By Steve Rhodes
“First reported in the Washington Examiner, ABC News edited out first lady Michelle Obama’s erroneous claim that Chicago teen Hadiya Pendleton was killed when she was shot with an ‘automatic weapon,'” Mediate reports.
“The first lady made this claim in a Tuesday morning appearance on Good Morning America and was quoted in full in ABC News’ online report. The claim was, however, edited out when the interview aired. ABC News responded to the charge on Tuesday saying the cuts were made ‘solely for time.'”
That explanation strains credulity well past the breaking point when you see just how many other places a measly few words (“She was caught in the line of fire because some kids had some automatic weapons they didn’t need”) could have been edited out to make the interview into whatever window ABC (laughably) claims it had to work with. ABC is clearly lying.
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Why does it matter? First, because claiming Pendleton was killed by an automatic weapon clearly dovetails with the president’s efforts to pass an assault weapons ban, which gives her false statement political purpose. Second, if the First Lady is going to offer an “exclusive” interview to send a political message, she ought to get her facts straight.
But, you might ask, if the statement was wrong, wasn’t ABC right to edit it out?
No. ABC News’s job is fact-check public officials, not cover up their errors.
Finally, ABC News is not only lying about the edit, but once again sent a close friend of the Obamas to conduct a “news” interview. A real reporter (which the White House assiduously avoids) might have challenged Michelle Obama on the claim, and followed up with a question about how an assault weapons ban would – or would not have – saved Pendleton’s life, along with other questions about how the president’s policies don’t often reflect her weepy claim that “we put [the nation’s kids] first.
But that would be journalism. Back to you, George Stephanopoulos.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on February 27, 2013