NAFTA-gate: The Anatomy of a Smear

[Oilwellian]

I’m going to start my post with looking at the most recent news out of Canada and then work my way back to where it all began. Late last night I read this:

OTTAWA — If the Prime Minister is seeking the first link in the chain of events that has rocked the U.S. presidential race, he need look no further than his chief of staff, Ian Brodie, The Canadian Press has learned.

“A candid comment to journalists from CTV News by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's most senior political staffer during the hurly-burly of a budget lock-up provided the initial spark in what the American media are now calling NAFTAgate.”

Mr. Harper announced Wednesday that he has asked an internal security team to begin finding the source of a document leak that he characterized as being "blatantly unfair" to Senator Barack Obama.

What is now a swirling Canada-U.S. controversy began on Feb. 26, when the usually circumspect Mr. Brodie was milling among droves of Canadian media on budget day in the stately old building that once housed Ottawa's train station.

Reporters were locked up there all day, examining the federal budget until they were allowed to leave once it was tabled in the House of Commons at 4 p.m.

Since the budget contained little in the way of headline-grabbing surprises, some were left with enough free time to gather around a large-screen TV to watch the latest hockey news on NHL trade deadline day.

Mr. Brodie wandered over to speak to Finance Department officials and chatted amiably with journalists — who appreciated this rare moment of direct access to the top official in Mr. Harper's notoriously tight-lipped government.

The former university professor found himself in a room with CTV employees where he was quickly surrounded by a gaggle of reporters while other journalists were within earshot of other colleagues.

At the end of an extended conversation, Mr. Brodie was asked about remarks aimed by the Democratic candidates at Ohio's anti-NAFTA voters that carried serious economic implications for Canada. Since 75 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S., Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton's musings about reopening the North American free-trade pact had caused some concern.

Mr. Brodie downplayed those concerns.

"Quite a few people heard it," said one source in the room. "He said someone from (Hillary) Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. . . That someone called us and told us not to worry."

Government officials did not deny the conversation took place. They said that Mr. Brodie sought to allay concerns about the impact of Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton's assertion that they would re-negotiate NAFTA if elected. But they did say that Mr. Brodie had no recollection of discussing any specific candidate — either Ms. Clinton or Mr. Obama.

CTV News President Robert Hurst said he would not discuss his journalists' sources.

But others said the content of Mr. Brodie's remarks was passed on to CTV's Washington bureau and their White House correspondent set out the next day to pursue the story on Ms. Clinton's apparent hypocrisy on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Although CTV correspondent Tom Clark mentioned Ms. Clinton in passing, the focus of his story was on assurances from the Obama camp.

(Somewhere between CTV’s Canada bureau, their Washington bureau and their White House correspondent Tom Clark, the story was changed to focus on Obama.)

He went to air on Feb. 27 with a report that the Democratic front-runner had given advance notice to Canadian diplomats that he was about to engage in some anti-NAFTA rhetoric, but not to take it too seriously.

The report wound up on YouTube and caused an uproar in the U.S. race — influencing the final days of the critical Ohio primary, with every indication it will also play a role in the upcoming Pennsylvania vote.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080305.wharpleak0305/BNStory/National/home

So I decided to go to YouTube and search for that original video that caused such an uproar and here it is…please note it’s the only video posted by this “person” and they created the new YouTube account the same day the story broke. If you click the link to daren230 on the YouTube page, you will see this person’s personal channel. I have screen-captured the page because I suspect it will disappear soon. I hope other DU’ers will do the same. Rating the video and comments for the video have been disabled. One would think having posted such a scoop, they’d welcome it rising to the top of YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAJYMgX4JuU

February 28th

Oddly enough, a new YouTube account was created the following day and “v4Hill” posted the same video and got a great deal of attention as well. You can view that person’s YouTube page here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/v4hill

I’ve also screen-captured this YouTube page and subsequent pages because I will bet money it too will disappear into the ethers.
If you scroll down on this page and click on “see all 30 videos” you will see this person’s chain of videos posted on YouTube within just a few days. Page 2 is actually the beginning of this person’s postings & they consist entirely of reports on NAFTA-gate and the generals who have endorsed Hillary Clinton.

After posting the original video that hit YouTube the day before and renaming it “Just words? Barack lies to Ohio,” (link here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LtbLEKHsi0) v4hill followed up the same day:

“NAFTA-gate update aka Obama’s Big Lie” :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMpbpov-HcA

February 29th:

The story spreads to the radio. Taylor Marsh, a leftwing radio host and big Hillary supporter reports on the original CTV story. Isn’t it odd that v4hill was ready to record her report on the radio and then post it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy2ji-5yyps

Here is a post on DailyKos that backs up Marsh’s support for Hillary:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/18/25812/2147/708/438638

Follow up story here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/19/143426/409/856/439515

Several hours later, v4hill posted this video called “NAFTA-gate…Stonewalling”…it includes comments from Hillary, McCain & Obama on the exploding story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGRzRKfgnjc

When you look at the YouTube page description of this video you will see a link to a website called vet4hill.com …. Apparently v4hill is one in the same.

http://vet4hill.googlepages.com/flags4hill.htm

March 1st:

V4hill was ready at the helm to watch CSpan and capture a press conference the Hillary campaign had with the media and post it up on YouTube titling it “NAFTA-gate…Clinton Team Demands Yes or No?” Please note how professional this video is and isn’t it odd how v4hill knew beforehand to be ready to capture the Taylor Marsh and CSpan airings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIp4KwLyMNY

March 2nd:

V4hill posts a rash of videos on the generals who are endorsing Hillary.

