Washington Post Lies About Obama Quote

Right now, the Washington Post report about Barack Obama is now being slammed by House Democrats as being taken wholly out of context. The Washington Post story reads like this:

Obama’s Symbolic Importance

By Jonathan Weisman

Perhaps he’s beginning to believe the hype.

In his closed door meeting with House Democrats this evening, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama delivered a real zinger. According to a witness, he was waxing lyrical about last week’s trip to Europe, when he concluded, “this is the moment, as Nancy [Pelosi] noted, that the world is waiting for.”

The 200,000 souls who thronged to his speech in Berlin came not just for him, he told the enthralled audience of congressional representatives.

“I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions,” he said.

The Republicans are happily jumping upon this quote to push the “uppity black man” line that they’ve been trying to get circulated in the press as a meme.

And now the pushback from House Democrats who were actually at the conference has begun according to Mark Halperin at Time’s The Page:

But, a Democrat who was in the room tells The Page: “His entire point of that riff was that the campaign IS NOT about him. The Post left out the important first half of the sentence, which was something along the lines of: ‘It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol..’“

This is nothing new with Jonathan Weisman, the Washington Post reporter, who wrote this story with the quote completely taken out of context. Even Think Progress has called Weisman out on his obvious bias for John McCain.

Weisman has a very long history of writing inaccurate, slanted articles with an obvious right-wing bias. It’s time to push back against reporters like Weisman.

Oh, and here’s Weisman’s e-mail below. Please politely ask him to correct his story with the full Barack Obama quote.

weismanj@washpost.com