Topic: CNSNews.com
Here's hot Matt Cover begins a Feb. 28 CNSNews.com article:
President Obama – in a speech to the United Auto Workers union – said that “trying to climb to the very top” was not what America is “about,” saying that it was “greed” and that in reality “we’re all in it together.”
Count all of the separate quotes in that paragraph tht Cover has cobbled together to paint a distorted, cherry-picked version of what Obama said. Here's what Obama actually said in the relevant section of his speech, with the words Cover cherry-picked for his lead paragraph in bold:
OBAMA: I was telling you I visited Chrysler’s Jefferson North Plant in Detroit about a year and a half ago. Now, the day I visited, some of the employees had won the lottery. Not kidding. They had won the lottery. Now, you might think that after that they’d all be kicking back and retiring. (Laughter.) And no one would fault them for that. Building cars is tough work. But that’s not what they did. The guy who bought --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: What did they do?
OBAMA: Funny you ask. The guy who bought the winning ticket, he was a proud UAW member who worked on the line. So he used some of his winnings to buy his wife the car that he builds because he’s really proud of his work. Then he bought brand new American flags for his hometown because he’s proud of his country. (Applause.) And he and the other winners are still clocking in at that plant today, because they’re proud of the part they and their coworkers play in America’s comeback.
See, that’s what America is about. America is not just looking out for yourself. It’s not just about greed. It’s not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down. When our assembly lines grind to a halt, we work together and we get them going again. When somebody else falters, we try to give them a hand up, because we know we’re all in it together.
In other words, Cover is misleading about what Obama said. CNS does this sort of thing with disturbing frequency.
In the same vein, the headline of a Feb. 28 CNS article by Fred Lucas reads, "Holder: 1st Amendment Allows Gov't to Force Catholics to Buy Sterilization-Contraception-Abortion Insurance." Of course, Attorney General Eric Holder never said the government would "force Catholics" to by "abortion insurance."
Apparently, accurately quoting what people say isn't enough for CNS. It is committing journalistic malpractice by twisting and misquoting the words Obama and Holder say for the sole purpose of villainizing them for its right-wing audience.
