I've received some feedback on
Tuesday's News Roundup, in which we posted a photo that said
"smear" regarding the media attack on Hillary Clinton's trip to
Bosnia. "The latest media attack on Hillary
Clinton,"we wrote, "Is over statements
Hillary Clinton made about her 1996 trip to Bosnia, where she claimed
she'd come under sniper fire...CBS News claims to have 'exposed' this
story; although, you know, when a former First Lady who has traveled all
over the world with cameras following mixes up trips, it isn't exactly a
giant revelation, is it?"
Let me elaborate on why I think this is
utterly ridiculous.
First of all, let's watch the video that CBS
aired which flooded all the major networks in a matter of
hours.
Now, let's watch the full context of the
statement, which the news networks conveniently cut
out.
On March 17th, at George Washington University in
Washington, DC, Hillary misspoke in her recollection of a trip to Tuzla,
Bosnia-Herzogovina in 1996. The full context of her statement was
clipped out by CBS (and news networks that re-aired it, as well as on
Google Video and YouTube over and over again). Here is exactly
what she said.
I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as
Togo said, there's a saying around the White House that if a place was
too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the President couldn't go, so
send the First Lady. So that's where we went.
I remember
landing under sniper fire - there was supposed to be some kind of a
greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads
down to get into the vehicles to get to the base - but it was a moment
of great pride for me to visit our troops, not only in our main base at
Tuzla, but also in two outposts where they were serving in so many
capacities to deactivate and remove landmines, to hunt and seek out
those who had not complied with the Dayton accords and put down their
arms. And to build relationships with the people that might lead
to a peace for them and their children. But you only heard a small portion of
one sentence, in which Hillary relayed the memory incorrectly. In
her memoir, "Living History," she had already documented the sounds of
sniper fire in the hills, saying, "Due to reports of snipers in
the hills around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on
the tarmac with local children."
This was not untrue.
Why
do I think it's a petty smear perpetuated by CBS? Because they
never give you the full story. They give you the part that would
cause controversy. The little snippet of a story she's already
told many times, in the one instance that she didn't fully elaborate -
assuming, probably, that supporters of hers already knew about her
trip.
And I believe that she was scared. She was relaying a
day in which she touched down into Eastern Europe at the height of a
conflict in the former Yugoslavia, that was fatal to so many. She
knew landmines were being excavated; grenades, gunshots, and explosions
could be heard like fireworks in Bosnia at that time, all day
long.
You would have been terrified. She was
terrified. She vividly remembered the fear - when her
husband was not at her side, and she was sent in a small plane with
pilots and collegues wringing their hands, reports coming over the
intercom of the danger they were about to land on.
After visiting
Bosnia both in the height of it's violence, and later in its aftermath,
Hillary Rodham-Clinton gave the press a memory, one vulnerable
memory. I don't believe she intended to lie whatsoever. I
believe she was exposing the fear she felt that day, the very real fear,
and that it was a 12-year-old memory. If you can recall
off-the-cuff the exact details of an event in your life 12 years ago
without embellishment or misspeak whatsoever, good for you, because I
doubt many could.
The fear stuck with her. Who,
besides Hillary herself, can say whether or not she was trying to
remain aware in her mind to keep her body shielded between the soldiers
around her? Who, besides Hillary, could explain the level of
vulnerability she felt that day? Certainly not CBS.
Certainly not a part of a phrase from all of the speeches she's ever
given, about trips to 80+ countries.
That's all I'm saying.
The media concentrates on all of the wrong things, all of the
insignificant details, ready for the next minor misstep that could be
used to affect polls, to sway the public opinion. It's vicious and
stupid.
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I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as
Togo said, there's a saying around the White House that if a place was
too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the President couldn't go, so
send the First Lady. So that's where we went.
