Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh believes that because the center-right media and blogosphere pushed back against the vaccine vendetta campaign against Republicans and conservatives, the establishment press is sharply backing away from trying to capitalize on it, especially because both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been shown to have played to the anti-vaxxer crowd during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign.
Additionally, the New York Times, which smelled blood and ran a hit piece ("Measles Outbreak Proves Delicate Issue to G.O.P. Field") on Page A1 in its Tuesday print edition, had to issue a major three-point correction to it the very next day. That correction to the story by reporters Jeremy Peters and Richard Pérez-Peña, and Rush's reaction to it, follow the jump (bolds are mine throughout this post; paragraph breaks added by me):
Correction: February 4, 2015
An article on Tuesday about the national debate over childhood vaccinations and the challenge it poses for the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential hopefuls omitted the context for a comment Barack Obama made about autism and other childhood disorders during his 2008 presidential campaign. When he said, “Some people are suspicious that it’s connected to the vaccines, this person included,” he was pointing to a member of the crowd; he was not referring to himself.
The article also misattributed a quotation about scientific research and vaccinations. It was Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said on ABC’s “This Week” program: “Study after study has shown that there are no negative long-term consequences. And the more kids who are not vaccinated, the more they’re at risk and the more they put their neighbors’ kids at risk as well.” The comment was not made by Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, who also appeared on “This Week.”
And because of an editing error, the article misidentified the NBC television show on which President Obama recently urged parents to “get your kids vaccinated.” It was during an interview on the “Today” show, not on “Meet the Press.”
Rush's reaction, first to Obama's statement during his first campaign, and a likely reason why measles has reappeared:
It was during a Democrat primary, and they (candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) rolled the dice. The said the American people believe this stuff about vaccines causing autism, and so they both said we need to research this, need to look into it, could be viable links. Obama gets elected in 2010 (really 2008 — Ed.) and miraculously there's a study two years later which debunks the whole thing, which allows Obama to say, "Well, yeah, I did it, but I didn't really mean it back then." But the fact that we went -- and a lot of people did -- and dredged up what Obama and Hillary said about 2008 is why the Drive-Bys have dropped that story.
Another reason is so many people made the point that the only reason it's an issue now is Obama's immigration policy, that we had conquered the disease. The CDC had officially proclaimed measles to be a conquered disease in 2000. Meaning there was no need for anymore vaccines. And yet there were Obama and Hillary in 2008 (paraphrasing), "Oh, yeah, well, there could be a link to autism." That was dredged up and then the idea that Obama and his immigration policy is largely responsible for this, so they drop it.
But still, as far as the Drive-Bys are concerned, mission accomplished, because the Drive-Bys successfully made a link to Republicans and heartlessness again in the eyes of low-information voters, so mission accomplished.
Now to Rush's take on the misattribution of a statement to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker:
They tried to tie Scott Walker on that and they had to point out it was not Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin who also appeared on the show. They just lied through their teeth, and they tried to link Scott Walker because he's the Republican front-runner in terms of some one poll in Iowa right now. They tried to link him to all of this in the New York Times. They got caught and they had to run this correction.
... attributing a quote from a CDC official to Scott Walker? It was Thomas Frieden. They said that Scott Walker issued this quote that was actually issued by the CDC guy. That's not an editing error. That is purposeful. That's almost an out-front lie just to see if they can get away with this. In fact, they may look at it as though they did. Whoever reads corrections? So they attribute a story from Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, to Scott Walker, and it was a quote that was embarrassing, by the way.
This is at least the third time in the past week that the Times has published blatant, obvious and arguably debliberate falsehoods and used its "corrections" mechanism to attempt to fix them while minimizing the truth's visibility.
Last Thursday, Times reporters Jeremy W. Peters and Carl Hulse reported what American Thinker's Thomas Lifson believes was a deliberate lie about whether House Speaker John Boehner had informed the White House of his plans to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress before the actual invitation went out. They corrected themselves a day later.
Earlier today, I noted that the Times incorrectly claimed that Sheldon Silver, New York State's Speaker and a Democrat the Times would not identify as such, has been indicted in an alleged payoffs scheme. Though it issued a correction relating to other matters, the Old Gray Lady still contends that Silver has been indicted, when he has only been arrested.
Finally there's the matter covered in this post.
It remains to be seen whether the Times continues to have to issue corrections to obvious errors in future reports, especially those which seem designed to make Republicans look bad at the expense of the truth. The more it happens, the more we can be certain that it is a deliberate strategy worthy of immediate subscription cancellations and advertiser avoidance.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
