'NYT' Gets Obama Reference Wrong -- Hits 'Anti-War' Activists

In a report today on Sen. Barack Obama's appearance this week at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleney took a decidedly wrong turn in referring to one statement.

Zeleney wrote that Obama "said it was wrong for anti-war activists to protest at military funerals, declaring: ‘It needs to stop'."

The quote at the end was accurate but nowhere did Obama refer to the protesters as "anti-war activists." In fact, the protesters who have caused much outrage have been anti-gay activists.

Obama's exact quote, from a transcript at his campaign Web site, reads: "And our sacred trust does not end when a service-member dies. The graves of our veterans are hallowed ground. When men and women who die in service to this country are laid to rest, there must be no protests near the funerals. It’s wrong and it needs to stop."

Last year, on June 17, the Times ran a correction after an op-ed also referred to antiwar protesters at funerals:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003628778

I've seen the protesters identified as anti-war too many times by MSM instead of exposing them for the kooky Phelps band of gay-bashing nutcases. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy and especially to attribute this statement to a Dem presidential candidate!

OUTRAGE! The NY Times lies about Obama and military funerals!
by redglare
Tue Aug 21, 2007 at 02:14:54 PM PDT
I just fired off this letter to the editor of the New York Times. If enough of us respond, perhaps we can get them to stop the lies about Obama and anti-war protesters before this web story makes the leap to print.

To the Editor:

Jeff Zeleny’s Aug. 21 article concerning Sen. Barack Obama’s address in Kansas City to the Veterans of Foreign Wars ("Obama Praises Military, but Restates Opposition on Iraq") mischaracterizes the senator’s speech and distorts a hot button issue.

In describing Obama’s speech, Zeleny writes: "He also said it was wrong for anti-war activists to protest at military funerals, declaring: ‘It needs to stop’."

However, this is an offensive skewing of the senator’s words; he did not say the protests were from "anti-war activists."

Obama’s actual words were, "When men and women who die in service to this country are laid to rest, there must be no protests near the funerals. It’s wrong and it needs to stop."

Skip...

redglare's diary :: ::
In fact, members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., who routinely protest military funerals because they are bigoted against homosexuals, are the only such protesters.

I challenge Mr. Zeleny or anyone else at the New York Times to come up with an instance of anti-war activists engaged in a protest of a fallen soldier.

Please improve the accuracy of your reporting. If you cannot competently paraphrase a candidate for president, then simply quote him.

Sincerely,
YOUR NAME HERE

Let's nip this lie in the bud!

Send a letter to the editor by e-mailing letters@nytimes.com or faxing (212)556-3622.

You may also mail your letter to:

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

Jeff Zeleny's email is on this page.

UPDATE: Just so there's no mistake, this is a well-worn right wing talking point, not incompetence of the reporter. And the Times has made this "mistake" before. In fact...

6/19/06

On June 16, FAIR issued an Action Alert questioning a New York Timess op-ed's claim that "hundreds of anti-war protesters...appear at military hospitals and funerals." On June 17, the New York Times printed the following correction on its op-ed page:

An Op-Ed article on Monday, about demonstrations at military funerals, hospitals and memorial services, incorrectly described the protesters at the military funerals discussed in the article. In some cases, the protesters were members of an anti-gay group, not people opposed to the Iraq war; in others, the families of the dead service members were unable to determine the affiliation of the protesters.

FAIR would like to thank all of the activists who wrote to the Times in response to FAIR's June 16 Action Alert.

It looks like the Times can't keep its hand out from the cookie jar of right wing lies.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/21/17450/1176

that he is ready to put a stop to it. ALL scumbags of any stripe protesting military funerals need to be "Vacated." He gets a big leap in respect from me for that one.

Where did you get the idea there were any other scumbags protesting at funerals??

it's been the Fred Phelps type so far. My point is that no one at all should be allowed. Sooner or later some other group is bound to jump on the bandwagon otherwise.

You know they haven't protested any funerals, and yet you're ready to leave the notion out there that they have. Why would you do that??

my statement is general in the extreme. I've not mentioned anti-war activists. My praise for Obama is in tha fact that he said "No one" should be permitted to defile military funerals. He never said "Anti-war" and neither did I.

It's when anyone protests a MILITARY funeral that I see them as "Scumbags," certainly NOT being an anti-war protester (Anywhere else)!

that there is anybody EXCEPT Fred Phelps protesting military funerals - then you leave the impression that there ARE anti-war activists doing it. People love to believe the worst about them, don't help by leaving ambiguous statements about protests hanging out there.

that I depended upon the intelligence of the reader of my posts to help him or her know better. I never said there WAS any other group yet, I said there "WILL BE" some other group eventually. Nor did I even insinuate that the other group would have any relation to antiwar protesters.

Geez, did somebody eat your last Pop-Tart or something?

Who gives a shit if it's true or not or hurts innocent people or not. Whatever.

Dumb fucking country.

I'm amazed they made it this long.

That's one group everyone can't stand.

I said it needed to be huge, front page, as well as a main entry in his blog.

I mentioned him saying that Obama said the surge was working was incorrect as well, because Obama never said those words.

Not that I expect to be heard.