Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Melanie Phillips Quotes the Wrong DD

Oh dear. Melanie Phillips seems to have got her knickers in a twist about remarks made in the Western Mail by David Davis. Except they weren't. They were made by David Davies, MP for Monmouth and not by the former Shadow Home Secretary. Clearly Phillips hadn't even bothered to read the article she quotes.

However, she does do us a service by pointing us towards the Newsbuster blog, which shows how ABC edited Sarah Palin's interview last week. The bits they edited out, of course, show her in a much better light. Now there's a surprise.

UPDATE 12:44: The article has now been removed from her blog...

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's vanished without trace. Surprise surprise.

Anonymous said...

You think the edited out segments show Palin in a better light?

They show her waffling, repeating the same (obviously drilled) lines several times, and exposing her ignorance even further.

Anonymous said...

Easy mistake Iain. You are being a bit harsh on one of our top journalists! If she had been a man would you have been quite so derisory and commented that he had his underpants in a twist?

Iain Dale said...

Oh, give me a break. Yes, she is one of our top commentators, and as such should have known better.

And as for your ridiculous point accusing me of sexism, I refer you to my next story. Last time I looked Boris had some knackers.

Anonymous said...

that's the second reference to testicles on this blog today.

Anonymous said...

I, for one, am disgusted by Anonymous' obvious and evident homophobia.

Anonymous said...

What a delightful lady. Suave, charming to a fault, so courteous and polite to those with whom she disagrees, so patient with those of us less intelligent than she, always willing to consider the position of those less forunate, indeed, but for a little missed fact checking, a paragon of virtue. So there.

Unsworth said...

Yep, she's a stunna.



In every sense.

cje said...

some of it can still be read here:
http://www.silobreaker.com/View360.aspx?Item=11_80920

is anyone else concerned about her mental health?

Anonymous said...

Mel's grasp of fact checking is so evident elsewhere though, from her "thoughts" on everything from climate change to MMR.

Anonymous said...

This was one of the most sensible things David Davies has ever said.

Wrinkled Weasel said...

It's bad journalism plain and simple. This stupid, very stupid woman should have known better. Everybody knows there are two David Davis's. Clearly she could not have read or understood the source material.

If it was a bloke, he would be labelled a wanker. She, is just a hideous example of somebody who knows the right people but not one end of a pencil from another. Stupid Bitch, she deserves the sack.

Chris Paul said...

I'd agree with Ian_qt ... ABC have done Palin a big favour getting rid of her evasions and half truths. Obviously they edit interviews to length. The choices made here seem reasonable, on balance probably helpful to the subject, so how can you make the case for the opposite?

And why the hell are you supporting this horror-bag? She wouldn't support you.

Anonymous said...

It's back now...no word of apology

Jim

Anonymous said...

Just another example of the bad journalism of the lazt media elite that goes from the left all the way to the right and back again.

Anonymous said...

Melanie Phillips gets facts wrong.
Melanie Phillips doesn't read her sources.

That's meant to be news to us?

As for the Palin interview - come on Iain, think about it for a moment. If ABC had twisted the interview, the Rove-clones running the Republican campaign would have run 'liberal media bias' across Fox News 24/7 cementing the view in the Red States that this oh-so-tough lady can't get a fair break because of her sex.

Anonymous said...

You mean ABC edited out the bit that showed Palin actually knows what the Bush Doctrine means? How shocking.
Oh, hang on. They didn't. She doesn't.

Anonymous said...

If she had left the mistake in her blog, would that have been better? Make up your mind: either you want commentators to get it right - and that includes correcting something they've got wrong - or you don't. Hmmm, having dipped in and out of your particular blog in recent times, I can see you err towards the latter! Will this comment make it, or will it disappear? I wonder.

Anonymous said...

Re the Palin interview. I think that ABC did Palin a favour by editing out a lot of the vague, meaningless statements she made in her replies.

I am sure that she was very pleased with the edited version. It makes her appear to be much more on-the-ball than she really was.