Down the Memory Hole: ABC Edits Out Gibson's "Exact Words" Insistence, and Palin's Accurate Statement That She Was Being Misquoted, In Order to Spare Gibson Additional Embarrassment

Edited out of the West Coast feed -- and yet they refused to actually issue a correction. Correction, See Below: Edited out of all 6:30 feeds.

I guess that's the media's offer of a "compromise correction" -- "We won't admit we were wrong, but how about if we hide the evidence we were wrong and even delete your statement that we were wrong? How's that work for ya? You end up looking like you agree with our mischaracterization, and we look like we didn't insist we were right even though we were wrong! You look worse, we look better! Everyone wins!"

Charlie Gibson didn't really demonstrate the preparation, experience, and fluidity with the issues that I expect of a network anchor.

Are we sure he's fit to step in and lead a nightly network newscast? He could stand a bit more coaching.

Allah says... Hang on, maybe the 'exact words" exchange also didn't air on the east coast, either. He's checking.

Either way, it's ABCNews editing out Palin's correct objection that those aren't her "exact words," and Gibson's cocksure insistence they are indeed her "exact words."

He confirms: Nope, edited out of the East Coast feed too.

So this means that ABCNews covered up its error on both coasts, and deleted Palin's statement that they'd erred for the whole country.

ABCNews new of this error since the first transcript was released at 4 ET. Not only did they get numerous objections, but I'm guessing it's very likely that Palin's people informed them of the error, too.

So they just deleted it via the "compromise correction" route.

posted by Ace at 11:52 PM

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