NBC's Peter Alexander's report on Romney's lie about Obama's comments is OUTRAGEOUS!

[tableturner]

I sent the following to NBC (if you want to make a comment to them, go here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41625923 )

This is regarding tonight's Nightly News, and the following report by Peter Alexander:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/48217904#48217904 (this takes a while to load)

Alexander gave a misleading report on Obama's comments.

Obama was saying that business owners did not build roads, bridges, and the Internet.

He was NOT saying that business owners "did not build their businesses" as Romney dishonestly said in his speech.

If you watch the entire clip of this part of Obama's speech, or read a transcript, it is obvious that Romney is purposely giving the wrong impression.

Why didn't Alexander correct Romney's lie, instead of helping to further it? Alexander allowed a misleading quotation and interpretation of Obama's speech to stand. This should be corrected. It is bad enough for Romney to lie like this, but for Alexander to allow this lie to stand, and to in effect help this lie to be spread, is outrageous.

Please see below:

ROMNEY: "He [President Obama] said this: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." That somebody else is government in his view. [...]
To say that Steve Jobs didn't build Apple. That Henry Ford didn't build Ford Motor. That Papa John didn't build Papa John's pizza. That Ray Kroc didn't build McDonald's. That Bill Gates didn't build Microsoft. To say something like that is not just foolishness, it's insulting to every entrepeneur, every innovator in America."

What President Obama actually said:
"Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."

[Honeycombe8]

1. Excellent post. nt

[freshwest]

35. +1

[reformist2]

2. "If you've got a business - you didn't build that" is a horrible stand-alone sentence.

Obama simply HAS to correct any obvious misinterpretations, because it's going to be used against him.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

3. Absolutely agree 100%

What he was saying was correct, but his poor phrasing left him open to being quoted out of context.

[tableturner]

4. That is impossible.....

There is no way to speak or write in a way that prevents others from outright deleting a part of a statement in an effort to portray a lie.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. I'm afraid

you're right.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

10. Anyone can pull a complete sentence out of a statment and use it out of context

It happens all the time. The President didn't screw up in what he was saying, but rather in how he said it, and now the Republicans are using it against him.

[Redford]

6. Yep, right on

It sounded like he said that to me as well.

[Enrique]

8. Peter Alexander should correct Romney

he should inform viewers that Romney is lying

[RedStateLiberal]

13. In context I believe he was literally talking about physically building a business.

If so, it was poorly worded. That still doesn't excuse them for taking one sentence out of context. No real way to avoid that. Rmoney's first ad was taking a line Obama was repeating from the McCain campaign out of context where they said "If we talk about the economy, we lose." - Obama was repeating what they said in '08 and Rmoney pretended it was Obama's original thought. Despicable!

[reformist2]

15. I actually think he was referring to the roads and bridges, mentioned in the previous sentence.

[tableturner]

17. And the Internet....

It is obvious that he was referring to roads, bridges, and the Internet, NOT peoples' businesses.

[progressoid]

34. Yep - kind of clumsy.

[Politicalboi]

5. "Some Say"

If Obama talks about the economy, he'll lose.

I can't believe they get away with this shit.

[spanone]

7. be aware! think of how much money romney is spending on media?

[RedStateLiberal]

11. My, they're really trying to even the playing field. Pathetic! (nt)

[nolabear]

12. To state the obvious, Obama was saying you didn't build the roads that get people to your business.

He said, in essence, we NEED one another. And we do. That jackass Romney was probably misquoted too in that he likely meant "corporations consist of people", but honestly, his actions back up every criticism of the phrase. President Obama is absolutely consistent in saying that the government also consists of people--the people who build the roads, deliver the mail, uphold the law, run the schools, and so forth. Take away those things and your little business will fail, fail, fail.

[Enrique]

14. absolutely outrageous

they edited the clip Breitbart style. Major journalistic scandal for NBC News.

my comment, submitted at your link: Nice editing on the Obama quote. Breitbart lives, at NBC News.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

16. And you're surprised?

NBC edits clips all the time - this time they did it to our side, but it's not a new device for them.

[jillan]

18. The only way we are going to get honesty in the media is to stay on these lazy assed journalists or

whatever they call themselves these days.

