Sorry, Kellyanne, But Your ‘Bowling Green Massacre’ Comment Wasn’t an ‘Honest Mistake’
By now, you’ve likely already heard about the whole “Bowling Green massacre” thing. However, if not, let’s recap a bit. During last night’s broadcast of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews interviewed White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. During the conversation, Conway said the following while defending President Donald Trump’s travel ban:
“I bet it’s brand new information to people that President Obama had a 6-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,” she complained during an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “It didn’t get covered.”
So, yeah, we all know by now that there was no such thing as a massacre in Bowling Green committed by radicalized Iraqis. Since then, Conway took to her Twitter account to ‘clarify’ what she really meant, stating that she meant to say terrorists.
On @hardball @NBCNews @MSNBC I meant to say "Bowling Green terrorists" as reported here:
https://t.co/nB5SwIEoYI— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
That story explains that two Iraqis who came in as refugees were later found to have built IEDs in Iraq before coming to the US. They never committed or planned any terror attacks in the United States, but this discovery led to more stringent screening and a pause in processing refugee applications from Iraq for six months.
Shortly after sending out this sorta kinda mea culpa, Conway then sent out a couple of tweets comparing her mistake to those in the media, claiming “honest mistakes abound.”
1/2: Honest mistakes abound. Last night, prominent editor of liberal site apologized for almost running a story re: tweet from fake account
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
2/2: yet won't name him, attack him, get the base 2 descend upon him. Same with MLKJr bust fake story. It's called class, grace, deep breath
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) February 3, 2017
OK, besides bringing up the whole MLK bust flap, which TIME’s Zeke Miller has apologized profusely for and immediately went about correcting the record as soon as it got out, Conway’s babble is laughable here for a variety of reasons.
First off, this wasn’t an honest mistake. Not. At. All. Let’s revisit exactly what she said to Matthews: Obama placed a ban after “two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.”
She didn’t misspeak. She didn’t screw up her words. She didn’t accidentally conflate two things. She deliberately said that two people came here, became radicalized, and then carried out an atrocity here in the States. This was purposeful. This was no accident. It was meant to cause another reality.
This has been the MO of the Trump team from the get go. Muddy the waters with “alternative facts” and create a collectively confused state of mind within the public at large. Make the mainstream media spend an inordinate amount of time covering and fact-checking these obviously untrue comments. Then let the following interviews with members of the Trump team focus quite a bit on the latest falsity, with the interviewee obfuscating, hitting back and generally complaining about the media’s emphasis on trivial things. Rinse. Repeat.
This segues into the other issue at play, which is Conway chalking this up to an honest mistake and asking the media to perhaps give her a break over the issue. As my colleague Alex Griswold pointed out earlier today, this is pretty rich considering the way she and POTUS have treated the media.
But there's the rub. As far as the administration is concerned, the press is incapable of "honest mistakes." https://t.co/511IwsgwjT
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 3, 2017
Conway uses the MLK bust story as an example. That was no "honest mistake" as far as Trump was concerned. He's STILL on warpath
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 3, 2017
You cannot declare every bit of misreporting "fake news" and evidence of a lying press, and then expect leeway when you screw up.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) February 3, 2017
Exactly. Trump hasn’t yet let go of that MLK story despite the fact that Miller did everything possible to quickly correct the situation. That was the definition of an honest mistake yet, two weeks later, seemingly every chance he’s had, POTUS has brought it up as proof that the media is dishonest. Beyond that, he’s labeled an entire cable news network “fake news” while rooting for other media outlets, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, to fail.
As for Conway herself, in just these recent weeks she’s given those in the media absolutely no reason to either trust what she says or give her any leeway whatsoever. On Sunday, she called for networks and newspapers to fire commentators and pundits, asking “who is cleaning house?” She went on NBC and flatly (and falsely) denied that Tiffany Trump was registered to vote in two different states. And on the same broadcast she brought up “alternative facts,” Conway also said the White House may need to rethink its relationship with the press.
So, no, Kellyanne. You don’t get any benefit of the doubt. None at all.
[image via screengrab]
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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
