Tommy Christopher | Mediaite
GOP hopeful Gov. Rick Perry drew fire from some quarters earlier over a remark, reported by ABC News’ The Note blog, that “a ‘big black cloud’ hangs over the country.”
As it turns out, Perry’s remark was much more specific. While he did use the phrase “big black cloud,” he was referring explicitly to the debt, as the full video of Perry’s remark reveals.
BreitbartTV’s Larry O’Connor tracked down the full video of Perry’s remarks (which Mediaite also requested of ABC News prior to our post on the subject), and compared it with an edited version that aired on Monday night’s The Ed Show.
Here’s the clip that ran on Fox affiliate KAYU in Spokane:
BreitbartTV compared that clip with the one that ran on The Ed Show:
Now, Schultz could have aired the entire clip, and still tried to make the case that Perry’s remark was poorly chosen. Chopping the clip the way he did was dishonest and, at best, an oversell by a zealous partisan commentator.
But there is no excuse for ABC News’ reporters abridging Perry’s remark in that fashion. It was their reporting upon which April Ryan, and others, relied in forming their strong reactions to the quote, and not Schultz’s edited clip. It was the truncated, oddly-paraphrased fashion in which ABC reported his remark (“Perry warned that a ‘big black cloud’ hangs over the country”) which made me contact them (and Perry’s campaign) to check on the quote in the first place.
We also performed several searches for video of Perry’s remarks before publication, but found nothing.
Whatever your opinion of Governor Perry, politically or otherwise, he deserves to be quoted as fairly and completely as any other figure. Not to do so is inexcusable.
The original version of the story appears here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rick-perry-big-black-cloud-quote-taken-out-of-context-by-msnbc-and-abc-news/
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