Posted by Jed Lewison on Mon May 26, 2008 at 12:32 AM Pacific

Who's the one-man gaffe machine now?

This is pretty funny--Jake Tapper decides to take whack at Barack Obama, calling him a "one-man gaffe machine." He lists as evidence a couple of trivial items:

  • Obama inadvertantly said Sioux City instead of Sioux Falls (Obama corrected himsef quickly)
  • Obama called Sunrise, Florida Sunshine instead.

Next, Tapper links to this report by David Wright with the headline "Obama Gaffes on Iraq and Afghanistan." Sounds promising, but I can only assume Tapper saw the headline and read no further. When you actually read the updates to Wright's original story, you realize Obama never gaffed and Wright essentially retracted most of the story.

Tapper then launches into his own supposed Obama-gaffe (about FARC). It sounds like gaffe alright, but then in two separate updates Tapper is forced to walk significant parts of it back. Maybe if he had just talked to the Obama camp in the first place (I thought that is what reporters did?) then he wouldn't have gotten so much wrong.

Still, despite all that, I like Tapper's blog. I mean, he's wrong an awful lot, but he's entertaining, and sometimes he does some really great reporting.

Who's the one-man gaffe machine now?

This is pretty funny--Jake Tapper decides to take whack at Barack Obama, calling him a "one-man gaffe machine." He lists as evidence a couple of trivial items:

  • Obama inadvertantly said Sioux City instead of Sioux Falls (Obama corrected himsef quickly)
  • Obama called Sunrise, Florida Sunshine instead.

Next, Tapper links to this report by David Wright with the headline "Obama Gaffes on Iraq and Afghanistan." Sounds promising, but I can only assume Tapper saw the headline and read no further. When you actually read the updates to Wright's original story, you realize Obama never gaffed and Wright essentially retracted most of the story.

Tapper then launches into his own supposed Obama-gaffe (about FARC). It sounds like gaffe alright, but then in two separate updates Tapper is forced to walk significant parts of it back. Maybe if he had just talked to the Obama camp in the first place (I thought that is what reporters did?) then he wouldn't have gotten so much wrong.

Still, despite all that, I like Tapper's blog. I mean, he's wrong an awful lot, but he's entertaining, and sometimes he does some really great reporting.

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