-By Warner Todd Huston
The Atlantic Wire accused Mitt Romney for a “less-than-factual” statement on Libya delivered in the hours after the attacks on our embassy. But in its rush to attack Mitt Romney, The Atlantic Wire got its countries mixed up as the statement it was condemning was Mitt’s statement on Egypt, not one on Libya.
A screen capture of the original headline
It wasn’t long before The Atlantic Wire changed its headline dropping the “On Libya” part.
Romney was criticizing Tuesday’s statement made by the U.S. embassy in Cairo. Romney decried the embassy’s apologizing for the American principle of free speech. The statement released by the embassy reads:
The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others
Romney replied, saying:
I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.
There was noting “less-that-factual” about Romney’s statement on the release made by the U.S. embassy in Cairo in the first place. An embassy is under the control of the president and if the Cairo staff made a statement it is rightfully seen as a statement made by the President of the United States.
As it happens, Barack Obama himself later backtracked on the embassy’s statement. So, what we have here is the Old Media attacking Romney for criticizing a statement that even Obama is criticizing!
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.