You probably know about the story. Zeke Miller of Time magazine, part of the White House press pool, incorrectly reported in the White House pool report that the bust of Martin Luther King (first brought into the White House by President Obama) had been removed and replaced with one of Winston Churchill. This turned out to be wrong. A short time later Miller corrected the report. The White House has been using this as proof of media perfidy for the last three days. But on Hannity last night, Kellyanne Conway wildly upped the ante, telling Sean Hannity that Miller is personally responsible for putting her life in danger.
Conway claims she has now received Secret Service protection because of threats against her. There appears to be no independent confirmation of this or why she has if she has. In her conversation with Hannity she says she received “white substances” delivered to her house. Again, we have no information about any of this. But it is not implausible in the day and age we live in. It has happened to other high profile people in moments of great controversy. And it is obviously awful if it happened. I leave it as an open question precisely what happened because Conway has shown herself to be a serial prevaricator. There is no conceivable rationale for blaming this on the press. And it is unconscionable, to specifically blame Miller.
From Hannity (emphasis added) …
We invited the press pool into the Oval Office, I was there … And it was to witness the President signing these executive orders … We let the pool press in, and immediately the print pooler sent out the pool report that the MLK bust had been removed. It is false. I don’t say his name publicly because I don’t want him to get attacked like I do. Because of what the press is doing now to me, I have Secret Service protection. We have packages delivered to my house with white substances. That is a shame and yes I hold him into account for it. This guy puts it out. It gets tweeted and it gets reported 3,000 times. He still can’t take it back. He apologized to his colleagues in the press; he has not apologized to the President. And the damage is done because then people look at Donald Trump as the ‘R word’. The darn bust was right there. I was standing next to it. It was being hidden by a guard. Why don’t you ask us? Why don’t you say, where is the bust? It presumptive negativity.
Miller made a mistake, a kind of sloppy mistake. He quickly corrected it and sent out word of the mistake as volubly as the original report. What Conway is doing here is wild and unconscionable incitement.
