Networks Bury Obama's 'Polish Death Camp' Gaffe, But ABC and NBC Find Time to Mock a Romney Misspelling
President Obama infuriated the leaders of Poland on Tuesday while honoring Jan Karski with the Medal of Freedom. He said Karski smuggled into a “Polish death camp” to see the Holocaust. (Um, no, that’s a Nazi death camp located in Poland). Despite the international incident, ABC, CBS, and NBC aired nothing on the gaffe.
But shamelessly, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today both found “news” in the scoop-let that the Romney campaign misspelled “America” in an iPhone app. (CBS skipped both.) The gaffe also recalled the so-called “fashion faux pas” of 2005, when Vice President Cheney wore a parka to an anniversary at Auschwitz -- except the Poles weren't furious at that one.
Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan fulminated then against the winter wear across the top of the Style section, and was followed up by stories on the PBS NewsHour (Gwen Ifill) and MSNBC’s Countdown (Alison Stewart sitting in) as well as a pundit panel with CNN’s Judy Woodruff.
MSNBC’s shows included on Nexis aired nothing on Obama’s “Polish death camp” gaffe. The PBS NewsHour shamelessly mentioned Medal of Freedom winners -- including Karski -- without mentioning the death-camp gaffe. The Post stuck a small item on A-3...which also including the Romney misspelling.
CNN blew it off quickly on “John King USA” in its little news update, never discussing it with his pundits:
KING: For now, though, let's get back to Lisa Sylvester with the latest news you need to know right now. Hi, there.
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there. Before President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to one-time Polish resistance courier Jan Karski yesterday, he said this.
OBAMA: For one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that Jews were being murdered on a massive scale and smuggled him into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.
SYLVESTER: That reference to a Polish rather than a Nazi death camp provoked outrage and demands for an apology, including from Polish officials. Here's what they got.
CARNEY: The president misspoke. He was referring to Nazi death camps in German-occupied Poland. And as we made clear, we regret the misstatement.
SYLVESTER: And now to the Hague...
This is one way that omissions help Obama preserve his reputation as (a) intelligent about history and (b) friendly and not a jerk who sticks it to our allies. The Post's David Nakamura at least captured how badly the Poles greeted a White House attempt on Tuesday to say Obama just misspoke:
But that did not sit well with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who called on the White House to issue a stronger correction.
The president's inaccurate words "touched all Poles," Tusk said. "We always react in the same way when ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions lead to such a distortion of history, so painful for us here in Poland, in a country which suffered like no other in Europe during World War II. . . . This is something that we cannot ignore."
But the journalists in the tank for Obama could easily ignore it at ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, PBS, and NPR.
- Tim Graham's blog
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Comments
This is #141 on the Hit List
Submitted by Blonde on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 11:30pm.
Alphabetically (well, for today, at least....tomorrow the Bamster will gaffe again)....it is now listed at #47.
Poor Buh-Rock.....he thought Moochelle would be the biggest stone around his neck (oops, sorry for that very bad metaphor).....but Joey has slimed him with the gaffe disease.
Oh well......
Check out the list. It grows and grows by leaps and bounds by the day. I took a day or two off, and when I returned, I had seven e-mails about The Once's latest gaffe......hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Funny...
Submitted by rockyracoon on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:45am.
Now that you mentioned another addition to Barky's list of gaffes, I got to thinking about adding another topic to your website: the various nicknames of the 44th President of the United States, ie., 0bowma, Zippy, Stinky, etc. For fun, others can add some of their preferred monikers, what do you think? The inspiration comes to me from going to your site and reading the many inventive, witty, and downright hilarious monikers I've seen both here, and especially Lucianne.com.
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
Listing his gaffes is legitimate.
Submitted by motherbelt on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 7:14am.
But as much as I dislike Obama, I think a list of insulting nicknames is classless.
Gee
Submitted by rockyracoon on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 11:31am.
