One would think, based on comparing dispatches from Reuters and the Associated Press, that President Barack Obama must have spoken at two different events in Upper Marlboro, Maryland today.
The two dispatches are so radically different in tone and content that they it doesn't seem possible that they both could be from the same event. But they are. Jeff Mason at Reuters (saved here for future reference and fair use purposes) observed "early departures of crowd members while he spoke underscored his continuing unpopularity." But at AP (saved here), Josh Lederman described "a rowdy crowd of about 8,000 people" attending "a rally that had the feeling of a gospel service." A more detailed comparison follows the jump:
Here's most of Mason's report at Reuters:
Here are selected paragraphs from Lederman at AP, with particularly over the top verbiage underlined in red:
Somehow, Josh Lederman didn't notice people leaving, and Jeff Mason did. It seems highly unlikely that Mason would have made up such a detail out of thin air.
Somehow, Lederman didn't notice the heckler, and Jeff Mason did. It also seems highly unlikely that Mason would have made up that detail out of thin air.
Continuing a pattern seen for months and noted several times by other NewsBusters posters, both reporters failed to relay a crucial point about gubernatorial candidate Brown, namely that he was in charge of the utterly failed Maryland Obamacare exchange. Democrats are asking Maryland voters to allow someone who screwed up to move up.
It shouldn't be too difficult to guess, between Reuters and AP, which report the television networks will favor tonight and tomorrow.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
UPDATE, 8:45 P.M.: From Time's Zeke Miller, in a tweet —
Pool: "by the time [Obama] was about 10 minutes in, there was a traffic jam next to the pool's tables as folks tried to exit the gym."
