Michael Ware goes overboard?
Drudge is reporting that CNN’s Michael Ware heckled Lindsay Grahm and other Senators at a presser on Iraq…
During a live press conference in Baghdad, Senators McCain and Graham were heckled by CNN reporter Michael Ware. An official at the press conference called Ware’s conduct “outrageous,” saying, “here you have two United States Senators in Bagdad giving first-hand reports while Ware is laughing and mocking their comments. I’ve never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter.”
UPDATE: YouTube has video from American Morning this morning where Ware talks about the Drudge story and in my mind thoroughly discredits the story.
O’BRIEN: Let me ask you a question. There was a report that said you were heckling and you were laughing during the senator’s press conference. Is that true?
WARE: Well, let’s bear in mind that this is a report that was leaked by an unnamed official of some kind to a blog, to somewhere on the Internet. No one has gone and put their name forward. We certainly haven’t heard Senator McCain say anything about it or any of his staff have come forward to say anything about it.
I did not heckle the senator. Indeed, I didn’t say a word. I didn’t even ask a question. In fact, when I raised my hand to ask a question, the press conference abruptly ended.
So what I would suggest is that anyone who has any queries about whether I heckled, watch the videotape of the press conference. Soledad.
O’BRIEN: Michael Ware is in Baghdad for us this morning. Thank you, Michael.
Hopefully there will be video of this. Not much detail in regards to the “heckling,” but I do know that Ware made comments about Senator McCain (something about living in Neverland or the like) and I thought he crossed a journalistic line that he shouldn’t have (from journalist to pundit, that is).
Comment by FishOil — April 2, 2007 @ 3:42 am
Oh, a journalist tells the truth and he’s a heckler?
Comment by Terance — April 2, 2007 @ 7:44 am
AMEN Terance!
Comment by Me — April 2, 2007 @ 8:42 am
A CNN reporter show their bias?! What?! I’m stunned.
Comment by spiffo — April 2, 2007 @ 8:44 am
Just because you agree with someone’s opinion doesn’t mean it gets to be treated as truth or fact. Ware crossed the line, and CNN should not be allowing him to masquerade as a journalist.
Comment by Caufield — April 2, 2007 @ 8:48 am
Caufield, sometimes in life we don’t need a republican and democratic pov… the TRUTH stands on its own. The war was based on COOKED intelligence, we were hellbent on stealing oil and installing a puppet government regardless of how many Americans/Iraqi’s are maimed, killed, or raped. Remember the 7th grader and her family? I don’t guess that won too many hearts&minds, eh? And to top it all off if these troops do return home, they get the “pleasure” of rat-infested, moldy, sub-standard health care. But, we make SURE and send BILLIONS to other countries so they can make ends meet, eh? There is something very wrong with our government and its about time these career politicians hit the bricks!
Comment by Terance — April 2, 2007 @ 9:10 am
Seems everyone is ready to take Drudge’s word for it, but Ware denies doing it. He says “watch the videotape of the press conference”.
Honestly, on a site that is supposedly dedicated to “news”, anyone who would take this Drudge report on its face has no business criticizing the “journalism” of someone else.
And Ware has been in Iraq since day one, doing some of the best reporting of anyone. We all know what Drudge’s deal is, and his “anonymous source”, so I’ll give the real journalist the benefit of the doubt here.
Comment by ed mcmahon — April 2, 2007 @ 10:29 am
Michael Ware’s statement
“I did not heckle the Senator, indeed I did not say a word. I didn’t even ask a question. In fact, when I raised my hand to ask a question, the press conference abruptly ended. So what I would suggest is that everyone that has any queries about whether I heckled, watch the video tape of the press conference.”
Seems like another case of Drudge making stuff up.
Comment by Steve — April 2, 2007 @ 10:35 am
WATCH THE VIDEO before you report lies!! Michael Ware is an excellent reporter and the only reason people are spreading these lies is because he is the only one doing his job and he is doing a damn good job and that pisses people off.
Comment by Cheri — April 2, 2007 @ 10:37 am
I’m away from a TV now. Where and how did that denial come down? Is it on the web?
Comment by Spud — April 2, 2007 @ 10:45 am
I’m always a bit skeptical of anything I read at Drudge.Especially when you click on the headline and it comes up as a Drudge exclusive and isn’t linked to any news agency. So not surprised this appears to be just another one of Drudge’s false allegations.
