NY Times Reports Bachmann's 'John Wayne' Flub, Ignored Obama's Awful Fallen Soldier Error
New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny was with Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann in Waterloo, Iowa, at the official launching of her presidential campaign for Tuesday’s “Bachmann Opens Campaign as Expectations Grow.” But Zeleny concluded his mostly balanced story with a reference to Bachmann’s latest in a “string of gaffes” – her mistaken claim that Western movie star John Wayne had been born in Waterloo, Iowa (though his parents met there).
Yet the Times has totally ignored a far more by President Obama, who wrongly claimed in a speech he gave June 23 to the Army's 10th Mountain Division that he had awarded a Medal of Honor to a living soldier. Jared Monti had actually had been killed in Afghanistan in 2006 and had been bestowed the honor posthumously. Obama apologized to the family.
Reporter Jackie Calmes even filed an online report from Fort Drum, in upstate New York, but failed to note the flub.
Zeleny wrote:
Mrs. Bachmann, who rose to prominence with her evocative quips and spirited presence in television interviews and appearances at Tea Party rallies last year, has also experienced a string of gaffes. She added a new one to the list during her visit back to Waterloo, a city that she left in 1968.
She spoke adoringly of her town, recalling the Dairy Queen, her house on East Ninth Street and the Wonder Bread Factory, where her mother picked up ingredients for her favorite mayonnaise and lettuce sandwiches. But as she stood in her old neighborhood, she misstated a piece of Iowa lore as she explained the important role that Waterloo had in shaping her character.
“John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa,” Mrs. Bachmann told Carl Cameron of Fox News in an interview. “That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.”
The actor was actually born in Winterset, Iowa, which is about 150 miles southwest of Waterloo. It was John Wayne Gacy, known as the killer clown who raped and murdered 33 teenage boys in the 1970s, who lived in Waterloo.
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Comments
Everyone makes mistakes
Submitted by SLUGGO on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 4:17pm.
Some are just more public than others. She's forgiven.
Sluggo
Well, Sluggo
Submitted by Blonde on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 4:24pm.
Obama's made more than Michele Bachmann.
Many, many more. But the media doesn't bother to air them.
I, however, have no compunction about calling attention to his idiocy.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
But is he really worse than Biden?
Submitted by SLUGGO on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 5:20pm.
We spell Biden G-A-F-F-E in my house.
Sluggo
Check out the URL
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 5:10pm.
listed here. Someone put it on NB and then it got copied.
The King of Gaffs
Hey HB
Submitted by Blonde on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 5:18pm.
I saw that earlier, and it inspired me to look up (and link) most of the Bamster's gaffes. Check it out on the Forums!
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
I wish conservative
Submitted by Question_Assumptions on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 9:55pm.
I wish conservative commentators would give the Obama "57 states" gaffe a rest because it's a weak one. There are much better ones that demonstrate ignorance rather than fatigue, including "corps" and "Austrian" as a language. Of course I also don't know why they don't show the clip of Joe Biden's interview with Katie Couric in 2008, “When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’” That's far more ignorant than Sarah Palin's newspaper answer, which simply wasn't the kind of answer Couric was fishing for.
I also like the way that they
Submitted by Question_Assumptions on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 9:58pm.
I also like the way that they automatically assume that she was confusing John Wayne and John Wayne Gacey rather than simply getting John Wayne's birthplace wrong. But I do think Bachmann should check her staff for saboteurs because I saw evidence that Sarah Palin suffered from saboteurs, including the stylist who seemed intent on making her look as awful as possible.