Four senior Virginia elected officials will set aside partisan differences next month to salute two of the Associated Press staffers fired this week over an erroneous report about Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee for governor.
A save-the-date invitation, a copy of which was obtained by TPM, was sent out Wednesday for a reception to be held Nov. 18 in honor of former Associated Press reporter Bob Lewis and former Associated Press editor Dena Potter. The reception’s hosts: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).
The event will be held in Richmond, Va., but the invitation indicates that the precise location has yet to be determined.
Lewis and Potter were fired following the publication on Oct. 9 of a story, written by Lewis, that wrongly reported that McAuliffe lied to a federal investigator in a fraud case. The story was retracted shortly after publication. The error was traced to federal court papers involving two people with the initials T.M. — one of whom was Terry McAuliffe. The AP’s report mixed up the other T.M. with McAuliffe.
After the incident, Lewis wrote a tweet saying, “The error was mine and I take responsibility for it.”
Since Lewis’ firing became public, state politicians and journalists have expressed support and sympathy for the man who, according to The Huffington Post, was considered the dean of the Richmond press corps.
