Howie Kurtz’s Unreliable Source
By SusanUnPC on April 9, 2008 at 6:32 PM in Health Care, Hillary Clinton, Media, Media Bias, Obamedia
This is breaking news. Well, it may breaking news to Howie Kurtz that he has an “unreliable source” feeding him false information. And that his unreliable source on CNN’s Reliable Sources, his 10 a.m. ET weekly Sunday show, was …
… none other than Howie Kurtz himself. Check out the April 6, 2008 CNN transcript of Reliable Sources, and the video of Kurtz who parroted unvetted media reports written before the story was fully checked out by his own Washington Post colleague Anne Kornblut and by No Quarter‘s Big Kahuna. From that transcript:
KURTZ: Hillary Clinton has been telling a story on the trail about this sad story about a woman who lost her baby and died because, the former first lady said, she didn’t have $100 to pay the hospital. “The Washington Post” repeated this …
Well, it turns out it she is completely untrue. She was repeating this, someone had told her this. But the woman did have insurance. She was not turned away at the hospital. She was treated by an OB/GYN practice.
Should the media have done a better job of fact-checking here? [Yes, but you should have too, Mr. "Unreliable Source."]
[VIDEO PULLED TEMPORARILY]
There is ACTION YOU CAN TAKE BELOW to ask Howie Kurtz and the Washington Post to correct the record in their print editions and on Kurtz’s next Reliable Sources this coming Sunday:
Let Howie Kurtz and the editors of the Washington Post know what you think of their careless, inaccurate, unvetted conclusions:
E-mail Howie Kurtz. (Kurtz is a media columnist for the Washington Post, as well as doing his weekly CNN media show on Sunday mornings.)
And send an e-mail to the National desk at the Washington Post. (national@washpost.com)
:::::::
While you’re in the mood, write to Anne Kornbut, and please ask her why she framed Hillary Clinton’s stump speech, and retelling of this story, in such grim terms. CHECK OUT this horrid title:
In Speeches, Clinton Often Veers to Dark Side
It almost always comes when the audience least expects it: the moment Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brings a roaring crowd to a hush with a heart-rending anecdote.
“I remember listening to a story about a young woman in a small town along the Ohio River, in Meigs County, who worked in a pizza parlor,” the Democratic presidential candidate said during a stop in Cleveland, beginning a particularly grim tale.“She got pregnant, she started having problems. There’s no hospital left in Meigs County, so she had to go to a neighboring county. She showed up, and the hospital said, ‘You know, you’ve got to give us $100 before we can see you.’ She didn’t have $100,” Clinton said.
“So the young woman went back home,” she continued. “The next time she went back, she was in an ambulance. It turned out she lost the baby. She was airlifted to Columbus.”
She paused before concluding: “And after heroic efforts at the medical center, she died.” The audience, as always, gasped.The story has become a staple of Clinton’s stump speech, a prime example of how, in a campaign year in which lofty phrases have taken center stage, she has rejected sweeping oratory — “just words,” as her campaign likes to accuse Democratic rival Barack Obama of offering — in favor of a dramatic speaking style all her own.
In hushed tones, sometimes with palpable sadness in her voice, Clinton tells dark, difficult anecdotes picked up on the campaign trail. They often relate to health matters, culled from her conversations with voters, and are designed to illustrate a policy point. …
“In Speeches, Clinton Often Veers to Dark Side” … what in the hell kind of title is that anyway?
For the real story — including Kornblut’s later blog update that corrects the errors in the earlier story above, and includes an account from a relative of the young mother who died — read our story, “Washington Post: Clinton Told True Tale of Woe, Says Kin [Updated].”
::::::::::
Special thanks to C.S. for the video.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
