Thank heavens for ABC News which has cracked the Christie/Hoboken broohaha wide open. It turns out that the town didn't get the piddly hundreds of thousands, as claimed by the Mayor but instead received 70 million dollars in Sandy aid and the mayor doesn't know what she is even talking about or even worse.
Thank you for clearing that up, ABC News. Not.
But thanks for supplying yet one more example of how increasingly pathetic the coverage from many large formerly revered networks has become. See below for the details.
The story of the Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer and the response from the Christie administration has been reported fairly consistently from what I have been reading. The city of Hoboken hoped for much and they have received little in terms of Sandy aid, hundreds of thousands when they had applied for and need over 100 million.
Here are two representative articles of the dispute and the Christie response:
First, from Business Insider:
Chris Christie Blasts NSNBC on Hoboken Story
"MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Governor Christie and almost gleeful in their efforts attacking him, even taking the unprecedented step of producing and airing a nearly three-minute attack ad against him this week. Governor Christie and his entire administration have been helping Hoboken get the help they need after Sandy, with the city already having been approved for nearly $70 million dollars in federal aid and is targeted to get even more when the Obama Administration approves the next rounds of funding. The Governor and Mayor Zimmer have had a productive relationship, with Mayor Zimmer even recently saying she’s ‘very glad’ he’s been our Governor. It’s very clear partisan politics are at play here as Democratic mayors with a political axe to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television."
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/...
That blockquote is the actual, real Christie team response
From Reuters:
Christie Administration held Sandy relief hostage hostage
Colin Reed, a Christie spokesman, said in an email that Hoboken had been approved for nearly $70 million in federal aid. It will get more when the Obama administration approves more funding, he said.
This is a sample of a news source that interpreted the gist of the Christie response in its reporting and got it accurate.
And as Fox News advises, Google it yourself! if you want to know more. This is fairly generic and consistent reporting of the Christie response, Hoboken has been approved for 70 million in aid.
Now let's look at the item from ABC News which I discovered in my routine perusal of the latest search results on the Christie flameout from Google News.
Christie denies NJ Mayor Allegations of Witholding Sandy Aid
The byline of this article is: By GILLIAN MOHNEY via World News with the added notation that "ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this article."
Christie's office denied the accusation and in a statement said that Christie has "been helping Hoboken get the help they need" and that the city had received $70 million in federal aid and would likely get more when the next round of funding is approved.
Poor ABC News doesn't know the difference between "received" and "approved"
To make matters worse, they didn't supply the direct quote, they supplied their version of the direct quote and the got it completely wrong as you can see from above. Now, my quote from their report here is accurate as of the time I post this diary. I imagine that ABC News might change their story after numerous people notice their BS, so if the story at the link changes, at least you'll know why it isn't as related here.
How can big powerful, wealthy media get it so wrong? Last Sunday I got to see David Gregory discuss a relevant email in the Bridgegate fiasco but unfortunately he got the author of the message wrong and therefore got the entire underlying meaning and context of the message wrong.
Reflect that we are talking about NETWORK news and commentary in both these instances, not frenzied, conspiracy addled lefty bloggers. The ABC News piece reads very much as a Christie apologia with the major impression created being that Mayor Zimmer is a liar. Although, one is left to wonder how the mayor could be so confused and bad at math that she can't distinguish between 6 0s and 3 0s in the city checking account.
We have been around enough to know not to expect to get accurate reporting from FOX, which is more concerned with the ethnicity of Santa and Jesus. CBS just recently peddled the Lara Logan Benghazi piece that turned out to be a fairy tale and then you have the two instances I mention in this diary for NBC and ABC. That's four for four for the big wealthy corporate network news media in failing to maintain some basic competence in what they present.
Hey! Networks! Does anyone fact check? Do you even read the original sources? Do you still wonder why no one listens or pays attention to you when you cannot get even the barest bones minimal facts correct?
I have a suggestion for you. Turn on MSNBC and watch Steve Kornacki or Rachel Maddow and see how it's done. It's no wonder that the Christie __ (what- administration? cabal? cadre? clique? pod? cell?) doesn't like MSNBC and their reporting. You might try to figure out why. Miscreants hate it when someone turns on the lights when they have been operating in the dark.