ABC News responds: The first time Jake Tapper ‘heard of Mark Levin pushing this story was in your post.’
ABC News responds: The first time Jake Tapper ‘heard of Mark Levin pushing this story was in your post.’
This morning, ThinkProgress documented a series of facts about how right-wing radio helped push a false political attack against President Obama. The attack began with a false assertion made by a corporate lawyer named Tom Lauria who appeared on a conservative radio show. The comment was taken up by a right-wing radio host who works for ABC. The story then got the attention of ABC’s Jake Tapper who took it to the White House for comment (the White House denied it). And finally, it ended up on Drudge. An ABC News spokesperson issued a statement to ThinkProgress denying that Tapper first learned of the story from a right-wing radio host. ABC explains that Tapper simply “overheard” an unnamed radio reporter talking about the matter:
Your assertion that Jake reported on this matter because he was encouraged to do so by conservative talk radio hosts or their listeners is inaccurate. No one pressured him, no one peddled anything to him, and no one reached out to him to cover this. Indeed, the first he heard of Mark Levin pushing this story was in your post.
Jake first heard of this story when he overheard a radio reporter talking about Mr. Lauria’s interview with WJR-AM. Having covered the Chrysler deal for ABC News, and having spoken to many Obama administration officials about the hedge funds whom President Obama disparaged, Jake was also interested in hearing the other side of the story.
He did due diligence on Lauria, found he was a leading bankruptcy attorney who represents players in this debate, with no discernible partisan bias, and called him up. He also reached out to the White House and got its denial of the story. Your implication is completely different from what actually happened.
By reporting the story, Tapper chose to accept the validity of Lauria’s claim that the White House could get “the full force of the White House press corps” to threaten a private company. Despite the fact that the parties with direct knowledge — the White House and Perella Weinberg — denied to ABC that any threats were made, Tapper still reported Lauria’s false accusation on his “Political Punch” blog. Drudge and other right-wing outlets are glad he did.
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Isn’t Jake Tapper PART of the “White House press corps”?
Can someone explain to me how the Obama administration could “get the full force of the White House press corps” to threaten a private company”???
Does this make sense to ANYONE?
May 4th, 2009 at 1:03 pmIt doesnt make sense to me. Chrysler was a public company since it issued stocks…and the WH press corp having the ability to threaten a company is silly.
I call BS.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:07 pmYes, ABC, the network who brought us that unbiased docudrama “Path to 9/11″ has such clean hands.
And their attempt to clarify is the lamest connect the dots excuse I’ve heard outside of FuxNews.
PEACE
May 4th, 2009 at 1:08 pmABC explains that Tapper simply “overhead” an unnamed radio reporter talking about the matter:
============================================
Me no wat guy meades?
============================================
unnamed radio reporter
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Guy por gots no nam e?
May 4th, 2009 at 1:08 pmKeep up the pressure, TP, nice work!
Tapper is just doing the right-wing’s work for them here.
HERE is a FACT for ABC News: Tapper’s reporting was so inaccurate that he was forced to run 2 corrective statements afterward that contradicted the quote he got from what was clearly an unreliable and vengeful source.
And since when is a source’s partisan background of any interest to Jake Tapper? He is always more than happy to run with quotes from Newt Gingrich or stories that originate from rightwing blogs & AM hate radio.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:08 pmThis whole post is a waste of time. I don’t understand what’s going on beyond that fact that the press (TP included) looooooves to talk about themselves. The solipsism is bad enough on a day-to-day basis, but this is a whole new level of meta.
There’s important stuff going on, TP, keep an eye on that and not on every right-wing nutcase’s baseless accusations.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:10 pmJake Tapper reads TP?
Hey Jake, you’re a hack.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:11 pmSome of us can walk and chew gum at the same time.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:11 pmOverheard?? What? In a Men’s room stall next to him?
Hasn’t Rep. Foxx ,who put her foot firmly into her mouth, also used ABC News to try and bail herself out?
Is ABC the backstop of choice for catapulting the right wing agenda when FOX is too obvious?
May 4th, 2009 at 1:11 pm“…right-wing radio helped push a false political attack against President Obama”?
Horrors! Say it isn’t so! What WILL we tell the children?
BTW, I’m so old, I remember when Jake Tapper wrote front page top of the fold articles for salon.com, and was most definitely NOT a media wh*re. And so, any complaints about him are taken with grains of salt–not to debunk them reflexively, of course. But he used to attack the Bush administration regularly, and with aplomb.
Maybe he’s just gotten stupider. I don’t know.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:13 pmNo surprise here folks Tapper has been doing the reicht-wing’s work for long time but moreover,remember who he works for ABC,anyone remember the sandbagging of candidate Obama during the Dem primary “debate” ?But keep an eye one the other gas bag posing as reporter,CNN’s Ed Henry.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:13 pmTapper got “suckered” by right-wignuts how embarrassing. Tapper, Fixed News has a spot for you I’m sure?
