CNN's Bash falsely suggested Obama proposed only one joint appearance with McCain
SUMMARY: On The Situation Room, CNN's Dana Bash twice falsely suggested that Sen. Barack Obama responded to Sen. John McCain's proposal for 10 joint town hall appearances by offering to "just have one," failing to note that McCain rejected Obama's proposal for five joint appearances: three traditional debates, a town hall meeting on the economy, and an in-depth debate on foreign policy.
CNN correspondent Dana Bash twice falsely suggested that while Sen. John McCain has proposed 10 joint appearances with Sen. Barack Obama, Obama has proposed only one. Appearing on the 4 p.m. ET hour of the June 16 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Bash stated: "[T]he Obama campaign basically formally rejected McCain's proposal for 10 joint town halls, saying, let's just have one around July 4th." Two hours later, Bash said, "[T]he Obama campaign basically said no to John McCain's offer for about 10 joint town hall meetings, one a week until the November election. They said, well, we'll just have one on July 4th." Bash did not note that Obama has proposed five joint appearances: three traditional debates, a town hall meeting on the economy, and an in-depth debate on foreign policy. As The New York Times reported, the Obama campaign said in its statement responding to McCain's refusal of Obama's proposal the package of five engagements "would have been the most of any presidential campaign in the modern era."
Bash's assertion that Obama said "let's just have one" town hall meeting, while she omitted mention of Obama's proposal for five joint appearances, echoed McCain campaign manager Rick Davis' June 13 press release: "Just to reiterate, we have proposed at least ten joint town hall meetings once a week until the week before the Democratic Convention begins. As we understand your counter-proposal, you have proposed only one town hall meeting before the Democratic Convention."
From the June 16 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:
WOLF BLITZER (host): Dana, what's the latest on the back-and-forth between McCain and Obama on these joint town hall appearances?
BASH: Well, you'll remember on Friday, the Obama campaign basically formally rejected McCain's proposal for 10 joint town halls, saying, let's just have one around July 4th. The McCain campaign -- McCain himself, actually -- said that's not acceptable, that's a holiday weekend; no one will be paying attention.
Well, today, he's tried to keep this issue alive. What he said was that the two of them are actually already going to be appearing before the Latino group La Raza in California in mid-July. He said, why not both of us appear at the same time, turn it into a joint hall? He said it would be informative and he also said he would be perhaps entertaining.
We'll see what the Obama campaign has to say about that. The McCain campaign is not letting this go.
BLITZER: OK. Thanks very much, Dana, for that.
[...]
BLITZER: There's a new development on the whole battle between McCain and Obama over these joint town hall appearances.
BASH: That's right, what the McCain campaign hopes will be a new development. You'll remember, late on Friday, the Obama campaign basically said no to John McCain's offer for about 10 joint town hall meetings, one a week until the November election. They said, well, we'll just have one on July 4th, and the McCain campaign said, why would -- why would we do that? No one will be watching.
So, what John McCain said today is, why don't we make a joint appearance in mid-July in California at the Latino group La Raza? Why don't we make that actually a joint town hall?
Both candidates have said yes to appearing before that group. So, what McCain said today is, he wants to at least try to push that idea. He says it would be both informative and entertaining.
Clearly, the McCain campaign is trying hard not to let this idea of joint town halls go -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Dana, thanks very much. Dana Bash reporting for us.
Well, techncally it's true: He did just propsed a single town hall meeting.
(What an idiot.) (The guy from CNN.)
This is specifically about town meetings. McCain wanted 10. Obama said only 1.
Technically there's no mis-information here.
I wasn't going to reply, you copied my sarcastic point, and tried to pull it off in seriousness. I can let that slip!
You're right - there no MISINFORMATION. But it's still miseaing as hell. I'd normally not ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity, but these clowns never seem to get the quotes so badly botched and the positions so badly misrepresented when it comes to republicans.
Technically there is misinformation here. The counter-offer from Obama was not for one town hall meeting. It was for one town hall meeting plus other events.
Bash stated: "[T]he Obama campaign basically formally rejected McCain's proposal for 10 joint town halls, saying, let's just have one around July 4th." Two hours later, Bash said, "[T]he Obama campaign basically said no to John McCain's offer for about 10 joint town hall meetings, one a week until the November election. They said, well, we'll just have one on July 4th."
"They" did not say what she claims they said. Their counter-offer was not as limited as she claimed, and that's misinformation that furthers the conservative agenda. It makes it look like McCain is more in favor of having debates with Obama and it implies Obama is scared of that kind of interaction.
Sorry Sue, swing and a miss. The discussion was about town hall meetings specifically, not all the other possible debate formats.
I know word parsing is right up your alley, particularly when it comes to defending all things MMFA, which you do without fail, I guess it's to ingratiate yourself to the powers that be here so you won't be yanked again, but you can't twist this one to suit your argument, but nice try anyway.
See, Tommy, there is an overarching point here, a big picture, a concept that you don't seem to get. That when you state a tiny part of the truth but don't state the whole context of the truth, you are being dishonest. And you're not living up to the standard of being a journalist with integrity. Really, otherwise what's her point except to leave a false impression of the entire situation.
Of course you must know this unless I'm giving you too much credit. Your schtick is on par with a 12 yr old. Which means you should eschew any future pole dancing :-0
"The discussion was about town hall meetings specifically, not all the other possible debate formats."---Tommy
That’s wrong. The headline says what the MMFA article is about and hence what the proper discussion of this article should be about---joint appearances of no specified nature, not just town hall meetings.
CNN's Bash falsely suggested Obama proposed only one joint appearance with McCain
Oh yeah - let's have as many honest off-the-cuff townhall meetings as possible - like the one McCain had the other day? What better opportunity to have the questions you want asked planted in the "man-on-the-street" audience than a "town-hall meeting"? He isn't fooling anybody.
Personally, I'd love to see them just go at it one-on-one, for as many debates as it takes to talk out all the important issues we face as a nation - each "debate" restricted to 2 or 3 issues at at time. ...And do it on C-Span so I don't have to watch the Pepsi and Viagra commercials!
mmfa...heal thyself...Boehlert's column today is for you as well.
The topic was "town hall meetings".
McCain proposed 10...Obama proposed one...simple.
Nobody is talking about traditional debates, both Blitzer and Bash say town hall appearances twice, there is no confusion in their reporting.
Bash reports on June 16th that the Obama campaign rejected McCain's 10 town hall meeting suggestion but somehow leaves out the Obama campaign proposal made on June 13th while reporting ANOTHER McCain proposal?
WHAT kind of freaking reporting is that?
CNN's Bash falsely suggested Obama proposed only one joint appearance with McCain - Headline
How many joints did Obama and McCain want to appear with?
I was confused by the headline here and assumed Willie Nelson would be moderating.
There's no need at all for Sen. Obama to appear with John McCain anywhere, for any reason... not in any of these foolish "Oprah-style" town hall things, or even in any debate.
And by the way, these foolish town hall things that McCain's campaign seems to favor, and that the television people also seem to want? They bear no resemblance to anything that happens at a town meeting, nor do these foolish town hall things on television serve any function, like that served by the town meeting.
On television, they just look like a Tony Bennett concert-in-the-round, complete with hand-held microphone and stool to lean on, with a bunch of people that who knows who picked them to be there. Television: people seem to think that everything they see on television is real and sincere, instead of fake contrived and manipulative.