CNN, WAR COVERAGE
CNN's Michael Ware Responds to Heckling Report [Stephen Spruiell]
Via Drudge, which broke the story, CNN correspondent Michael Ware responded today to charges that he heckled Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham at a Baghdad press conference. On CNN's American Morning, Soledad O'Brien asked Ware if the charges were true. He responded:
WARE: Well, let's bear in mind that this is a report that was leaked by an unnamed official of some kind to a blog somewhere on the Internet. No one has gone and put their name forward. We certainly haven't heard McCain say anything about it or any of his staff come forward to say anything about it.
I did not heckle the Senator. Indeed, I didn't say a word. I didn't even ask a question. In fact, when I raised my hand to ask a question, the press conference abruptly ended. So what I was suggest is that anyone who has any queries about whether I heckled, watch the videotape.
Leaving aside the absurdity of anyone from the press disparaging reports attributed to "unnamed officials," Ware's denial — daring those who doubt him to watch the tape — is fairly convincing. One surmises that eventually the tape will be put on Youtube, and eventually bloggers of all stripes will be analyzing it like the Zapruder film for evidence of heckling. Ware must know that. So is it possible that he's lying? I suspect we'll soon find out.
Before Ware addressed the heckling report, he offered his take on McCain's visit to Iraq:
WARE: Unfortunately they chose a very poor way of displaying those signs of change and those signs of progress. The fact that Senator McCain and a delegation can drive from the airport and walk around parts of Baghdad wrapped in a heavy security envelope is not new. Generals and American representatives have been doing such things throughout the war. Indeed, it's the old reinvented as new, and in no way a sign of the real progress of the surge which the Senators should be talking about.
Instead of pressing Ware on that last point, O'Brien asked about the heckling report. That's too bad. Honestly, what's more important for the American public to hear about?
UPDATE: Hmm. No heckling here.
04/02 10:36 AM
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