May 4th, 2009 at 1:18 pmFrom wikipedia:
“… He is the author of the books Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency…”
I’m much more willing to give Tapper a pass than most liberal bloggers. If he’s turned traitor, so be it. If he’s just made too many mistakes, so be it. Go ahead and hold his feet to the fire, but don’t forget this guy has done a lot of GOOD in his journalistic career.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:18 pmJeez, TP, can’t you fix those Recommends?
The egotistical thrill of seeing how many Recommends my posts get is about the third or fourth reason I comment at all…
Heh, heh!
May 4th, 2009 at 1:22 pmIf he is going to do “reporting”, then fact-check and get a response from the WH and the firm’s rep FIRST.
As a WH correspondant, blogging about some unhappy lawyer is Drudge-league, not actual reporting.
When BOTH sides say the source’s recollection was wrong, then you’ve just made a BIG JOURNALISTIC MISTAKE.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:23 pmDaddy-O Says:
Jeez, TP, can’t you fix those Recommends?
- – -
We’re working on it!
May 4th, 2009 at 1:23 pmSo Tapper can pick and chose [accept validity] whatever crap he should believe or not believe. No needs to ‘verify data’ before posting any article or false info.
BTW, first they accuse Team Obama of being ‘too soft or wimpy’ and now they feel threatened by ‘too soft or wimpy’? Which is it? It’s hard to be threatened by a so-called wimpy administration.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:25 pm“He did due diligence on Lauria, found he was a leading bankruptcy attorney who represents players in this debate, with no discernible partisan bias, and called him up.”
Am I just confused, or wouldn’t a bankruptcy attorney who represents players in this debate have a discernible bias, whether ‘partisan’ or not?
May 4th, 2009 at 1:27 pmMe thinks thou dost protest too much, Tapper.
PEACE
May 4th, 2009 at 1:32 pmAmanda Terkel Says:
We’re working on it!
May 4th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I wish I could recommend this, but it says I already have. ;)
Thanks, Amanda!
May 4th, 2009 at 1:32 pmWJR-AM is a right wing station whose talkers are:
May 4th, 2009 at 1:35 pmWJR PERSONALITIES
Paul W. Smith
Frank Beckmann
Rush Limbaugh
Sean Hannity
Mitch Albom
The Big Story
Mark Levin
Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Warren Pierce
Hi, Amanda, thanks! Wayne and I, like Daddy-O, have been missing the egotistical self-validation! ;) More seriously, there have been so many other comments that we’ve wanted to ‘recommend’, it’s been very frustrating.
Glad you guys are back to fix it! :D
May 4th, 2009 at 1:36 pmHi Amanda!
Are you working on the “Report Abuse” feature, too? We had some bad hate speech yesterday that we just had to live with…
Thanks!
PEACE
May 4th, 2009 at 1:40 pmwho is that guy between tapper and the other tapper, chip reed?
May 4th, 2009 at 1:45 pmlooks like ken salazar?
A lawyer being paid to advocate for a particular result in a legal matter appears to be non-parisan to Jack Tapper. Does it appear that a Unicorn won the Kentucky Derby to this jack, last name Tapper. Isn’t a young turkey called a jake? Or is it called a jack when it mispresents a story to the public? TP reports, you decide.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:48 pmThis is Tapper’s no excuse excuse like the right does their no apology apology.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:50 pmDick Cheney is the master of this type of propaganda. He will tell some huge whopping lie which gets printed in the NY Times. Then, when he is later called on his lie, he will respond, “You don’t have to believe me. It was printed in the liberal NY times.”
May 4th, 2009 at 1:53 pmWrite and boycott ABC News!
This network has been trying harder and harder to be FOX-Lite for some time now. Let them know that you do not appreciate that, one Republican TV News Shhow is enough!
May 4th, 2009 at 1:54 pmJake Trapper has been playing “gotcha” on the Obama Administration since the first day he took office. Trapper doesn’t need facts. All he needs is innuendo and he runs with it. He is a disgrace to the word “journalism”.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:08 pmJack-ass Jake makes a rookie mistake, which is not therefore–since, given his experience and contacts, he’s not rookie–a mistake: “Confusing partisanship with ideology.”
From the ABC reply: He did due diligence on Lauria, found he was a leading bankruptcy attorney who represents players in this debate, with no discernible partisan bias, and called him up.
A leading corporate bankruptcy attorney is not an “unbiased” observer of the situation, howsoever non-partisan he may seem to be. Unless he had a reputation for heterodoxy, Tapper should have KNOWN where the guy would have come down…
May 4th, 2009 at 2:13 pmDr. Hussein Matt Says:
P.S. Anyone else having problems logging on to post?
Yes, I have to log in every time I visit now, which I never had to do in the past. And, once I log in I have to do a “forced refresh” (hold down the CTRL key while clicking on the refresh button) to get my registration to take.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:13 pmTapper’s an ass…he thinks he is ABC’s answer to Ted Koppel and he will stop at nothing to advance himself and his self-serving ideology. This guy is in bed with Drudge and the whole crew at Politico…especially, that smarmy closet case, Mike Allen. In fact (lol) Allen referred to Tapper as a “prolific reporter” last week. It was hysterical.