I never thought of myself as classless, maybe I'm wrong.
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
Well, Rocky, considering the
Submitted by killa37 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:50pm.
Well, Rocky, considering the 'names' that people like us have been called by Boy Baraka, Mooooooooooochie, Eric (With)Holder, Big Sis Incompetano, and the rest of the REGIME, I'm not above throwing out a few choice adjectives myself................and they don't delve into the categories and definitions of what Ronald Reagan or George Bush were called, either. I've been called out for calling Barry 'Boy'...........but it fits, it's true, and it's provable..............so I'm stickin' (Obamaspeak) with it.
Good comparison
Submitted by 4for4 on Thu, 05/31/2012 - 11:40pm.
But I'd tell Tusk to stuff it. If the president said Jewish death camps no one would mistake the Jews for the nazis.
Not to mention we saved their country.
Really?
Submitted by Tom1969ca on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:03am.
Not to mention we saved their country.
Really? Which US divisions liberated Poland? (I mean, apart from the one Obama's grandfather served in...)
Is that the royal "we", 4for4, or were you actually ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:09am.
fighting on the continent back in 44-45?
MD
History dunce 0for4
Submitted by Unsane on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:15am.
Of course you'd tell Tusk to stuff it because you suck at history. And you fail to understand that people in other countries such as Poland take their history very seriously. DO NOT apply for work in the State Department or at ANY job that takes you overseas.
"we saved their country". Be more specific. If you mean WWII, you may want to check a map sometime and see that it was a bit of a logistical impossibility for the United States to directly intervene in Poland at that time. If you mean the Cold War, yes, and it doubtless pisses both you and your hero The Shahinshah off to no end that the Poles put up a statue of Reagan in the vicinity of the U.S. embassy in Warsaw as a tip o' the hat to Reagan.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Um, WE did, YOU didn't
Submitted by RESTLESS 1 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:59am.
We being Reagan conservatives that cheered when Reagan said to Gobachev: "Tear down this wall!".
You, being a wussy, communist POS had nothing to do with saving their country.
If you want to engage at THIS website, you got some reading to do. You're woefully uninformed.
Says the weenie
Submitted by 4for4 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 8:56am.
Quite an astute comment, for you really showed me! Since you're obviously an addict of using words improperly I can't really respond because I don't really know what you mean.
Let's think back to WWII, a quarter of Poland's population including 3 million Jews were killed off. You don't know this? What are we thinking, 11-12 million US soldiers fought in Europe in WWII? Minus our involvement, how do you think things would have worked out?
This reminds me of a Japanese child I saw interviewed on the anniversary of Hiroshima who expressed her fear of another US attack whenever a plane flies overhead. Yeah, that's it.
The Soviets "liberated"
Submitted by RESTLESS 1 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 10:49am.
Poland in '44-'45. Poland was not liberated then, but rather came under Soviet rule. Saying we, or anyone else "saved their ass" is about as clueless a statement as one can make.
Congratulations.
Our involvement in WWII
Submitted by dzejk113 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:07pm.
didn't help Poland any at all, since we abandoned them to Stalin and the soviets, and left them to suffer nearly 50 years of communist rule. Which, btw, they saved themselves from, although Reagan's support of Solidarity doubtless had a positive effect, and they were the first country in the Soviet bloc to kick communism, which helped start the chain of other countries under Soviet influence to overthrow their communist regimes.
People have said that "Polish death camps" is obviously a reference to the camps geographic location, but that's a ridiculous assertion. Using Polish as an adjective like that does not automatically denote geographic location. That's like saying "American bombing of the World Trade Centers" to denote the geographic location of the 9/11 attacks. It doesn't really work. If your referencing a location, you use a preposition, NOT an adjective.
