Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Dec. 7 WorldNetDaily article on Les Kinsolving's question during a Dec. 6 White House press briefing regarding the encounter between President Bush and Sen.-elect Jim Webb not only embraces the inaccurate take on the incident by columnist George Will, it doctors a quote from Will's column to fix what he got wrong about the incident. From the article:
"Wednesday's Washington Post reported that at a White House reception for newly elected members of Congress, Webb 'tried to avoid President Bush,' refusing to pass through the reception line or have his picture taken with the president. When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq, 'How's your boy?' Webb replied, 'I'd like to get them out of Iraq.' Bush said, 'That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?' Webb replied, 'That's between me and my boy,' Will wrote.
Here's what Will actually wrote in his Nov. 30 column:
Wednesday's Post reported that at a White House reception for newly elected members of Congress, Webb "tried to avoid President Bush," refusing to pass through the reception line or have his picture taken with the president. When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq, "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "I'd like to get them [sic] out of Iraq." When the president again asked "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "That's between me and my boy."
WND added in that Bush said to Webb, "That's not what I asked you." While that accurately reflects what Bush said, WND is presenting it as what Will said Bush said -- which Will didn't, as we've noted.
Further, the headline of the WND article suggests that Webb issued a "threat" against Bush; in fact, the article itself states (accurately) that Webb "felt like slugging the president" over the question, which is not a threat. Further contradicting itself, the article also quotes White House press secretary Tony Snow saying, "There was no threat to slug the president."
Given this kind of sloppy, inaccurate reporting, maybe WND is better off writing about Dennis Miller's comedy routines.
