

In the Newark Star-Ledger: “Fake ACORN Pimp Tied To White Supremacists,” by author John D. Atlas.

(more…)

Just a couple of hours ago, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs issued an update to his post “James O’Keefe’s Race Problems” of February 3rd,  which had spread the lie that James O’Keefe attended a “white nationalist convention” (Johnson diligently sourced this characterization of the “Race and Conservatism” debate to the website, One People’s Project).  To his credit, Johnson demands in his update that One People’s Project put up an uncropped picutre of O’Keefe “manning a table of racist literature” or shut up:

More importantly, it’s now incumbent on One People’s Project to put up the goods if they have them. They should release an uncropped version of the picture they said shows O’Keefe manning a table of racist literature, or they should retract that claim because they can’t prove it.

But earlier in the post, Mr. Johnson declares that it was incorrect for Dave Weigel to attribute the phrase “white nationalist conference” to him:

True, Mr. Johnson, but these are also your exact words:

While it is true Mr. Johnson did not use the precise phrase “white nationalist convention” as was noted in Weigel’s article, he said something very similar in the comments of his blog. In this case, Mr. Johnson does not attribute his claim that O’Keefe attended a “meeting of white nationalists” to anyone. (more…)