Wrong Hillary

From the March 19th edition of the Mahoning Valley Tribune Chronicle:

It was incorrectly reported in Tuesday’s Tribune Chronicle that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton answered questions from voters in a local congressman’s office.
Reporter John Goodall, who was assigned to the story, spoke by telephone with Hillary Wicai Viers, who is a communications director in U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson’s staff. According to the reporter, when Viers answered the phone with ‘‘This is Hillary,’’ he believed he was speaking with the Democratic presidential candidate, who had made several previous visits to the Mahoning Valley. The quotes from Viers were incorrectly attributed to Clinton.

You have to wonder how a reporter could be that clueless. Did he seriously imagine that Hillary Clinton would be there answering the phones? Or maybe he knew it wasn't Clinton, but thought it would make the story sound better if he attributed the quotes to her, and that no one would ever know the difference.

Identity/Imposters Journalism Politics

Posted on Sun Mar 23, 2008


Comments

That's why the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary. Look it up
Posted by Barack Obama  on  Mon Mar 24, 2008  at  11:04 PM
I looked it up, it's there. However, this, and the other similar examples, show the lack of either ethics or competence in the journalism field.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Tue Mar 25, 2008  at  07:42 PM
Chris, the word "gullible" is NOT in the dictionary. Believe me. You must have misspelled it when you looked it up. Try again, look closely, and take your time. Get a BIG dictionary if you can, with really small print. They tend to leave out a lot of words that are commonly missplelled. Good luck
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Tue Mar 25, 2008  at  08:17 PM
To quote my dictionary (The Living Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language - page 430, column 3 published by The English Institute of America, Chicago) "gullible, a. Easily gulled or cheated; credulous,..."

It's over 30 years old, but it hasn't worn out yet unlike all of the replacements I have bought over the last twenty years or so.

You might also check dictionary.com.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Tue Mar 25, 2008  at  10:36 PM
Chris, the 'joke' is that you actually looked up the word in the dictionary, which makes you gullible for being unsure enough of whether the word is or is not in the dictionary, which made you check to see for sure. It's one step up from someone telling you to pull his finger and then farting.
Posted by chevdo  on  Thu Mar 27, 2008  at  02:05 AM
what's that smell?
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Thu Mar 27, 2008  at  02:13 AM
There is also the part that I wanted to make sure that you were spelling it right. I have enough trouble with spelling that it does not surprise me that someone else has trouble with the spelling of a word - and your having trouble with the spelling would be an reason for your not finding it.

However, I don't think that John Goodall was gullible. I think he just was (is) not competent.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Thu Mar 27, 2008  at  03:00 AM
I know some people who work at that paper, and I am from the area. Basically, that paper used to be a pretty respectable paper when it was locally owned. A few years back, in what has happened in many areas of the media, a company that owns several other newspapers came in and bought out the Tribune-Chronicle. The news, sports, and photography departments were gutted. Most of the people who had any talent (people who were hired under the previous owner, been with the company for serveral years, and making a decent wage) were fired over the next couple of years. Most of those people were not replaced. When people are replaced, the paper hires college students or recent graduates and pay them literally $7 an hour. Which is how incidents like this occur.
Posted by Not Hillary  on  Sat Apr 12, 2008  at  12:32 PM
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