Perverting the Facts: 1984 Citizen Ad Linked to Firm working for Barack Obama

Links courtesy of ABC, MSNBC, FOX NEWS and CNN.

I have read all four articles. I will be dissecting the first paragraphs of each article.

First ABC. This is the very first paragraph in the report filed by Jake Tapper,

"The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was rocked by revelations Wednesday night that one of its contracted employees was the creator of a scathing YouTube video against his opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., despite Obama's insistence that he had nothing to do with it.

Now lets take a look at the first paragraph from MSNBC's report filed by NBC's Andrea Mitchel and MSNBC's Alex Johnson,

"The creator of the faux-Apple ad against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been unmasked as a Democratic operative who worked for a digital consulting firm with ties to Sen. Barack Obama, NBC News confirmed Wednesday night - leaving Obama on the spot."

Onward to Fox News and the report filed by Carl Cameron and Corbett Riner,

"WASHINGTON — The anonymous creator of the video comparing a future with Hillary Clinton as president to the world in George Orwell's '1984' is an ex-employee of a digital consulting firm with ties to rival candidate Sen. Barack Obama."

And finally CNN's report on the matter filed by I don't know because I couldn't find a name,

"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The mystery behind who produced an elaborate Internet ad slamming Sen. Hillary Clinton and promoting Sen. Barack Obama has been solved.
Phillip de Vellis, a Democrat and Obama supporter, said he made the video "because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process."

What is important to note here is the language that is used in four separate reports filed by four separate news outlets.

ABC, by far the most provocative of the group uses phrases like "The campaign was rocked, Scathing Ad and one of it's contracted employees." each of these are at best a stretch of the truth and at worst an outright perversion of the truth.

MSNBC used phrases like, " a democratic operative, with ties to Senator Barack Obama" well I suppose they should get points for leaving out the Senator from Illinois middle name. The term Democratic operative is an outright lie when applied to Mr. de Vellis. He's a man who worked for a business that served Obama's web based campaign. He didn't even work on that account, but his company did. How does this make him an operative?

FOX News's coverage surprised me a bit, they were much more moderate than either ABC or MSNBC, in fact it was almost just the facts. They should have specified that it was a technology firm and not a campaign strategy firm, but the ambigous nature of consulting firm is still very close to the truth.

CNN was just the facts ma'am. No provocative language, no innuendo and no perversion of the facts.

Now, why would four news outlets cover the same story in such strikingly different manner? Why would ABC and MSNBC choose to slant the story so sharply as to make Senator Obama look like he not only condoned the ad but also had a hand in the creative process when there is zero evidence to support those allegations.

It is long past time to hold media accountable to standards of honesty and fairness. The government cannot do this, but the public and sponsors should. If a news source is unable to print or broadcast the news factually they should be relegated to "Tabloid" status.

From a personal perspective I am most disappointed with MSNBC, in the past I have found them to be honest in their reporting. I have drafted a letter to both ABC and MSNBC about the way in which this story was reported. I hope, that if you believe as I do, you will do the same.