Politico Admits Fabricating A Hit Piece On Ben Carson

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Politico Admits Fabricating A Hit Piece On Ben Carson
 
Politico's editorial staff on Friday conceded that entire basis of attack on Carson was invented out of whole cloth.
November 6, 2015 By Mollie Hemingway

Politico‘s Kyle Cheney admitted that he fabricated a negative story about Ben Carson. At least, according to his own standards, he admitted the grievous journalistic sin.

In a story published early on Friday, Politico’s Kyle Cheney authored a piece headlined “Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship” with a subhed “Carson’s campaign on Friday conceded that a central point in his inspirational personal story did not occur as he previously described.”

There were at least five major problems with the story:

    The headline was completely false
    The subhed was also completely false
    The opening paragraph was false false false
    The substance of the piece was missing key exonerating information
    The article demonstrated confusion about service academy admissions and benefits

But other than that, A+++ work, Kyle Cheney and Politico.

It could take all day to parse the problems with Kyle Cheney’s now-somewhat-cleaned-up hit piece on Carson, but let’s just look at his original introductory claims:

    Ben Carson’s campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from POLITICO, that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The academy has occupied a central place in Carson’s tale for years. According to a story told in Carson’s book, “Gifted Hands,” the then-17 year old was introduced in 1969 to Gen. William Westmoreland, who had just ended his command of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and the two dined together. That meeting, according to Carson’s telling, was followed by a “full scholarship” to the military academy. West Point, however, has no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission…When presented with this evidence, Carson’s campaign conceded the story was false.

Roughly none of this is true. Ben Carson’s campaign did not “admit” that a central point in his story “was fabricated.” Quite the opposite. The central point of the story is falsely described by Cheney/Politico as being that he applied and was accepted at West Point. Carson, in fact, has repeatedly claimed not to have applied. So any claim regarding the absence of West Point records of such an application would not debunk Carson’s point. And, again, Carson’s campaign never “conceded” the story was false at least in part because the story, as characterized by Politico, is not one he told. Further, Cheney is unable to substantiate his claim that Carson told this story. Nowhere in the article does he even explain, with facts, where he came up with the idea that Carson has ever made this claim.

Politico stealthily edited the inflammatory headline and lede, after the damage was done. They made changes without adding a note about what was corrected. They didn’t update the piece or add an editor’s note. The new headline is very much toned down to “Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied.” This is a claim not exclusive to Politico and not newsworthy in the least. Carson himself broke this news 23 years ago when he said he was offered a scholarship to West Point but never applied. The cleaned-up story still says that Carson “conceded that he never applied nor was granted admission to West Point.” To concede is to admit that something is true. But, again, Carson himself made this claim more than two decades ago, so he’s not conceding the point to Kyle Cheney or Politico simply because Kyle Cheney and Politico misread him.

The Washington Post‘s Dave Weigel, who immediately expressed skepticism about the significance of the Politico hit that was taking everybody by storm, has a balanced take on the kerfuffle here. He also noted:

One other quick point to make about Politico and Kyle Cheney’s piece. The original story claimed that Carson also lied by claiming he was offered a full scholarship to West Point since the service academy is entirely taxpayer funded. Or, as Politico put it: “indeed there are no ‘full scholarships,’ per se.” The only problem with this is that the academy itself describes this benefit as a “full scholarship.”

Ben Carson was a brilliant student who had already shown an interest in the military and had demonstrated leadership skills. It would be weirder if West Point hadn’t tried to recruit him than tried to recruit him. This doesn’t happen to us journalists, for obvious reasons, but exceptional students are recruited by top colleges and universities all the time.

Now, as for Kyle Cheney’s concession that he fabricated his piece on Carson. He didn’t. That’s how I’m interpreting his decision to stealthily edit his piece to remove much of the error. But Ben Carson didn’t “admit” or “concede” to fabrication and he’s been tarred by Cheney as if he had. So I’ll keep the headline.

Other critiques of Cheney and Politico are available from across the political and media spectrum here, here, here, here, here, and here.

At a time when the media need to demonstrate good faith efforts to cover Republicans and conservatives with even a modicum of fairness, Kyle Cheney and Politico have done a tremendous disservice to their brands.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/06/politico-admits-fabricating-a-hit-piece-on-ben-carson/

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Where Politico's Ben Carson 'scoop' went wrong
By Dylan Byers   @CNNMoney
 
What initially looked like a disaster for Ben Carson could now be a major black eye for Politico.

On Friday, Politico reported that Carson had "fabricated" his application and acceptance into West Point, and that his campaign had acknowledged as much in an interview.

That story was initially headlined "EXCLUSIVE: Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship." It seemed like the sort of story that had the potential to ruin Carson's ambitions for the presidency.

But the Politico story was not accurate on some key points.

And in the wake of pushback from the Carson campaign -- which called the story an "outright lie" -- Politico softened its headline, removed the "fabrication" language, and changed some key details -- even as it said it was "standing by its story."

In a statement, Politico said, "We stand by our story which is a powerful debunking of a key aspect of Ben Carson's personal narrative. The story online includes additional details now as well that bolster this account."

The rewritten article did not initially include a correction or editor's note, although a note was later added on Friday. Politico again said it "stands by its reporting."

Related: A tale of two Carsons

But Carson's campaign sees the matter differently: "It's clear that what the Politico writer, with what he was trying to gain with the headline, did not substantiate it with his article," Armstrong Williams, Carson's business manager, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Politico's initial story began by stating that Carson's campaign had admitted "that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point."

In fact, there is no evidence in Politico's story that Carson ever claimed to have applied to West Point.

The Politico story does show that Carson said several times that he was "offered a full scholarship to West Point." He made that claim in his book, "Gifted Hands," and in several media interviews, including during an appearance on Charlie Rose last month.

Carson acknowledged Friday that he was never offered a full scholarship to West Point, and sought to clarify that he had instead been given an informal offer or "nomination" to attend West Point.

"Because I had done so extraordinarily well you know I was told that someone like me -- they could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going to pursue a career in medicine," Carson told The New York Times. "It was, you know, an informal 'with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point."

Related: Trump rejected risque 'SNL' skits to please Iowa voters

Politico also claims that West Point "has no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission." But West Point told CNN on Friday that it does not keep records of decades-old applications, and would not be able to know if Carson was offered an appointment because he did not attend.

Finally, Politico's story seeks to cast doubt on Carson's claim that he was introduced to General William Westmoreland during Memorial Day of his senior year at high school.

In "Gifted Hands," Carson writes that his high school ROTC director "introduced me to General Westmoreland, and I had dinner with him and the Congressional Medal winners."

Politico says official U.S. Army records show Westmoreland did not visit Detroit around Memorial Day in 1969 or have dinner with Carson. "In fact," Politico reports, "the general's records suggest he was in Washington that day and played tennis at 6:45 p.m."

Related: Ben Carson defends Rupert Murdoch over 'real black president'

But Politico goes on to note that there was a similar banquet event in Detroit in February of that year that the General did attend, and that "Carson, a leader of the city's ROTC program at the time, may have been among the invited guests at the $10-a-plate event."

Following pushback from the Carson campaign, Politico softened its headline and changed its lead and various details in the story. The story is now headlined, "Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point 'scholarship' but never applied."

Carson's campaign, meanwhile, seemed unfazed by the report. Barry Bennett, Carson's campaign manager, said in an email to CNN that the story had been "debunked."

"Ben was offered a nomination which he declined," Bennet wrote.

Editor's note: The author of this story was a reporter for Politico from 2011 until September 2015.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/06/media/ben-carson-politico-west-point/