As previously reported, Barack Obama made a scathing attack upon John McCain’s proposal for a $300 million prize for the development of a next-generation battery yesterday. In a delivered speech Obama stated, “In statements made today, Mr. Obama remarked, “I’ve been talking about this myself for the last few years. But I don’t think that a $300 million prize is the way to go. When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn’t put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win – he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people, not just in the private sector but also in the public sector.”
Obama’s gaffe claiming that “I don’t think that a $300 million prize is the way to go…” was a direct reflection of his inherent misunderstanding of American Ingenuity over the past 232 years, as reported in as reported at PDOP – Obama World: Government Not American Ingenuity Will Solve The Gas Crisis. More importantly however is the fact that news organizations across the country conveniently failed to publish this portion of Obama’s remarks. Both CNN Online and The New York Times published excerpts of the speech that omitted the gaffe.
Two reporters, however, took it upon themselves to alter the text of Obama’s speech in articles they published. In an ABC News article published last night, Jennifer Duck included the following quote from Obama’s speech, “I’ve been talking about this myself for the last few years. But I don’t think a $300 million prize is enough…”
The same quote was attributed to Obama in a Washington Post article written by Shailagh Murray. “He did give McCain credit for proposing a contest to produce a better car battery. ‘But I don’t think a $300 million prize is enough…’”
One can blame the alteration of Obama’s speech on poor reporting or even a lack of editorial oversight and fact-checking; or does this incident further highlight a lack of journalistic integrity in reporting the facts versus a the reporters view of what the story should be.
The video of Obama remarks are available at CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/24/campaign.wrap/index.html
More Articles From Jarid Brown can be viewed at Politically Drunk on Politics.