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The kid – Tyler Crotty
(AP Wideworld/Craig Litten) |
Last night we told you that CBS and CNN were not seeing eye-to-eye on whether or not the White House leaned on CNN to question the legitimacy of a piece of Bush campaign footage that David Letterman had run Monday on “The Late Show.”
Yesterday, CNN disavowed its original on-air statement that the White House was casting doubt on the veracity of the footage, and offered an apology. In turn, Letterman last night emphatically repeated his suspicion: “I’m [still] pretty sure the White House contacted CNN.”
Today, CNN firmly stood by its apology from yesterday, and spokesman Matt Furman elaborated on what CNN had characterized as a “misunderstanding among our staff”:
When we aired the Letterman clip Tuesday morning a producer in the CNN White House unit called our national desk to raise an issue about the potential authenticity of the tape. That conversation was relayed among several people in the newsroom and by the time it made it to [news anchor] Daryn Kagan it had gone through several people in the news room and unfortunately [the on-air version] became “The White House has said the tape is not authentic.”
According to Furman, the producer who called the clip into question and several other CNN staffers were at the event and had access to several other tapes that did not show what the Letterman tape showed — a young boy to the side and just behind President Bush, conspicuously yawning and fidgeting his way through the presidential remarks.
As to why CNN failed to correct itself immediately, Furman stated, “At that point and throughout the day, the newsroom’s staff and White House producers were focused exclusively on authenticating the tape.”
The White House is still not returning phone calls on the matter.
Worldwide Pants Inc., speaking for “The Late Show,” has nothing further to say — the boy himself is expected to appear on tonight’s “Late Show.”
And your humble servant here at Campaign Desk is standing by, his remote at the ready. (They didn’t tell us about this Friday night stuff when they interviewed us for these jobs.)
–Thomas Lang
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