And honestly, I don't think Obama likes Poland very much. Poland has been one of our staunchest allies in the War on Terror. Polish soldiers have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan with us since the beginning. And this was only his latest insult to Poland. He cancelled the missile defense deal we had with Poland; in 2010 Obama chose to play golf rather than attend the funeral of the Polish president who was killed in a plane crash; and last year Obama promised to end the visa requirement for Polish citizens to visit the US, and then a couple months later said never mind, not going to do it.
As an American with Polish heritage, who's proud of my heritage, even I was insulted by Obama's gaffe, and I stand with all other Poles in demanding an apology from Obama for this insult.
Boy Baraka has pretty much
Submitted by killa37 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:44pm.
Boy Baraka has pretty much given Lech Walesa the Bibi Netenyahu/Dalai Lama treatment.................I think ol' Lech might have made some statements about Boy Barry that were, say, a little too................honest??? Lech came UP from oppression, and is a supporter of freedom and liberty. Boy Baraka came up from freedom and liberty, and is a supporter of oppression and control.
Why our beloved Leader hates the Poles
Submitted by Unsane on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 8:54am.
The Poles put up a statue of Reagan a stone's throw from the U.S. embassy in Warsaw last year. I think that deeply pisses off the Dear Leader.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Yeah, that would probably do it
Submitted by dzejk113 on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 11:53am.
He might also be a little resentful of the fact that Poland was the first Soviet Bloc country to successfully kick communism, btw yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of the first free elections in Poland that ended communist rule. He probably sees them as traitors to the glorious workers revolution, how dare they reject such an obviously superior ideology! Not to mention the fact that once Poland successfully, and peacefully, toppled communism in their country, other Soviet Bloc countries began to do the same, which ultimately culminated in the fall of the Soviet Union itself. That's an unforgivable sin to hard-core leftists like obama. Not only did the Poles put up a statue of Reagan, they helped him destroy "the workers paradise".
SOLIDARNARSC
Submitted by Blonde on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 2:33pm.
I had a great friend who was an Army wife, stationed in Germany.
She high tailed it to Poland during that time....she had the time of her life with the Polish people. (I was visiting her in Germany when the Wall came down).
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Talk about using words improperly,
Submitted by UpNorth on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 8:41pm.
how old was that child who still lives in fear of an event that occurred almost 67 years ago? Or how old was the program?
11 or 12 million US soldiers fought in WWII, not all in Europe, dunce. And, most certainly the number of them who liberated Poland can be counted on one finger. Other than Obama's dad, or uncle or second cousin, that is.
So you would have no problem being called a mass murderer?
Submitted by Radical1979 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 9:16am.
Because that is what Obama did to the Poles. He apologizes for things the US shouldn't apologize for, why can't he apologize for what he actually said?
Dead Zippers has been called worse.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 1:37pm.
Much worse.
Wow. No media bias here. Move
Submitted by rbosque on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:16am.
Wow.
No media bias here. Move along...
Slur on Poland
Submitted by HudsonRiverGirl on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 6:40am.
And now the NY Post has a story that O denied Lech Walesa the opportunity to accept the award. Evidently O is peeved that Walesa turned down a group meeting with O a while back. Walesa asked for a private meeting that was denied by O.
Talk about an enemies list. Talk about pettiness that knows no bounds.
Someone please explain to me,
Submitted by LinTaylor on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:40am.
Someone please explain to me, how on Earth would Dick Cheney wearing a parka at Auschwitz be a "fasion faux pas"? Did the Nazis wear parkas while they killed innocent Jews or something? Are parkas the WWII equivalent of Trayvon "Martyr" Martin's hoodie?
Well, you've got 30 or 40
Submitted by killa37 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 4:16am.
Well, you've got 30 or 40 million 'Pollacks' pissed off at Boy Baraka for making such a stupid (yet typical) statement..............and
somehow the only people who care about Romney's misspelling are the dumbells who are reporting the story!!! And for some reason, the Obama REGIME is not following up on this..............they admitted to being 'misspoken', and the assigned L'il Opie/Lr Fuzz/Jay-Bird Carney to 'get their backs'.
