White House issues correction to Bush's lie during G8 statement

[Pert_UK]

Mods - no link to the story yet but I just heard this on the UK's flagship national radio news programme "Today" on BBC Radio 4. I will keep looking for links.

Bush said this yesterday during a press briefing: "Listen, the United States, for national security reasons and economic security reasons, needs to diversify away from fossil fuels. And so we've put out a strategy to do just that, and I can't wait to share with our G8 friends, just like I shared with the Prime Minister, our strategy. We spent about over $20 billion last year on research and development on new technologies that we are willing to share with the world."

Source:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050706/nyw077.html?.v=18

Radio 4 news didn't believe the figure of $20 billion and tried to verify it. One US government website put the figure at $2 billion per year, another at between $3 and $5 billion.

Radio 4 approached the White House which has apparently released a statement saying that Bush "mis-spoke", and that the true figue is $20 billion over 5 years, i.e. a fifth of what Bush announced to the world's media.

What a convenient mistake for Mr Bush to make, eh?

[MajorFlaw]

1. "Truth? . . .

We don't need no stinkin' truth here."

[tritsofme]

2. With plethora of lies we have seen from this administration

Misspeaking about a figure like that is hardly enough for me to get outraged over.

[Robbien]

3. Even the $20B over 5 years correction is too high.

I am surprised anyone even bothered questioning the original bogus number. Our "government watchdog" corporate media usually just bobs their heads along with anything coming out of BushCo.

[truthisfreedom]

4. the "willing to share with you" is the part that kills me. here, we never

spent the money, and we have nothing to share, and bushco would never share any technology anyway, except fossil fuel technology that came with the 10 commandments carved into it.

[0007]

8. Willing to share is a joke. If 'ya gave junior a pig he wouldn't

give you a pork chop.

[The Doctor.]

5. What an ass...

I mean FOR CHRIST'S SAKE the man is a moron!

How the fuck does the 'President of the United States' 'mis-speak' every fucking time he opens his mouth?

Sorry, but as an Actual Republican, I am seriously offended that this jackass sits in the White House.

[tsuki]

7. You must be pretty lonely these days as an Actual

Republican. Haven't seen one of those in years. Well, I am glad you're hanging with us in DU. :hi:

[mistertrickster]

11. Just out of curiosity, what keeps you registered as Republican?

I agree that the Democrats have fallen along way away from FDR, Truman, and JFK, but still, a Republican?

The central value of Republicanism seems to be "I'm richer, so that means I'm better--I deserve what I've got and what you've got too." It's like institutionalized selfishness--greed held up as a positive value.

[punpirate]

6. I wonder how much of even that revised...

... figure is for flim-flams like spraying oil on coal and calling it "clean-coal technology." The real non-fossil fuel alternatives budget has been hurting since Bush came into office. Ask the people at NREL.

Or, he's talking about the proposed energy bill that puts far, far more money into the hands of the fatcat energy industries.

[tmorelli415]

9. Most MSM Don't Bother to Check Facts

The press have become so lazy and beholden to right wing corporate interests that they don't even bother to check facts like this for the most part. They just go ahead and publish it without question, especially when such figures are given the instant credibility of a direct quote. Quotes usually contain opinion - this administration knows that and so they use sound bites to circulate erroneous information. A simple 'oops, he mis-spoke' is all that is necessary to neatly sidestep questions, whereas if such figures were released in a press release or written statement they are more prone to be checked.

I'm a PR consultant and one of the most basic rules of quotability is that we use direct quotes (almost always drafted and prepared ahead of time and simply repeated by the spokesperson) as a means to insert opinion stated as fact into a discussion. These guys are masters at this media game: they have deliberately cultivated the image of Bush as someone who is prone to word gaffes so that the public and media doesn't question it when they have to issue a 'clarification'. Any other politician or corporate spokesperson who were to do such a thing would be vilified if his/her facts were objectively wrong because the media would expect an immediate proactive clarification on the spot. Bush has half a dozen communications/PR gurus with him at all times - we (us PR hacks) are supposed to be there to make sure the information is correct and that the spokesperson delivers the message accurately and as planned. If we don't say something to set things straight immediately it is not a mistake - in this case, they just wait to see if anyone catches on and then capitalize on the word-beffuddled character that they have cast Bush as to make him 'sympathetic' rather than 'deceitful'.

The media is complicit. They know better: reporting is not merely a recitiation of the chronology of events as they took place - it also includes a responsibility to determine the facts and present them unbiased. Otherwise, we just get propaganda. In this case, at least one reporter seemed to do that job which rarely happens anymore.

Interestingly, I've noticed some stirrings in the right direction with the press lately. An article here and there that actually seems to be looking into a story rather than giving a playback of the action as it took place. Albeit only a tiny stiring, but perhaps they are beginning to catch on? One can only hope, but in the meantime I don't believe anything I read or see in the MSM - that's a pretty frightening thing to admit when you're in the PR business yourself.

We desperately need sweeping media reform in this country. This is a crisis for democracy and is the one thing that absolutely frightens me the most right now.

[truth2power]

12. Excellent analysis

of the state of our media. And, yes, the most frightening thing is that they're complicit in the destruction of this country.

I don't know how some of these media people (I can't bring myself to call them journalists) can sleep at night.

BTW, welcome to DU! :hi:

[Tesla]

10. yeah, Halliburton is building the buildings RIGHT NOW to do our NEW TECHNO

they will take it over from the military, just like they are with COMBAT!!

We will be the US of Halliburton!!!

They will change all the military to civies, use our children for "fodder"

Oh wait, thats happening NOW!!!

[truth2power]

13. I wish that moron

would stop saying "I can't wait to..." Just one more example of the childlike locution that he uses.

The boy ain't right...I'm tellin' ya'. :eyes:

[progressoid]

14. Oh C'mon. Give the guy a break

So he mixed up a couple numbers. What's the big deal?

Rumsfeld did that too. He said the war would last a month or two, when he meant a decade or two. Oops.

[Coexist]

15. Good - call him on all the lies you can find.

Hit him hard on all fronts. He is a horse's ass. Has anyone sent this to media matters?

[Tsiyu]

16. Is it just me

or is *'s nose getting longer and longer and longer.....??????