Remember, this is ABC….the network that had the “exclusive” on the DC Madam that their other idiot in residence reporter Brian Ross….that was really a non story, I have ABC blocked at my home….ever since they refused to allow the names of those killed in Iraq to be aired.
I wouldn’t trust Tapper if he told me wate was wet.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:17 pmA leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told ABC News Saturday….
Yeah that sounds like someone with no partisan bias. It was hedge funds that the Obama Administration was addressing in their refusal to work with Chrysler on their restructuring. So of course this person representing hedge funds wouldn’t be biased at all.
Trapper is a hack, pure and simple.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:19 pmIs that a tampon behind Tapper’s ear in the foto?
May 4th, 2009 at 2:35 pmraynman Says: Hasn’t Rep. Foxx ,who put her foot firmly into her mouth, also used ABC News to try and bail herself out?
Yes, and Elizabeth Vargas (the reporter who did the investigation Foxx quoted) showed up on the O’Reilly Factor to further push her case. Draw your own conclusions.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:42 pmJake first heard of this story when he overheard a radio reporter talking about Mr. Lauria’s interview with WJR-AM.
Name the station, or give the reporter’s name, or it’s baloney.
Or did he learn it from Curveball?
May 4th, 2009 at 2:50 pmAnd an impostor. He claims other people’s posts for his own by trying to sound and write like them. The worst of the worst.
May 4th, 2009 at 3:32 pmJake heard it from ABC Radio’s ANN COMPTON who heard it from the news director at WJR…The Attorney gave $10,000 to the Obama campaign so he’s not RIGHT WING…there is no record of his EVER giving to a republican.
May 4th, 2009 at 3:45 pmJake Tapper = Total BUTTBOY for Rush Limbaugh and the GOP. He must be removed from the White House beat at once.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:07 pmI think we need to get Levin’s response on this. Somebody get a big pile of phone books, put ‘em on a chair and give Marky the ladder so he climb up on top of them and be at eye-level with the camera!!!!!
May 4th, 2009 at 4:07 pmJake Tapper a liberal pal…he came from Salon.com…give em a freakin break!
May 4th, 2009 at 4:12 pmJohn Kerry Says:
Yes JK you ignorant troll. WE can read and understand. Too bad for you that YOU are too stupid to understand the story. You have been gone for a while but its no suprise you are still a moron
May 4th, 2009 at 4:41 pmPerella Weinberg is serving as an advisor to the FDIC regarding banks. Co-founder Joseph Perella is a rethug judging by his donations. Peter Weinberg donates to both sides but gave plenty to McCain in the 2008 cycle.
Daniel Arbess, the head of the Xerion Fund which is the actual PW fund that holds the Chrysler bonds. The head of Xerion is Daniel Arbess who doesn’t donate much but he did give 1k to Rahm back in 2005.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:48 pm“No one pressured him, no one peddled anything to him, and no one reached out to him to cover this”.
Why would they have to do any of this?
JT is a class A w.h.o.r.e. who cannot accept the fact that the President is these United States is Black. He is in cahoots with those pieces of garbage Druge and Politico.
And he thinks that he is smarter than the President.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:36 pmYou folks are on the WRONG story!
The villians are NOT the investors!!! These investors bought a contract that legally entitled them to be “first in line” as secured creditors of Chrysler.
The real story is how the President of the United States is using his office to attack and abrogate legally binding, contractual rights inherent in contract law!
May 4th, 2009 at 9:44 pmFolks, if you can’t see this for what it really is – an unconstitutional power grab by this President, then there’s no hope for you.
He’s inserted himself into something HE HAS NO BUSINESS doing. The President has NO RIGHT to abrogate long established tenets of private property and of contract law!
May 4th, 2009 at 9:48 pmI THANK
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Timmeh you MORON. How stupid do you have to be to NOT get that there is no evidence this happened and it is denied by the principles. Not only that the WH presscorp doesnt play FETCH for the administration. It is not credible and only a MORON would take it seriously. You are still as stupid as always Timmeh. The REAL story is that there is no story.
May 5th, 2009 at 7:44 amXisithrus > message #2
Wow… ‘BS’ is the correct assumption (based on what we KNOW now but… while we’re discussing ‘facts’:
FACT: Chrysler is a private company, not a public company
FACT: The attorney wasn’t claiming the WH press corps was threatening Chrysler, the attorney was claiming that a WH negotiator on the auto task force was threatening his client(s) (Hedge Fund senior debt holders, NOT Chrysler)with being ostracized by the WH press corps (as in he would ’sic’ ‘em on them for being obstructionist ‘tools’ ).
You might want to read up a bit on the background on this one, ie no credit for the right answer (”BS”), arrived at using ‘wacky facts’.
May 5th, 2009 at 9:42 pm