During live special coverage Monday afternoon of memorial services for late President George H.W. Bush, a panel of NBC News journalists noted many of Bush’s foreign policy accomplishments before Nightly News anchor Lester Holt observed: “But what brought him down politically, and brought his presidency down, was not a foreign policy issue it was a sense that he was not connected to the American people.”
Holt then recalled a false story from the 1992 presidential campaign: “I mean, we all remember the infamous milk scanning in the – ” Both correspondent Andrea Mitchell and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd quickly corrected him. Mitchell explained: “Which was actually a false [story]....It was misreported by the reporter at the scene.” Todd added: “As they might say today, fake news.”
Today show host Savannah Guthrie chimed in: “It was misreported, but it still it ended up in the obituaries.” Holt continued: “Yeah, it ended up in the obituary. And it was used to perceive that label.” Todd agreed: “A reminder of perception.”
In fact, obituaries of the 41st President by both the Associated Press and The New York Times repeated that “fake news” as if it were fact.
Sadly, NBC’s reporters didn’t seem particularly disturbed by the fact that such journalistic malpractice was still being repeated, but seemed more amused that the unfair “perception” of Bush endured.
Here is a transcript of the December 3 exchange:
3:37 PM ET
(...)
LESTER HOLT: But what brought him down politically, and brought his presidency down, was not a foreign policy issue...
CHUCK TODD: No.
HOLT: ...it was a sense that he was not connected to the American people.
CHUCK TODD: That’s right.
HOLT: I mean, we all remember the infamous milk scanning in the –
TODD: Which was not –
ANDREA MITCHELL: Which was actually a false –
HOLT: But it, you know –
TODD: As they might say today, fake news.
MITCHELL: It was misreported by the reporter at the scene.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: It was misreported, but it still it ended up in the obituaries.
HOLT: Yeah, it ended up in the obituary. And it was used to...
TODD: Perception.
HOLT: ...to perceive that label.
TODD: A reminder of perception.
(...)
