Bracelet Wrap

As subsequent events have shown, the original analysis was correct. She DID ask him not to use it.

Her objection: It was being used by Obama to make it seem that she was against the war effort. She wants it to be “successful.”

It’s even more starkly clear that SSgt. Jopek supports the Iraq war effort, and he was personally over there doing it. His fear was that we would leave without finishing the job, and he spoke to this eloquently.

But, Tracy Jopek is an Obama supporter, and as was originally said she doesn’t want to “sabotage his campaign” by complaining.

There’s almost a second story under the surface:

She said she was “satisfied” with his handling of it during the debate, but a number of places rewrote and propagated this as “ecstatic” in quotes. There was no such quote, and it is contrary to the tone she has in the quoted phrases. (See previous entries under the “Bracelet” tag.)

So — which Obama supporter in the media decided that “satisfied” wasn’t good enough, and decided to play up the headline?

Of interest, many of the headlines that were posted with “ecstatic” (and they showed up on Google News this way) were subsequently changed to “satisfied”. In other words, they know they’re being watched.

Also, the first AP report was relatively mild — and it confirmed my original assertions that she DID ask him to stop using the bracelet. It gave other information that was somewhat damaging to Barack Obama, while trying to be complementary. The very first sentence confirmed my point:

After Tracy Jopek gave Sen. Barack Obama a bracelet in honor of her son who was killed in Iraq, she asked Obama not to mention the bracelet on the campaign trail.

This was at 7:37 Eastern time.

But about 90 minutes later, the story reappears, re-written; much of the “damage” is removed and it comes out much more strongly in support of Obama. The tone of the second article is very different from the first in terms of the quotes from Tracy Jopek.

Did the Obama campaign complain to Associated Press?

Tracy Jopek is not the villain here; I think she is honestly doing what she thinks is best, and the original quotes from her certainly portray a thoughtful and fair-minded person.

I cannot ask her to call the Associated Press on the apparent stunt, here, as this would indeed hurt her candidate. But the AP is once again, from the evidence I see, harming journalism in favor of advocacy.

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