March 3rd:

V4hill posts this video titled: "NAFTA-gate…Busted!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvCEFmKAoB4

V4hill was again ready at the helm to capture an interview Kate Snow had with General’s Wes Clark & Paul Eaton shoring up Hillary’s ability to lead as CINC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXCLvEh0aM8

And there’s this:
Reporter's Notebook: On The Road With Bill Clinton
Former President Bill Clinton Gives Kate Snow a Tour of Africa

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3447435&page=1

v4hill was also ready at the helm to capture this interview between Josh Gerstein of the New York Sun, Wes Clark & Joe Sustack, again touting Hillary’s CINC abilities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cz7c35QEuk

v4hill also posts this video on YouTube called “NAFTA-gate, the memo, the fight, the run away from the press":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME4Ir99gKPw

And finally, v4hill posts this video on YouTube titled: “NAFTA-gate Tom Clark & Mike Duffy laugh at Obama”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fcujtEX-Ok

March 4th:

V4hills final posting on NAFTA-gate:
“Tom Clark – Hillary Wins In Ohio – It changes everything!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtusUoL65wI

This entire chain of events leads to many questions. The Canadian story gained traction in the U.S. after appearing on YouTube. Isn’t it odd that it was originally posted by someone who set up an account on YouTube specifically to post the original CTV report and then go silent. The following day, someone describes their YouTube account as: NAFTA-gate central. Obama's tarnished halo. Plus home of the Flags Officers for Hillary -- testimonials and endorsements of Hillary Clinton to be Commander in Chief

He/she creates a new YouTube account and is on top of recording radio shows, cspan airings of Hillary's campaign press conference with journalists; recording television interviews; and the interviews of various generals for Hillary as CINC. ALL of this done as NAFTA-gate unfolds. I find it amazing this person knew to listen to Taylor Marsh’s radio show and capture her report; listen to Kate Snow’s report and capture it; listen to Josh Gerstein’s interview and capture it as well.

From the Canadian report I cited at the beginning, it states:

“reporters overheard Brodie’s claims that it was Hillary’s campaign saying to take their comments on NAFTA “with a grain of salt” and the content of Mr. Brodie's remarks was passed on to CTV's Washington bureau and their White House correspondent set out the next day to pursue the story on Ms. Clinton's apparent hypocrisy on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Although CTV correspondent Tom Clark mentioned Ms. Clinton in passing, the focus of his story was on assurances from the Obama camp.”

I think CTV & Tom Clark have a lot of splainin’ to do! And just who is v4hill? There's a bit of a stalking quality to this character and seemed to know right where to be at the right time to capture all of the hacks pushing the story in the American media. Coincidence?

[TwilightGardener]

1. Good work!

[DJ13]

2. K&R

Im tired of the Clinton tactics.

[papau]

3. All of which proves nothing - the memo stands - and Obama lied about not having the meeting - and

the CBC has given you a quote:

"Quite a few people heard it," said one source in the room. "He said someone from (Hillary) Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. . . That someone called us and told us not to worry."

that identifies no one nor what was said - and is less credible than a Bush promise.

LOL - "one source" - LOL

[ourbluenation]

4. The Canadians are back peddling now on that memo. n/t

[Spazito]

5. You are incorrect in more than one aspect...

First - the quote is from the Globe and Mail, not the CBC as the link in the OP shows

Second - the article does say what was said, "telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt." by the Clinton campaign contact and it does say who was relating this and that was the Prime Minister of Canada's chief of staff, Mr. Brodie.

Hmm, I would say the memo is less than credible than a bush promise given it was the subjective opinion of a low-level Embassy staffer where upon the Embassy has come out publicly and stated the memo does not reflect the facts.

On the other hand, there has been no such statement from Mr. Harper or his chief of staff stating what is related in the Globe and Mail article is not reflecting the facts. The only comment, so far, is:

"The Prime Minister's communications director, Sandra Buckler, has said that Mr. Brodie "does not recall" discussing the issue."

One should also note this paragraph related to the behavior of CTV in this:

"There was no explanation last night for why Mr. Brodie was said to have referred to the Clinton campaign but the news report was about the Obama campaign. Robert Hurst, president of CTV News, declined to comment."

[Oilwellian]

6. Correction

Mr. Clark is CTV's washington bureau chief. Mr. Brodie is Harper's chief of staff.

[Spazito]

7. Thanks for the correction, I have edited my post to relect

Mr. Brodie's name instead of the incorrect one of Mr. Clark.

Edited to add: I found your analysis to be very interesting, thanks for all the work you did on this.

[Oilwellian]

8. Thanks

I also want to add to this thread, if you do a search on YouTube using the words "CTV,Tom Clark, & Naftagate) you will find there were only 2 people posting their original report on February 27th & 28th...Daren230 & v4hill.

[TheDoorbellRang]

9. Excellent sleuthing indeed

Thanks for this!

[Oilwellian]

10. Kick

I just called the Obama campaign and they were unaware of the new story coming out of Canada. I directed them to DU and this post so they could see what I've discovered. Help keep this puppy kicked on the first page.

:kick:

[Oilwellian]

11. Big kick for the evening crowd n/t