After being widely criticized for editing out President Barack Obama’s geography gaffe made during his late-night TV interview with Jay Leno, the Associated Press has responded to public pressure and issued a thorough correction regarding its initial story.
“In an Aug. 7 story on President Barack Obama’s comments on the need to deepen U.S. harbors, The Associated Press wrongly inserted an interpretive phrase in parentheses into a quote by Obama,” the AP writes.
Here is the altered quote in question:
“If we don’t deepen our ports all along the Gulf – (and in) places like Charleston, S.C., or Savannah, Ga., or Jacksonville, Fla. – if we don’t do that, these ships are going to go someplace else and we’ll lose jobs.”
Many sharp viewers were quick to point out that neither Charleston, S.C., nor Savannah, Ga., or even Jacksonville, Fla., are located along the Gulf. Clearly, adding the “(and in)” alters the statement in a fundamental way, making the statement seem like it wasn’t a gaffe at all.
“The [AP]…parenthetical Obama Gulf gaffe rescue would be akin to putting an “(s)” after “potatoe” to cover for Dan Quayle,” Michelle Malkin said, as previously reported by TheBlaze.
The AP now admits: “Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville are not Gulf ports. It wasn’t known if the president was suggesting they were. The AP should not have added the phrase in an effort to clarify his statement.”
Here’s how the quote as it now appears in the news agency’s updated post:
“If we don’t deepen our ports all along the Gulf – places like Charleston, S.C., or Savannah, Ga., or Jacksonville, Fla. – if we don’t do that, these ships are going to go someplace else and we’ll lose jobs,” Obama said.
The story was written by Associated Press reporter Russ Bynum.
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