Sun, May 18, 2008 5:11pm ET

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On Meet the Press, Russert allowed GOP strategist Murphy to falsely claim that "Rubin mischaracterized," "paraphrased" McCain

Summary: On Meet the Press, Tim Russert failed to correct Mike Murphy's false claim that James Rubin "mischaracterized" Sen. John McCain in a Washington Post op-ed. Russert said, "And there is an interview with James Rubin, as you know, from Senator McCain where he said that in time, we would have to talk with Hamas." Murphy replied, "Right. Well, but I think if you look, like many of us did, at the full YouTube of that, Rubin mischaracterized him in his op-ed. ... McCain had a lot of qualifications, if you look at the full context of it, which is not what Rubin paraphrased in that op-ed." In fact, Rubin did not "mischaracterize[]" or "paraphrase[]" McCain's comments, as video posted on YouTube shows.
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Posted by mr. l

You Tube is a partisan, dispicable, left-wing propaganda machine INTENT on destroying the very fabric of the universe.  Thank GOD republicans ignore it and say that it is a false idol. 

Posted by edallan1352 in reply to mr. l

I infer that you have never looked at YouTube.

 

Are you suggesting that somehow Senator McCain's comments were doctored??? 

Posted by BottleBlonde in reply to edallan1352

Sarcasm is often missed in written comments. He was being sarcastic here, not serious.

Posted by wolf kotenberg in reply to mr. l

anybody can post on youtube.

Posted by wzwriter in reply to wolf kotenberg

anybody can post on youtube.

But according to Mr. L, only liberals do.  I guess that's a big surprise to all the conservatives who post things on YouTube.  And more proof that many people on the right (including Mr. L) don't know what they're talking about.

Posted by roundhouse in reply to wzwriter

I think you guys may have missed Mr. L's snark.

From what I can tell of his other postings here, he's no rightwinger.

Posted by wzwriter in reply to roundhouse

I think you guys may have missed Mr. L's snark.

From what I can tell of his other postings here, he's no rightwinger.

Then I apologize.  He should have put a "sarcasm off" or smiley face on his post so his meaning would not have been misunderstood - sarcasm can be hard to detect in a forum like this.

Posted by roundhouse in reply to wzwriter

I could be wrong. If I am, my apologies.

Posted by mary59 in reply to wzwriter

I think his saying that YouTube will "destroy the fabric of the universe" made it pretty evident that he was being sarcastic! I'm guilty of this snarkiness myself (see below)

But I've also missed the fact that someone was being sarcastic. Oh well.

Posted by mary59 in reply to mr. l

YouTube is the great harlot? It must compete for the title with many other godless rivals. ..as well as destructive forces of the universe from volcanoes, tsunamis, plagues and nuclear weapons on Earth to stars collapsing and exploding cigars.

Winner take all, and bring on armegeddon.

Posted by worrierking

So now I guess McCain's permitted to be nuanced and everything he says has to be taken in context. Yet, he'll still take out of context phrases and bumper sticker language to twist what any Democrat will say.

And the media will let him.

Seems fair to me.

Posted by princeofwheels in reply to worrierking

That McCain, he is quite the jester. Keep the people happy. It is a matter of He Said, He Said.

Another stand-up comedian in the Republan Party. Is there any one who doesn't mind making a fool of themselves in that party.

Posted by wolf kotenberg in reply to princeofwheels

I heard his speech at the NRA. His joke about never seeing Mrs Clinton on a duck blind with a six shooter and needing a shotgun to go duck hunting. The applause kinda gave away the intellect of the audience.

Posted by wzwriter in reply to wolf kotenberg

I heard his speech at the NRA. His joke about never seeing Mrs Clinton on a duck blind with a six shooter and needing a shotgun to go duck hunting. The applause kinda gave away the intellect of the audience.

For years I've had a theory that the smell of gunpowder causes brain damage.  These NRA conventions tend to back up my theory......

Posted by Euro

So I guess we got it all wrong. In his Knesset speech, Bush was attacking McCain for his appeasement, not Obama!

Posted by SueEld in reply to Euro

So disgraceful, has an American President ever been critical of an American official on foreign soil in our history?
Disgusting.

Posted by wzwriter in reply to SueEld

So disgraceful, has an American President ever been critical of an American official on foreign soil in our history?

Disgusting.

None that I'm aware of, Sue.  And it's rather ironic that Bush would stir up memories of Hitler, seeing as his grandfather helped bankroll the Third Reich.....

Posted by funnymanpants

And Jimmy Carter is being demonized for doing what McCain advocates. My my. Will we hear any apologies from the knee jerk right wingers who painted Carter as some type of nut? 

Posted by wolf kotenberg

shame on you Mr Russert. Mr Huckabee asked you repeatatly not to refer to him as Mr Vice-president and you refused to do so. And your last words were " mr vice president. Your stained britches are showing.

Posted by princeofwheels in reply to wolf kotenberg

Maybe Lou thought he was going to run for VP with Bob Barr. Seems the the Repubs don't want any publicity about Barr. I wonder why?????

Posted by wzwriter

I saw part of that roundtable yesterday.  Mike Murphy looked and sounded like he had studied at the feet of KKKarl Rove.

Posted by wolf kotenberg in reply to wzwriter

specially when i heard him say Mccain is an independently minded republican. This guy must live in LA next to that Hilton goofball.

Posted by dunman1

You gotta appreciate the senator who voted for war in Iraq, calling the senator who voted against war reckless. He's starting to remind me of Rush, just say anything nasty and the dittoheads will applaud it. I still say McCain is a straw man, and we haven't seen the real GOP candidate yet.

Posted by Wilfred of Ivanhoe

As time goes by, I'm getting less impressed with Tim Russert.