But somehow, I DON'T think that the Polish are buying into this Chicago-style 'erasing' of the facts!!!!
Boy Baraka makes Joe Plugs Bite-Me Biden look like a damn freshman when it comes to stupid and ignorant gaffes!!! And when you factor in Boy Baraka's massive ego............and as it relates to what is really going on - then you start to understand what kind of scam they are tryhing to pull off!!!!
It's Poles,
Submitted by action on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 5:54am.
not Pollacks. No need for an ethnic slur.
Sarcasm
Submitted by Joe W. on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 8:33am.
I believe that killa was using the term "pollack" sarcastically. Hence, the use of parenthesis. No need to get all wee-wee'd up, pal.
I figured most people would
Submitted by killa37 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 12:40pm.
I figured most people would 'get-it', Joe - including you. I don't know what's up with 'action'.........maybe he should be 're-action'
And I think that great former Democrat mayor of the great city of Washington DC - the ol' crackhead hisself - just called the whole population of Poland 'Polacks'......or 'Polocks' - however it's spelled. So I just thought I'd integrate it into my comment.
Hey, 'action', you gotta be quick around here - we're not a bunch of dense dummies here at NB!!!
killa, I don't think there's any official spelling for it
Submitted by dzejk113 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 1:15pm.
but the slur comes from the Polish word "Polak" which means "a Pole". It's kinda sad that English has taken the Poles own name for themselves and turned it into a slur against them, but it is what it is. The most common version I've seen is 'Polack'. Maybe action is Polish and that's why he didn't like it, but this 'Polack' got-it no problem lol.
Good evening dzejk
Submitted by cocodrie on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 1:23pm.
Over the years I've been called a redneck or a coonass and I take it as a compliment. We are what we are by any name, but there are too many "I wanna be insulted people".
God bless you,
Alton
Jesus Loves You so much He died for you
Killa, you rock.
Submitted by UpNorth on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 1:36pm.
Lt Fuzz is the perfect nickname for that weasel, Carney.
Speaking of Baracka's massive ego, have you seen one of the official WH photos of Ear Leader's visit to the Vietnam Wall on Memorial Day? It's all about Baracka, 24/7/365. They even managed the "halo effect" again.
Yeah, UpNorth - the first
Submitted by killa37 on Sat, 06/02/2012 - 2:02pm.
Yeah, UpNorth - the first time I saw and heard this sophomore, I was thinkin' L'il Opie/Lt. Fuzz...........and the pathetic part about it is that he not only LOOKS that way, but he IS that way too!!! I think the word 'amateur' is the best description possible for these clowns who are 'running' our country. The sad part about it is that there are millions of people who don't even rank as 'amateurs' who supported these morons - and that includes most of the StateRun Media - and by doing so, they have rolled over and bent over for the agenda, which is anything BUT 'amateur'!!! Say what you want about Boy Baraka - he deserves every ounce of disrespect and derision that is thrown his way - he KNOWS what he wants to do to this country, and he has been pretty successful in doing it so far.
And I noticed that, besides getting his 'halo' on the Vietnam Memorail Wall, he also barracaded (Baraka-caded???) the area for a number of hours so that he could give another one of his Boy BlahBlah speeches. I'm sure that most of the people who came there to remember their departed loved ones weren't too happy about not being able to get close to the wall for some length of time while Mr. I-ME-MINE flapped his stupid purple lips again.
We use blinders on horses..
Submitted by almostacowboy on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 7:25am.
..to keep them from seeing to the sides or rear. Do I need to continue?
deleted by me
Submitted by almostacowboy on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 8:33am.
double post
Holy cow. I didn't know Mitt did his own graphics, too.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 7:29am.
He certainly is a hands-on guy.
So this really is just like those words that came out of Obama's Obama mouth.
Hide any negative information about Obama.
Submitted by c5then on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 8:31am.
