Clinton Hospitalized

The AP retracts their 'Booed' story!

Quote:

Audience boos as Bush offers best wishes for Clinton's recovery
By Associated Press, 9/3/2004 13:57

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) President Bush on Friday wished Bill Clinton ''best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery.''

''He's is in our thoughts and prayers,'' Bush said at a campaign rally.

Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wis., booed. Bush did nothing to stop them.

Retraction:

Quote:

AP Changes "Boos" to "Ooohs" in Report on Bush and Clinton

By E & P Staff

Published: September 03, 2004 10:00 PM EST

NEW YORK The Associated Press changed "boos" to "ooohhs" Friday afternoon in reporting on President George Bush's first statement to supporters on the heart ailment that has befallen former President Bill Clinton.

In a dispatch sent to subscribers in early afternoon, the AP reported that when Bush, at a campaign rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, told the crowd that he wished to send Clinton his "best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery," the audience "of thousands booed. Bush did nothing to stop them."

Pretty damning, except that AP soon changed its story, only after the original appeared on many Web sites.

Several Web sites revealed that AP "retracted" the report "citing uncertainties about how to characterize the crowd's reaction."

The new version moved on the wire Friday described the same incident this way, after relating Bush's remarks: "The crowd reacted with applause and with some 'ooohs,' apparently surprised by the news that Clinton was ill."

A Knight Ridder/Tribune (KRT) report put it this way: "Some in Bush's audience booed when he wished Clinton well...." The AFP wire report declared that after Bush's statement "thousands of boisterous supporters clapped respectfully."

Source

"Hell was full": Right-wing radio on President Clinton's heart surgery
Posted to the web on Wednesday September 8, 2004 at 2:09 PM EST
Media Matters

Right-wing radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, and Mark Simone served up commentary on former President Bill Clinton's recent heart surgery. Limbaugh said that Clinton opted for quadruple rather than triple bypass heart surgery to increase his sympathy ratings; Savage said that Clinton would fully recover because "hell was full"; and Simone claimed that since the Clintons "don't want him [Kerry] to win," Clinton's surgery "works out perfectly."

From the September 7 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: I understand it was gonna be a triple bypass, but then Clinton figured out his sympathy rating would go up to 87 percent with a quadruple. So [laughter] -- bada-bump-buh. [laughter]

From the September 7 edition of Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: We heard, of course, that hell was full and therefore Mr. Clinton will be with us for a while longer -- but we wish him the best nevertheless. But what's the sanctity all of a sudden? All of a sudden everyone loves Bill Clinton. He reinvented himself.

And suddenly everything he did to America's been forgotten by George [W.] Bush, and everyone else. I seem to remember what he did to America. What's he all of a sudden -- hushed tones about Bill Clinton. I think he was the worst skunk that ever invaded the White House, to be honest with you. I think he was pure evil. The man was like a Caesar of ancient years. A Caesar, the man was a Caesar. He seized America, and almost destroyed the country -- weakened us, degenerated us, and made us open to this attack by Al Qaeda because they figured we were all like him.

I don't wanna go through the whole litany. So what, I'm supposed to sit here because he's a former president and go, "We wish him well" -- why? Why? Tell me why. Tell me why. Anyone got an answer to that one?

Mark Simone, WABC radio host and co-host of NY1's What a Week, substitute hosting on the September 6 edition of WABC's Mark Levin Show:

SIMONE: Bill Clinton had his operation today. He's fine. Everything went well. It was routine. Doctors say he'll be in the hospital for the rest of the week, and it looks like there's no way he'll be able to campaign for at least four weeks and probably a little longer, remember there's only seven, eight weeks left. So four, five weeks from now he'll be able to, you know, get out of the house and start doing stuff, but he won't be to really get back into action, so, and you know that Clinton, both Bill and Hillary Clinton, have to make sure John Kerry loses. They don't want this guy to win. If Kerry wins, it screws up Hillary's plans for '08. She wouldn't be able to run until 2012, so they want him to lose, and if you go back and study the campaign, there were a few moments here and there where Bill or Hillary did something to mess up John Kerry. There's a few of these episodes. And I'm not saying they staged the heart problem, but it just works out perfectly that now they don't have to do anything for him [Kerry] for at least a month -- at the end of that month, he can be 15 points behind.

? M.J.