[russspeakeasy]

19. I know what he meant, but damn, the delivery has got to be right.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

20. Yep - I'm not normally a lazy listener

But my first response was "WTF?" When I heard it the second time, it was obvious what he was saying.

[russspeakeasy]

22. Exactly.

[tableturner]

21. It's obvious to anybody who reads the comment.....

It's obvious that anybody who reads or hears the full comment knows exactly what Obama was saying.

Again, there is NO statement one can make that cannot be edited or cut up to portray a false impression.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

23. Twitter: @NBC @PeterAlexander n/t

[Historic NY]

24. Thanks I love to piss them off...

[ProfessionalLeftist]

25. I just tweeted them. Also, Obama TruthTeam is on it....

http://www.barackobama.com/truth-team/fact-check-what-president-obama-actually-said-about-small-businesses

These guys are on the ball!

[GOPGoindown]

26. Sloppy Reporting

I saw that too. The report was a cheap shot. It doesn't take that much effort for a reporter to check these dishonest attacks and Alexander could easily have mentioned the context. My feedback to NBC Nightly News:

Peter Alexander's report tonight repeated far right wing talking point of the day. Obama's remark concerning business owners was taken totally out of context. The "they" he was referring to was "roads and bridges" and not business owners themselves. The real story here is Romney's campaign and others taking the President's remarks out of context to score political advantage. Et tu, NBC Nightly News?

[Walk away]

27. Note to self: Just turn off NBC when Peter Alexander's face appears.

That was easy!

[young_at_heart]

28. Brian Williams is also at fault

He said nothing in response when he knew it was totally wrong. We've always supported Brian, but he let America down tonight-----BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!!!

[Beartracks]

31. But it's just RUDE to contradict your guests.... right?

I kid.

===============

[Trajan]

29. My letter

Peter Alexander just catapulted a GOP/Romney strawman about Obama's comments regarding the building of infrastructure ....

Aren't we tired of the misdirection and fallacious assertions yet ? ...

Yes we are ... Yes we are indeed ....

Please, if you intend to maintain a relationship with customers like myself, then you MUST stop with the BS and report news without interjecting extreme right wing opinions ....

Nobody asks you to promote extreme LEFT wing opinions, and you happily oblige, yet you are willing to sully your own reputation as on honest broker of the news by injecting some utter nonsense into stories like this ...

STOP IT, or we wont be patronizing your businesses any longer ...

SIGNED.
The XXXXX Family

[Beartracks]

30. Yeah, the tRWitterverse was all repeating that meme last night....

... that Obama said business owners didn't build their businesses, but that govt did.

That is a moronic interpretation, but then I doubt most of them saw/heard his comment in context, but just picked up the new talking point from Mitt or Rush.

================

[lobodons]

32. Elizabeth Warren beat Obama to this line

Elizabeth Warren beat Obama to this line:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20110042-503544.html

[savannah43]

33. Comcast owns 51% of NBC Universal while GE owns 49%.

I wonder why they would lie like that?

[RVN VET]

36. Inexcusable

I'm not surprised that NBC (or ABC, or CBS) would do such a crappy job. If Alexander -- or any of those twerps -- was a real journalist, he'd be begging for air time to apologize for abetting Romney's lie. But Alexander is not a journalist, whatever his c.v. might show. He's a damned shill, looking for ways to make a story look juicier to the drooling morons who haven't already figured out what an unprincipled, dishonest, and actually evil empty suit Romney really is.

Reporting like this would allow the devil to say "And, can you believe this, Jesus said 'make the little children suffer!' Now what kind of person would say a thing like that?" To which the reporter would reply:"Well, there you have it, folks. Jesus wants to make kids suffer."

Just another reason not to pay any attention to the fluffery the "major" networks put forth as journalism.


Sheesh!

[coalition_unwilling]

37. NBC is ownd by GE (the nation's 2nd largest defense constractor). But you'll

never hear any NBC reporter acknowledge that potentially egregious conflict of interest in their reporting.

[just1voice]

38. LMFAO, like NBC gives a hoot about you, truth, news or objectivity

MSMedia is propaganda, the sooner people figure that out the more intelligent they become:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

---Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the chosen result in audience attitudes.

As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare.---

[Blue_Roses]

39. Is this the guy traveling with Romney?

I think he was the one interviewing him Friday.