Comment by myview — April 2, 2007 @ 11:22 am
Michael Ware’s an idiot!
Comment by Noelle — April 2, 2007 @ 11:34 am
He’s the same drunken idiot who aired the video of an insurgent sniper killing a U.S. serviceman. You know we’re in trouble when the rhetoric of these lefty “reporters” sounds just like that of the insurgents. Let’s not forget the CNN reporter a few months ago who was coaching kids to make anti-American statements on video for his “news” report.
Comment by spiffo — April 2, 2007 @ 11:57 am
“Let’s not forget the CNN reporter a few months ago who was coaching kids to make anti-American statements on video for his “news” report.
” -spiffo
Which one?
Comment by steve — April 2, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
12 and 13 are calling Ware an ‘idiot’, but they seem to be completely ignoring comments 7 - 11 in the process. Yeah, I know, it’s all about those troublesome ‘leftys’ again isn’t it? The heck with the truth.
Comment by Mike — April 2, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
Hah! what idiots! some time or other even Drudge is going to get tired of being used by these Our Own Private Reality guys.
If Ware was ‘heckling’ McCain, where’s the video of him doing so? Oh, you don’t think there were cameras at the briefing? or did they all suddenly switch off as Ware ‘heckled’?
Michael Ware has been living in Baghdad since ‘03, and not in the Green Zone either. He knows more about what’s going on in Iraq than any other western reporter. Of course you understand why the Regime wants to discredit him, but they’re going to have to do a better job that this.
Comment by Arthur — April 2, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
Mike, they can’t handle the truth. That’s why they prefer the comfortable lies Big Brother generates for them.
Comment by Arthur — April 2, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
I’ll just wait till video comes out…..
Comment by Lurker — April 2, 2007 @ 1:27 pm
Sounds like he said, she said to me. We need to find video of the press conference. Couldn’t find it on youtube.
Comment by bigred — April 2, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
I’ll just wait till video comes out…..
Comment by Lurker — April 2, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
It appears Drudge has removed his “exclusive report”from his site.I’m sure if he had proof Ware actually heckled he would still have it up.
Comment by myview — April 2, 2007 @ 1:45 pm
“Sounds like he said, she said to me.”
No, Bigred, it sounds like ‘they said, then ran away when asked to prove it’. There’s no way there weren’t cameras rolling at a McCain press briefing - the lack of heckling video speaks for itself.
The burden of proof is on those making the claims; you can’t prove a negative.
Comment by Arthur — April 2, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
(OT, but WOW, Spud, your pop-ups are getting AGGRESSIVE. Not your fault, I know, but annoying nonetheless.)
Comment by Arthur — April 2, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
Let the video analysis begin! (the second video down is a Pipeline feed noticeable by the distinguished live bug and (CNN) on the lower right.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CNN_reporter_slams_Drudges_charge_that_0402.html
Comment by Terance — April 2, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
Thanks for the link, Terance.
I watched the CNN stream of the news conference from beginning to end, and I didn’t see any “heckling” at all.
Perhaps Michael Ware was sitting next to someone and cracking wise and was overheard by another person sitting nearby? This is the only possibility I can imagine. What I can say is based on this video the assertion that Senator McCain was “heckled” is completely false.
The only other possibility is that this video is incomplete. But it’s worth noting that the CNN camera seems situated right behind where Michael Ware is sitting (at the end of the video you see him raising his hand as the press conference is concluded…don’t know if the former has to do with the latter). I’m sure if he was openly “heckling” the Sentator that the CNN camera would have picked it up.
Unless more video of the conference is made available and shows “heckling” going on then I think this is a bogus story that was dropped on a blog and Drudge errantly ran with it.
Comment by FishOil — April 2, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
I only wish Spud had posted the original Drudge report sooner so that more of the hacks on this board could have had the opportunity to embarrass themselves. It is clear Michael Ware became a target of the right wing after last weeks report that called John Wayne McCain on his lies.
Comment by elmonica — April 2, 2007 @ 4:00 pm
elmonica, your selective outrage at this, versus the O’Reilly/Huffington story (where the story was removed after Bill talked about it) is… well, lets be honest, far from surprising, coming from you. Hypocritical, but not surprising.
Comment by ImNotBlue — April 2, 2007 @ 4:52 pm