Jake Tapper: "clip -- not sent to me by anyone affiliated with the Obama campaign"

[Adelante]

In a post explaining why his earlier one had been taken down, Tapper points out it was not the Obama campaign who sent him the latest Kantor clip:

(He also denied the legitimacy of another clip, which certainly seems doctored, in which he uses a horrible racial slur. I'd seen that clip -- not sent to me by anyone affiliated with the Obama campaign, I hasten to add -- but I had not posted it.)

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/05/the-mystery-of.html

[Cali_Democrat]

1. My money is on the Hillary campaign or the GOP

[CTyankee]

4. It wouldn't make sense for the Clinton campaign to do this.

It's a slam against one of their campaign advisors in 1992.

The GOP has many more reasons to stir sh*t for the Dems.

[whistler162]

13. actually it does take the story away from.....

WVWV and Sidney Blumenthal. Bury true stories under a seemingly true story that turns out to be false. It has happened before.

[CTyankee]

18. what is WVWV? n/t

[whistler162]

19. Woman's Voices Woman Vote

http://www.wvwv.org/

They have been caught making a "mistake" on how they are running a robo-call telephone campaign. Problem is the "mistake" is similar to the "mistakes" they where caught at in other states.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2008/05/nc_attorney_general_says_wvwv.html

[rodeodance]

20. Get a grip. This doctored video was meant to HURT Hillary in INDiana!!

[Skwmom]

32. A doctored video HELPS Clinton.

1. She plays the victim (with the aid of Stephanolpoulas in her ABC paid for townhall).
2. Ties Obama to the LIBERAL blogs.
3. She'll use it to claim that all stories about her are false even the TRUE NC Robo-call.

for starters (though there are also plenty of other ways in which it helps her).

[speedoo]

2. So who DID send it to him?

Or is he saying he just picked it up from youtube? It's unclear.

[leftynyc]

27. Try Karl Rove

He hurts both dems and laughs the whole way at how he leads people around like lemmings. Why on earth would Hillary put this out - it hurts her campaign?

[Marie26]

3. So why didn't he bother to verify it

before reporting this on his blog? Is the role of a "journalist" just to mindlessly publicize every campaign hoax?

[emilyg]

7. Good question.

[newmajority]

10. Have you paid attention to the Whore media this decade?

Tapper probably got it from Drudge or someone like that.

Not that this is a hoax. I think some people really need to clean out some earwax.

[Marie26]

15. It is a hoax

It's a doctored video; that's been confirmed. The role of a journalist *used* to be to investigate, confirm, find out the truth of things. Now we might as well just replace the NY Times w/the Drudge Report, since there's no difference anyway. I'm disappointed in Tapper, he used to be a good reporter.

[CTyankee]

37. I've been increasingly unhappy with Jake Tapper since he went to the big time at ABC.

He's a little too full of himself and he smirks all the time. I liked him better before. I think he was at Slate. He seemed to be aliberal then. NOw he's just a main stream a-hole.

[leftynyc]

28. It's also possible he got it

from someone here - there were calls this morning to distribute the doctored video far and wide in the media. Why he didn't confirm is a very good question.

[John Q. Citizen]

12. If you read his blog, the answer is clear. Go ahead, read it. It won't hurt you.

People were reporting on Kantor calling the people of Indiana shit since the movie came out.

[Marie26]

25. But that's not what Tapper first reported

He reported the fake, doctored "white n*gger" video on his blog & gave it much more exposure. There's a big difference between a news organization & a random Youtube user. Tapper basically used the name & reputation of ABC News to give creditibility to a libelous hoax, And he might have even exposed ABC News to a libel suit. The least he could've done is check out the video first, but IMO he was blinded by a desire for a scoop & perhaps a desire to hurt Clinton's chances in Indiana.

[John Q. Citizen]

26. No he didn't. I read his blog this morning and the comments were asking why he didn't report it.

If you want to take others to task for the facts, you might get yours straight first.

[Beausoir]

43. Because he, like other Obama supporters will hurl ANYTHING at ANYONE

in order to prop up their flagging candidate.

[John Q. Citizen]

5. And this, from the same blog entry

"It's all a mess, though I must say when "The War Room" came out other folks interpreted Kantor to be impugning Indiana residents.

In The Washington Post's review of the film in 1993, critic Desson Howe referred to "a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton's ahead in Dan Quayle's state)."

And a 1995 story in the Sydney Morning Herald said that "As for the good folk of Indiana, they are still recovering from the 1993 documentary War Room, which revealed the grim truth behind the Clinton election campaign. It showed Mr Kantor bursting in on election night to tell other campaign staffers that incredibly, Mr Clinton was doing well even in Republican Indiana. 'And those people are s---!' he declared breathlessly."

Were I not currently eating a chicken sandwich at Liberty East Restaurant in Charlotte, NC, while working on a World News piece about the economy and the candidates, I would go to Blockbuster, rent a copy of The War Room and settle this matter as much as possible.