That is the MSM's prime directive.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Google "polish death camps controversy"...
Submitted by Jer on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 2:07pm.
Wall to wall, saturation coverage--by all of the MSM websites as well--on the net, where the public increasingly turns for "news".
Not very well hidden.
Jer
Oh sure.....
Submitted by jon_torlin on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 11:09am.
Oh sure......
One's a diplomatic incident, the other's not.
You be the judge.
-Jon
Yet another example of amateur hour at the White House...
Submitted by Jer on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 2:26pm.
I confess to being unaware of the degree to which Polish governments and citizenry have found the phrase to be acutely offensive, but then I am neither President of the United States nor one of his advisors. Nor am I responsible for vetting or fact-checking his prepared remarks. This is another rookie mistake committed at the highest level by folks for whom being new to the job can no longer be, if ever it were, a valid excuse.
Interestingly, some of the more vigorous words in defense of this gaffe have originated from one of the more stridently anti-Obama sources:
I agree entirely with Aaron that Obama the Oval Office Occupier has insulted Poland terribly in the past, and that Polish leaders should take every oppotunity to make clear their disdain for his asininity. That said, I really think this flap about "Polish death camps" is too much ado about very little. It was abundantly clear that Obama meant death camps in Poland. No insult intended -- in fact, just the opposite, as he honored one of Poland's greatest heroes (and a hero of mine as a GU student while he taught there), Jan Karski. No matter who the offending politician, I will continue to insist that this sort of out-of-context "gotcha" stuff is beneath us, when we face an election as momentous as this one, in times as scary as these. It was silly, or worse, when people blasted Romney for his "I don't care about the poor" remark; silly, or worse, when people hit Santorum on several things taken clearly out of context; and even unfair when Newt Gingrich, whose campaign I opposed, was hit for supposedly being racist because of comments of his that obviously were twisted all out of shape.
There is so, so much to criticize about Barry Alinsky Hussein Obama the Choom King (just having fun, guys!), but we shouldn't cheapen those criticisms by attacking him for a harmless slip of the lip.
Jer
Is it then permissable to criticize the
Submitted by UpNorth on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 2:41pm.
clown posse, headed by Baracka, for this gaffe? The speechwriter for putting it in there, the proof-reader for not catching it, the foreign policy wonk who over looked it, the teleprompter loader for putting the gaffe in the machine, and, finally, the speaker who spoke the words, for not reading this first, and thinking, "hmmm, my uncle, who liberated all those death camps in Poland would probably not say this"? Or, was it my Dad, who served in the army? It's just so confusing, isn't it Barry?
Is it OK to phrase the criticism this way, Jer?
Sure, it's clear
Submitted by dzejk113 on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 3:05pm.
to most people that he meant the camps in Poland, but the concern is that "Polish death camps" can be very easily misinterpereted by someone who isn't paying close attention to the context, or is unfamiliar with history. Tell me just how much do you know about what happened in Poland during WWII? Someone who doesn't know any better might think the Poles were helping the Nazis. Quin Hillyer fails to see this issue from the point of view of the Poles. To him it may not be a big issue, but to the Poles it's very important, not just a harmless slip.
Probably not as much as you, dzejk...
Submitted by Jer on Fri, 06/01/2012 - 5:11pm.
but very likely far more than the average US citizen since I have a degree in history and am a military history buff. Obviously, I understood what the President meant, but also understood why his words were considered inappropriately phrased. However, as I noted in the earlier post, I was unaware of the degree of the sensitivity felt by the Poles regarding this issue until I did some research after the controversy erupted.
Jer
The Party
Submitted by Unsane on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 8:57am.
His Majesty The Shahinshah gets a pass yet again because The Party Is Never, Ever, Ever, Ever Wrong.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Is that a general observation, Unsane,
Submitted by Jer on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 5:31pm.
or a specific criticism of my comment?. If the latter, please clarify.
Jer