on fairy tales

There's an article in today's Washington Post, by one of its most senior reporters, on the still-difficult relationship between Obama and Bill Clinton. It contains the following remark:

There is a history to all this, going back to the time when Clinton urged voters not to buy into the "fairy tale" of Obama's rise...

Now, here's the thing: Clinton never described Obama's rise, or Obama's campaign, as a fairy tale. He used the phrase to describe, very specifically, the media's version of Obama's record on Iraq.

Rep. James Clyburn's subsequent attack on Clinton for using racially charged language was based on a misunderstanding, deliberate or otherwise, of Clinton's remark. It set off a series of similar attacks that led to Clinton being widely derided as a racist - because Clyburn's interpretation was accepted unhesitatingly by the media. Apparently, it still is. Despite the fact that such an interpretation is clearly at odds with the truth.

Anybody who thinks that Bill Clinton's rage at his treatment by the media over the last year is wildly unjustified should take note.

Comments

[peter]

Oh, come now! It's not like William Jefferson Clinton, active in politics since he was an 18-year-old intern for Senator Fulbright, was an innocent naif when it comes to the media. If he did not anticipate how the media would take his words, he has dementia.

[Marbury]

Well, if he'd anticipated how the media would take his words, he wouldn't have said it, presumably...

You can read the transcript here. It's so obviously in the context of Obama's Iraq record that I can't see how it could be any clearer (it also strikes me as entirely off-the-cuff).

http://mediamatters.org/items/200803040001

Even if you have a different interpretation, I would say that, AT THE VERY LEAST, responsible reporters shouldn't be quoting that remark without raising the context in which he made it. To say that he made it about 'Obama's rise' as if that's just a known fact is deeply irresponsible.