[leftynyc]

29. The quote doesn't even make sense

that way. Do you think it makes sense?

[John Q. Citizen]

39. The WaPo and The Herald did, apparently. Course I didn't think it made sense of Hill to bash

the good people of Louisiana or Southern whites, but apparently she thought it made sense.

I do know that the Clintons were very bad for the Democratic Party. When they lost both houses of congress in 1994 what has been referred to as the "Republican Revolution" wasn't. The Repos that year voted in the same number as the Repos did in 1990, the last mid-term.

The big difference was that due to NAFTA and Hillary's secretive and elitist health care reform boondoggle, Democrats stayed home in droves compared to turn out in 1990.

Why they killed their own party never made sense, but that's what they did.

Does the gas tax holiday proposal make sense to you, except as a pandering desperate move to try and buy some votes? It doesn't to me. We are pumping too much CO2 into the environment as it is, importing too much oil as it is, without passing policies to exacerbate the problem.

Doesn't make any sense.

[leftynyc]

40. You'll apparently believe whatever

you want. Your choice. I couldn't care less. Pump up this story - it only makes Sen Obama supporters look bad.

[John Q. Citizen]

41. You don't believe Krugman? Go ahead and google the turn-out in '90 an '94.

Then ask yourself.

Does it make sense?

[leftynyc]

42. So you think it makes sense

that he would insult people that look to be doing exactly what he wants them to do?

I know exactly what happened in 1994 and blame Bill Clinton for a lot of it but I don't see either him or his wife as the personification of evil like some people here do. I'll vote for whoever has the D behind their name in November. Unfortunately, our best and brightest are consigned to the sidelines for this election.

[John Q. Citizen]

53. Well, the occupation is evil and so was the invasion. In some ways Sen, Clinton

personified herself with that.

I'm pretty fed up with the status quo.

Kucinich was my candidate, and then when he left to defend his congressional seat I was leaning Edwards and when he left a week later I had to make a choice.

The more I know about Barack, though, the more I like him.

I like that he was a community organizer. I like that when he finished law school and his stint as the editor of the Harvard Law Review instead of taking a lucrative position at a high powered corporate law firm he instead decided to teach constitutional law.

And I like that his campaign is the most grassroots I've ever seen in 35 years of doing volunteer campaign work.

And I'm really not into top down dynasties.

Whether an insult was expressed among friends in semi private toward the voters of Indiana or not, I can't say with certainty, The newspapers reported it as if they thought it was, but it's really neither here nor there.

[leftynyc]

54. Of course I agree with you on

the "war" and occupation. But I think people forget just who Sen Clinton represents - the very New Yorkers who saw 9/11 up close and personal. I do find that my friends outside of the state really don't look at it the same way we do. I know people are cynical about that IWR vote and I don't blame them to a certain extent - I do believe part of that vote was based on her not wanting to look weak on terror but many New Yorkers did not have a problem with it and she does represent us.

Now, Kyle/Lieberman - THAT is a vote I vehemently disagreed with because I saw what this administration is capable of and no longer has the slightest trust for them. That's the vote I have trouble swallowing. I'd be more apt to be a stronger supporter of Sen Obama if he hadn't wimped out and not voted. My choices are obviously out of the race as well (Richardson, Biden, Dodd) but I can honestly say - with no reservations - that either Sen Clinton or Sen Obama is head an shoulders above Sen McCain. So it's a bit different for me - I have no emotional attachment to either one and the vehemence in the hostility I see here for both candidates is a bit startling and only hurts us in the long run. But I do have faith that once a candidate is chosen, most of us will come together to beat McCain. But I have also been called pathologically optimistic.

I think the press focuses on these issues that don't really matter because it's easy for them - it requires no complex thinking and releases them from having to focus on the issues. I have totally given up on the cable news shows and simply don't add to the ratings. If everyone just shut off their damn tv's and made it known they wouldn't engage until real issues were talked about, it would be different. When sites like DU call for an email campaign against slanted news, the networks don't give a shit - at least they know you're (in the larger sense) watching.

[featherman]

6. Dirty tricks from the party of dirty tricks IMO

[global1]

8. And Besides Everything He Said In His Latest Blog About SOP's......

what he didn't say is that the video also damn's a colleague of his - Georgie S. and ABC just can't have that.

[NNN0LHI]

9. Who asked Jake?

When someone offers me answers to questions I didn't ask it makes me wonder.

Son

[Adelante]

14. He could have had 500 emails from Clinton supporters

Who knows?

[NNN0LHI]

22. He didn't say anything about any emails so what makes you think that?

Just guessing?

Don

[democrattotheend]

23. A lot of people posted in the comments section

accusing the Obama campaign of starting this.

