Fox's Henneberg falsely claimed Obama's campaign said he didn't visit troops at Landstuhl because...

[Leo 9]

Mon, Jul 28, 2008 8:03pm ET

Fox's Henneberg falsely claimed Obama's campaign said he didn't visit troops at Landstuhl because Pentagon prohibited cameras

Summary: Discussing Sen. John McCain's criticism of Sen. Barack Obama for not visiting wounded soldiers in Germany, Fox News' Molly Henneberg asserted that the "Obama campaign originally said the candidate thought it would be, quote, 'inappropriate' to visit wounded troops as part of a campaign-funded trip, but later they said that the Pentagon said they couldn't go without media cameras." In fact, the Obama campaign did not say that Obama decided not to visit because the Pentagon barred media from accompanying him.

On the July 28 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, while discussing Sen. John McCain's criticism of Sen. Barack Obama for not visiting wounded soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, correspondent Molly Henneberg asserted that the "Obama campaign originally said the candidate thought it would be, quote, 'inappropriate' to visit wounded troops as part of a campaign-funded trip, but later they said that the Pentagon said they couldn't go without media cameras." In fact, the Obama campaign did not say that Obama decided not to visit because the Pentagon barred media from accompanying him. According to Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass, "We told military officials explicitly that Senator Obama had absolutely no intention of bringing any members of the media or photographers in with him to visit the wounded warriors" at Landstuhl. ABC senior national correspondent Jake Tapper and Time national political correspondent Karen Tumulty both noted in reference to a McCain campaign ad, which similarly asserts that Obama canceled the visit because "the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras," that the McCain campaign has provided "no evidence" to support that assertion.

As Media Matters for America has noted, while Obama did not go to Landstuhl, in recent weeks he did reportedly visit wounded troops -- without media present -- at a casualty unit in Iraq and at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and also reportedly made phone calls to wounded soldiers at Landstuhl following his canceled visit there.

From the July 28 edition of Fox News' Happening Now:

GREG JARRETT (co-host): Molly, one of the things we're hearing is that John McCain's campaign continues to hit Barack Obama for essentially not visiting troops in Germany. What's the latest salvo on that?

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http://mediamatters.org/items/200807280007?f=h_latest