Newsweek retracts Pelosi quote - On Media: Newsweek retracts Pelosi quote

October 03, 2011

Newsweek retracts Pelosi quote

Nancy Pelosi is not exactly what you’d call a loose cannon.

So it was big news this morning when a quote attributed to the House Minority Leader began circulating around the blogosphere, in which she appeared to tell Newsweek's Howard Kurtz, “I think you need to talk about how poorly they [the White House] do on message. They can’t see around corners; they anticipate nothing.”

The quote fit into broader criticisms of the Obama White House and was quickly snapped up by the Republican National Committee and posted on Eric Cantor’s blog.

Just one problem: She never said it, according to both her office and sources at Newsweek.

Newsweek has retracted the quote, and put an editor’s note on the piece.

Editor’s Note; An earlier version of this story included a comment erroneously attributed to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, criticizing the White House’s efforts at political messaging. Newsweek and The Daily Beast regret the error.

This might seem like one of those classic cases of an “off the record” comment being accidentally put on the record, but Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s spokesman, forcefully denies that claim.

“She never uttered those words, on the record, off the record or on background, nor did our office,” Hammill told POLITICO.

Several sources at Newsweek/The Daily Beast confirm that’s true.

A series of mistakes led it to appear to come from her mouth to Kurtz’s ear in the story.



While the story itself lists the contributing reporters at the bottom and does not imply that Kurtz talked to Pelosi, the deck head – presumably written by another editor – makes it seem like Kurtz interviewed Pelosi, further compounding the confusion.

It’s an unfortunate moment for Kurtz, who got caught in another misunderstanding in March after he reported a conversation he had had with Rep. Darrell Issa’s then-spokesman, Kurt Bardella, as having taken place with Issa himself. He corrected the error.

I’ve reached out to Kurtz and Daily Beast spokesman Andrew Kirk for comment.

Kurtz tweeted a correction to today’s story this afternoon, saying, “That Nancy Pelosi comment in Newsweek criticizing the White House on messaging was erroneously attributed to her. We regret the error."

UPDATE; Kirk responds with a statement:

The article, Behind Obama’s Populist Makeover, included a comment erroneously attributed to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, criticizing the administration’s political messaging. The writer misread notes of an interview conducted by a colleague. The error has been corrected, and we’ve apologized to Nancy Pelosi’s office.


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