Fox News altered 'Obama praise' story to exclude 'death threats'
rawstory.com
In a story about a group of elementary school kids who sang the praises of President Barack Obama for a Black History Month event, Fox News appears to have removed key information regarding the fallout triggered by intense right-wing media coverage.
The story, titled "Elementary School Students Taught to Sing Praises of President Obama" (live link), opens with these three paragraphs:
The superintendent of a New Jersey school where students were videotaped being taught to sing the praises of President Obama issued a statement Thursday saying the taping was unauthorized, but failed to address whether the the lesson -- taught durnig [sic] Black History Month -- was approved.
A YouTube video shows nearly 20 young children being led in a song overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," repeatedly chanting the president's name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his "great plans" to "make this country's economy No. 1 again."
The video has set off families in Burlington, N.J., who say that politics shouldn't be forced on young students.
The credited author on that URL is "FoxNews.com," although a tag under the text reads, "FOX News' Michael Sorrentino contributed to this report."
But, that's not how it read when we first saw it.
At the very same URL linked above, a prior version told a very different and much longer story. Here's how it began, with emphasis added (cache link):
Some parents in a New Jersey school district are up in arms after a class of elementary school students was videotaped singing the praises of President Obama, an activity that has been criticized as "indoctrination."
The tension at B. Bernice Young Elementary School escalated to such a degree Thursday that the school was placed temporarily on lockdown after its principal received death threats over a YouTube video that showed nearly 20 children being taught songs lauding the president, though back-to-school night events continuing as planned Thursday night at the school.
Video of the students at the Burlington, N.J., school shows them singing songs seemingly overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," repeatedly chanting the president's name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his "great plans" to "make this country's economy No. 1 again."
Clearly, information about death threats leveled against the school's principal, and the school's "lockdown" response following wide exposure among right-wing media, were removed.
When RAW STORY stumbled across this significant edit, no school officials were available to confirm the threats. A follow-up is planned during business hours.
The story also appears to be significantly shortened and comments by one of the kids' mothers, who took an opinion contrary to others expressing outrage, were deleted outright. Paragraphs nine through 11 in the first published version read:
But Andrea Ciemnolonski, the parent of another one of the students in the video, said the song was part of a second-grade project on a variety of topics related to the month of February, such as Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents Day.
"They did songs about President Washington, Lincoln, and they did do one about President Obama," Ciemnolonski said. "My daughter was in the class that did the songs about Obama. It was black history month. ... It was something for the kids to celebrate."
Ciemnolonski said she "just can't look at it as indoctrination," though she added, "The comparisons made were a little exuberant."
The first published version, as saved by Google, also credits "FoxNews.com" as the story's author, but a tag mentions two contributors instead of one: FoxNews.com writer Cristina Corbin and Fox News contributor Michael Sorrentino.
Furthermore, Google's search pages shows the very same result, as illustrated in the image below.
Click for larger version.
This discovery would seem to lend weight to a number of questions, which this writer will be following up on in the morning ...
Who edited this piece? Why was FoxNews.com writer Cristina Corbin's credit removed? Did the principal really receive death threats, or was that inclusion in the second paragraph erroneous? And perhaps most important, why would an allegedly "fair and balanced" media organization censor highly relevant comments offering a contrasting opinion?
-- Stephen C. Webster
Ron Brynaert contributed to this report.
Updated from a prior version.
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. |
