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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (15925)	6/12/1998 1:47:00 PM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

The Hope thing was hysterical. Peter Jennings blamed the whole thing on the Republicans!!! *Media Research Center CyberAlert* Tuesday June 9, 1998 (Vol. Three; No. 90) Last Friday ABC and NBC blamed Republican House members for spreading the false news that Bob Hope had died, instead of the AP which had accidently posted a pre-written obituary for the aging comedian. The AP's Web site last Friday featured a story headlined "Bob Hope, Tireless Master of the One-Liner, Dead at XX." The first paragraph read: "LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Bob Hope, the master of the one-liner and tireless morale-booster for servicemen from World War II to the Gulf War, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx He was xx.(born May 29, 1903)." While the appearance of the xx's should have tipped off Congressmen Dick Armey and Bob Stump and their staffs that it was a pre-fab story, if the item had not been posted on the AP Web page the false story never would have been picked up. But the networks put the burden on the House members, not their journalistic colleagues. Peter Jennings announced on the June 5 World News Tonight: "There is an embarrassed Congressman in Washington tonight. Congressman Stump of Arizona announced on the floor of the House today that the great comedian, Bob Hope, had died." Jennings showed video of Stump followed by Democrat David Bonior, who called Hope "a great American," before noting that the floor announcement occurred after the death news "appeared on a news wire by accident." Jennings forgot to mention that ABC News put out a live radio bulletin on the news which they had to quickly correct. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams gloated over how politicians so happy to criticize reporters made a mistake: "For a time today news organizations around the country, including this one, were preparing to go on the air and to go to press with sad news that beloved American entertainer Bob Hope had died. In fact though he is very much alive. Imagine his surprise upon learning this news. The false report came from a place where they love to hit the media. Now certain members of Congress are eating on crow tonight after making a big mistake." NBC devoted an entire story to the mix up. Gwen Ifill showed clips of Bob Stump and David Bonior, finally getting around to how House Majority Leader Dick Armey saw the AP Web site story and handed a printed copy to Hope friend Stump so he could notify those on the House floor. The AP at least didn't blame others for its mistake. Late in the day Friday it moved this wire story: AP Site Error Source of Hope Report An Associated Press article being prepared in the event of the death of Bob Hope was inadvertently displayed on the news service's Web site Friday, prompting a Congressman to erroneously announce his death on the floor of the House. House Majority Leader Dick Armey saw a copy of the AP Internet story, handed it to Rep. Bob Stump of Arizona and asked him to announce Hope's death on the House floor. Stump's announcement, broadcast live on C-SPAN, became the basis for other news organizations reporting that Hope had died.... The AP removed the article from its Web site after a staff person noticed it. However, Stump had already made his announcement. Ruth Gersh, editor of AP Multimedia Services, said the preparedness was miscoded by human error so that instead of showing up only on an internal display where an editor could work on it, the preparedness was posted to AP's Web site, The WIRE.