The mainstream media have beclowned themselves again.
Earlier this week, two Congressmembers traveled to Kabul without notifying their congressional superiors, the Department of Defense, or the Department of State, U.S. officials said.
Now The Washington Post is reporting on Pelosi’s attempts to promote orderly protocol among the other Congressmembers… and the Post took some artistic license.
Pelosi held her weekly press conference this Wednesday, and she fielded questions about the two rogue congressmen. According to Pelosi, congressional delegations abroad usually need approval from both their committee chairs and the committees’ ranking members. These congressmen didn’t receive any such approval, Pelosi stated.
Pelosi’s press conference was described in a Post article called “U.S. leaders move to shut down further freelance trips to Kabul.”
She said, “We’ve put out the word to committee chairs. … There aren’t going to be any planes or this or that for people going to the region, or any facilitation.”
At least, that’s how the Post is reporting Pelosi’s statement.
In reality, Pelosi said, “We’ve put out the word to Committee Chairs. There ain’t gonna be no planes or this or that for people going to the region or any facilitation,” according to her website’s transcript of the press conference.
There’s a difference between the official transcript and the Post‘s reporting. The Post edited Pelosi to make her sound smarter, it seems.
This discrepancy was first noted on Twitter by Byron York, a contributor to Fox News and the chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner.
The official transcript is the accurate one, York assured his followers. In fact Pelosi’s use of the word “ain’t” appeared in other publications, including The Hill and the New York Post.
The Hill even obtained a video of Pelosi’s press conference, and she audibly says, “There ain’t gonna be no planes.”
I do not read the post so I guess I shouldn’t care what they write but other people do read it and they really should practice better ethics
— nitwit (@oldfart1971) August 26, 2021
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1430628799469686784
Newspapers often modify spoken quotes by bleeping profanity or punctuating freely, the AP Stylebook indicates.
However, it is unusual for a newspaper to clean up a speaker’s grammar… especially when they have access to a written transcript.
One Twitter user said, “I do not read the post so I guess I shouldn’t care what they write but other people do read it and they really should practice better ethics.”
Well put.
The Horn editorial team