[Adelante]

35. Yes, just guessing nt

[leftynyc]

30. Why would Clinton supporters want this

out. I swear, has everybody stopped thinking today? It was the Sen Obama supporters that called for worldwide distribution of this doctored video this morning.

[Adelante]

38. That's not what I meant

I meant that perhaps (as in "who knows?) Clinton supporters were emailing Jake Tapper to find out if he had received it from the Obama campaign. It's not as if there haven't been numerous posts today here on DU where Clinton supporters were saying just that.

[rinsd]

17. Probably angry Obama supporters who thought he was burying the story.

[MADem]

11. Uh, there isn't anyone with half a brain who isn't disavowing the fucking thing.

Yet, still, here on DU, we have little soldiers who haven't gotten the word to "stand down" from the general.

PSST--Someone amongst your number has done a bad thing, and they have been CAUGHT. Give it a rest.

I do hope Mickey Kantor sues the pants off the little "shit" who posted that GREAT Big Lie. That way we might find out who put him up to it. Let's hope the string doesn't lead anywhere close to the throne, eh?

[John Q. Citizen]

16. Here: some info

"It's all a mess, though I must say when "The War Room" came out other folks interpreted Kantor to be impugning Indiana residents.

In The Washington Post's review of the film in 1993, critic Desson Howe referred to "a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton's ahead in Dan Quayle's state)."

And a 1995 story in the Sydney Morning Herald said that "As for the good folk of Indiana, they are still recovering from the 1993 documentary War Room, which revealed the grim truth behind the Clinton election campaign. It showed Mr Kantor bursting in on election night to tell other campaign staffers that incredibly, Mr Clinton was doing well even in Republican Indiana. 'And those people are s---!' he declared breathlessly."

Were I not currently eating a chicken sandwich at Liberty East Restaurant in Charlotte, NC, while working on a World News piece about the economy and the candidates, I would go to Blockbuster, rent a copy of The War Room and settle this matter as much as possible.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/05/the-mystery-of.html

[MADem]

46. I can't find that SMH review anywhere, and I have looked.

Found one in 94, but no 1995. Isn't that curious? Maybe it's me, and I'm missing it, but I can't get it to come up.

I found the Howe review, and all I can say is, his ears don't match mine or MSNBC's. You can watch the film on YOUTUBE, too. It doesn't sound like what he is saying it says, and that doesn't make any sense in context, either.

Why would Kantor be saying "Fuck the good people of Indiana" when Clinton was doing so WELL there? He was saying the Indiana GOP POLLSTERS were shitTING because their estimates were totally off the mark. It's obvious, if you get back to reality, what the context is.

[olkaz]

24. So, an Obama operative sent a doctored clip back in time for the reviewers to comment on.

The "n-word" mention was scurrilous.

The "s-word" part wasn't just us hearing things. Those reviewers heard the same things fifteen years ago. Care to explain that?

[MADem]

44. I found the Howe review, but not the SMH one--NOTHING in 95.

My ears hear what MSNBC's do--not shit, shitting. He wasn't talking about the "people" he was talking about the idiots who predicted the polls. It's apparent from the context, unless you totally want to suspend reality.

It doesn't make any sense for Kantor to be yelling at the VOTERS--the WAR ROOM was all about the contest between CAMPAIGNS. He was slapping down the shitty predictors on the GOP team.

Go listen to it on YOUTUBE--the actual movie, not that dubbed piece of shit that has been taken down.

[NJSecularist]

33. So much for the politics of hope and change.

The Obamites would rather engage in smear politics than listen to their messiah.

[TragedyandHope]

21. Rove sent it out

Two birds with one stone.

[leftynyc]

31. Of course it was Rove

It's like people have stopped thinking today.

[MADem]

45. No, this wasn't Rove. This was an Obama supporter. The only question is, did he do it on his own?

Or did he have help with that SUAVE audio dubbing, and was he instructed in any form by the 'war room?'

[NotThisTime]

48. Maybe it's a rogue from Woman's Voices Woman Vote

[MADem]

49. Naaah, that was just sloppy and amateurish. Not a pro job like that

cleverly dubbed audio, with subtitles. That took a little work.

[flpoljunkie]

34. Thank you, Wesdem!

[BlueIdaho]

36. Operation Chaos - Hello...

I smell a big fat rat.

[MADem]

47. No. Not Operation Chaos. Operation Some Big Fucking Idiot. Who may, or may NOT,

be taking orders from higher up.

In any event, all it does is make HOPE CHANGE BELIEVE look like LIE CHEAT STEAL.

[BlueIdaho]

51. Nice try but I'm not buying.

Show a link - a trail - or some evidence of some sort or you're just pissing up a rope.

[MADem]

52. Here--take your own advice, here's the rope. From Obama supporters at KOS

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/2/134311/6435/674/507820

And tune in to CNN--they covered the story as the HOAX it was, and entitled it DIRTY TRICKS.

[Coexist]

50. of course the Obama campaign wouldn't stoop to that.