A few days ago I posted an article to you by the NY Times that stated Blumenthal, who is running for the Senate out of CT, lied about his military service. At the time, I claimed the Dems finally had someone who lies like an R. It looks like I might have been wrong in that analysis. It now appears the NY Times overstated his comments, wronging him in the process:
The flaws in the NYT Blumenthal story
By Colin McEnroe on May 19, 2010 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
I think it may be appropriate for the New York Times public editor to look at the paper's initial Blumenthal bombshell story.
The whole article, as I have written before, seemed like weak journalism with very little meat on its bones. There was one "smoking gun" -- the Norwalk clip. The rest of the story relied heavily on implication and suggestion and the vague claim that the idea of Blumenthal's service in Vietnam was a widely accepted part of his "public biography."
Here are a few developments.
1. The AP now has the full video of the Norwalk speech. Elsewhere in that 2008 speech, writes Susan Haigh, Blumenthal describes his past accurately, saying he "served in the military during the Vietnam era." At minimum, New York Times reporter Raymond Hernandez should have included that detail in his story. This is, as I say, the big smoking gun in the story, and the Times failed to disclose that in that same speech, Blumenthal gave a more complete and accurate description of his service.
2. Jean Risley, the woman from the Connecticut Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the source of the Times quote about Blumenthal claiming to have been spat upon, says she was misquoted and that Blumenthal never made false claims to her about Vietnam. She appeared at Blumenthal's event yesterday.
3. The Times needs to resolve the discrepancy between the claim by the Linda McMahon campaign that they are the source of the Times story and Hernandez's repeated denials that this is true. It's an odd situation: to have someone claiming to be a journalistic source while the reporter tries to avoid talking about it. It usually cuts the other way. This issue tracks back to issue #1. Did Hernandez fail to include the full context of Blumenthal's 2008 remarks because he had only the video provided by the McMahon campaign -- they say they're the ones who gave it to him -- and therefore saw only what they wanted him to see?
4.The Times did not merely claim that Blumenthal was trafficking in falsehoods. The original story said that Blumenthal has been so consistently misleading that the idea of his service in Vietnam had become a widely accepted part of his public persona.
So I asked reporters, anchors and columnists to tell me (a) whether they could remember Blumenthal ever claiming to have served in Vietnam and (b) whether they had been under the impression for whatever reason, that Blumenthal had served in Vietnam. Here are the answers so far.
Mark Pazniokas of the Connecticut Mirror, who may have covered Blumenthal more often than anybody else, referred me to his quote in an NPR national story: "Every time he talked about his military record, he was quite clear that he had been a military reservist and never came close to suggesting he was in Vietnam."
Greg Hladky of the Hartford Advocate, formerly of the New Haven Register and Bridgeport Post, right up there with Paz in Blumenthal coverage: "Never personally heard [Blumenthal] say he was in Vietnam. I knew he had been the the Marine Corps Reserve, talked about that briefly during interview for a profile I did recently, and he never mentioned being in Nam."
Daniela Altimari of the Courant: "I have not been covering Blumenthal for very long, but I do know that last month, when I asked his campaign about his military service, they said very clearly that he served during the Vietnam era but did not serve in a combat arena."
Duby McDowell, former WFSB political reporter: "I have always been under the impression that he was in the marine reserves."
Doug Dalena: "I covered Blumenthal a bit at the Stamford Advocate, and I went to at least one Veterans' Day event where he was the guest, and I don't recall him ever making that claim. In addition, in researching a lot of old clips back in late 2007/early 2008 when we thought he 'might' run for governor, I don't remember coming away with the impression that he had served in Vietnam or had claimed to. I remember sitting at the Alpert debate and hearing him clearly make the distinction that he served during the Vietnam War, but not in Vietnam."
Dennis House of WFSB: "As I reported ...on Eyewitness News I do not recall Richard Blumenthal ever saying to me that he served in Vietnam. Our computer archives date back to 1994, and my search of them also found no indication Blumenthal ever made that claim in front of an Eyewitness News camera. I should point out, not every sound bite is transcribed, so it is possible what a person said to us is not listed in the computer ...In conclusion, I do not recall Blumenthal ever saying he served in Vietnam and our archives do not indicate he ever said it to us. However we can't be 100% sure."
Ted Mann of the New London Day: "I checked our archive and discovered I've never quoted him saying that, and neither has anyone else at our paper since it started keeping its archives digitally a decade ago. Personally, I've never been under the impression he served in Vietnam."
David Owens, Hartford Courant, "I heard him say he was a Vietnam-era vet, but never say or suggest he was in Vietnam.I was surprised by that video. It's kind of funny that the anonymous commenters are bashing us in the press for not revealing this before. There was nothing to reveal."
Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant columnist: [Hasn't heard Blumenthal say he served in Vietnam] "I haven't been at many public events with Blumenthal. I was aware that he'd been a Marine. Given his age, I may have assumed that he had been in Vietnam. I have some vague recollection of wondering about this now and then when a public figure's service or avoidance of service in Vietnam erupted. It's only an impression prompted by your question, but I think I wondered at those times why he wasn't jumping into the controversy since he usually found that sort of thing irresistible. I was struck by Blumenthal's insertion of his service in a unit in New Haven during the March televised debate. It seemed like he was checking off a box of one of the things he intended to say in the debate, no matter what the questions. It was jarring, and I thought he might be trying to inoculate himself against the low murmurs that I'd heard some time before. "
There was one person who remembered things differently:
Bob MacDonnell: "I'm a former Hartford Courant photographer (1999-2009) and covered several of the many homecoming ceremonies for Connecticut troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. At each ceremony, Blumenthal gave essentially the same speech, recalling his negative experience after returning from Vietnam and being abandoned by the government and the public and then committing all manner of support to today's returning veterans and their families. While I cannot recall his exact words, my sense was he definitely implied that he served in Vietnam. I was very familiar with the AG, and like many news photogs, often worked very hard to get a photo that he did not appear in, but I was surprised to learn ... that he had not served in Vietnam based on what I heard him say at these events."
I realize that some readers will simply conclude that these journalists are either covering their asses for failing to report the story or are locked in a symbiotic relationship with Blumenthal or both. All I can say is that I know most them pretty well, and they're straight-up professionals, much more committed to solid reporting than to the cause of any candidate. Some of them included in their remarks a desire to evaluate further the relationship between press institutions and Blumenthal to see if some critical faculty was missing from the coverage.
But whatever mistakes any of us may have made, those are trumped by the overreaching by Raymond Hernandez and the New York Times in claiming that Blumenthal's fictional service in Vietnam had become a widely embraced trope. It's just not true here in Connecticut. Meanwhile, several aspects of that first story have crumpled a bit.
The Times weighed in the second day with a story in which Chris Shays volunteered himself as a "friend" who heard Blumenthal make false claims, although Shays's recollections appear to be tied to no time, place or specific event. The story is a real mishmash, mixing Shays's vague impressions with a little psychological, professorial speculation and glowing reports from veterans for whom Blumenthal apparently went the extra mile.
Media Matters has raised some similar issues.
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