LIARS! Mother Jones Edited McConnell Transcript To Make It Seem Campaign Research Done on Govt. Time

Yesterday many liberals seemed to enjoy the part of the Mother Jones wiretap story where it seemed that members of Mitch McConnell's Senate staff were forced to do opposition research while  on the public payroll.

For example American Bridge a liberal PAC

...or Guy Cecil Exec Director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)

...or even Matt Canter DSCC Deputy Exec. Director (does he get a deputy's badge?)

Sadly these guys read the transcript but neglected to listen to the tape..you see the Mother Jones reporting staff being the unbiased journalists changed some important words in the bugging transcript--the words where the minority leader thanked his staff for doing the research in their free time, in other words they volunteered and did it outside of their jobs.

The Weekly Standard reported if you listen to what is on the recording you hear:

“So I just preface my comments that this reflects the work of a lot of folks: Josh, Jesse, Phil Maxson, a lot of LAs, in their free time, so this is a compilation of work, all the way through. The first person we'll focus on, Ashley Judd—basically I would refer to sort of the oppo research situation where there's a haystack of needles, just because truly, there's such a wealth of material. [Laughter.]” (Bugged Meeting Audio, Starts At 0:26, 4/9/13)

This is what Mother Jones said was on the recording:

 So I'll just preface my comments that this reflects the work of a lot of folks: Josh, Jesse, Phil Maxson, a lot of LAs, thank them three times, so this is a compilation of work, all the way through. The first person we'll focus on, Ashley Judd—basically I refer to her as sort of the oppo research situation where there's a haystack of needles, just because truly, there's such a wealth of material. [Laughter.]”

One has to admit the two are close...after all in their free time and thank them three times both use plain English words and of course both phrases use the letters of the English alphabet so its understandable that thank them three times and in their free time could be confused by an unbiased reporter.

On April 17th editors of Mother Jones (including David Corn the author of this particular piece) will be traveling up to Ithaca to receive a prestigious Journalism Award, The Izzy. 

The Izzy Award is named after maverick journalist I. F. Stone, who launched I. F. Stone's Weekly in 1953 and exposed government deception, McCarthyism, and racial bigotry. Presented annually for "outstanding achievement in independent media," the Izzy Award goes to an independent outlet, journalist, or producer for contributions to our culture, politics, or journalism created outside traditional corporate structures.

I wonder if un-biased and outstanding achievement in transcribing campaign conversations is part of their winning qualifications.