Former CNN reporter acknowledges error in 1992 report that sparked campaign firestorm

[mike r]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Brooks Jackson, the former CNN reporter whose 1992 story on taxes under ex-Gov. Jerry Brown touched off a furor in this year's governor's race, acknowledged Saturday that he erred when he reported that taxes were higher at the end of Brown's eight-term year than when he took office.

"Brown is right," Jackson wrote in a post on FactCheck.org, a non-partisan organization that he now heads. "I made a mistake in my 1992 report."

Brown, the Democratic candidate for governor, has called on Republican Meg Whitman to yank a TV ad featuring an old videotape of former President Bill Clinton citing the CNN report and calling Brown a liar. At the time, Clinton was running against Brown in the Democratic presidential primary.

The Mercury News reported on its website Friday night that Jackson had picked the wrong base year -- fiscal year 1973-74 -- to make his comparison. He should have used fiscal year 1974-75, the last budget Brown's predecessor, Ronald Reagan, controlled.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_16052297?source=rss&nclick_check=1

[leveymg]

1. Great. Tell major lies as a favored politician and in 20 years CNN will finally correct the record.

Isn't a free press wonderful?

[24601]

15. Defining it as a lie, rather than a misstatement implies intent, so

would you please post the information showing that the reporter knew it was wrong and/or intended to deceive? Barring that, it's just another case of sloppy journalism, not an attempt to deceive.

I thought about things I may have written 18 years ago but haven't felt the urge to examine them for mistakes.

What % of its reporting does CNN get right verses wrong?

[rpannier]

2. Wow! It only took the gut 20 years to make the correction

I'd say better late than never
But I think we'd have been better served with Jerry as President than Bill

[boppers]

3. There's a good chance to spin this against the Republican ticket...

After all, this means that taxes *decreased* from what they were under Reagan.

[Optimistic]

4. But Fox news says

That CNN is in bed with all the Liberals and only Fox would make tell the "Truth" about Dems like They wanted and planned 9/11 and the Dems want to kill old people and take money way from the small business owners like poor Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobile and then tax the Poor working class who only makes 300 Million a year.

[No Elephants]

12. If CNN hurt liberal Brown, it benefited the DLC and maybe the Republicans.

[SoapBox]

5. And then NutMeg's staff gets "testy" and says no to pulling the ad...

Lies, NutMeg! LIES!

She's just another A-typical GO-BPer, RushTurdLican't, TeaTraitorBagger type.

Lies...Lies...Lies.

[David Zephyr]

6. Of course, it was a lie. Jerry Brown was the best governor in my life here.

Period.

[defendandprotect]

9. Jerry Brown would have made a great president, as well--!!

[bemildred]

11. And the only one since his Dad who was not a tool. nt

[Tikki]

17. That is for sure...

We were able to start an establish ourselves here in Cali during the Brown Governorship and
we have always given back...even when repug governships hurt us.

Tikki

[alp227]

7. The Merc fact-checked this story on Friday.

I posted story on California forum

Hmm, I wonder when the Swift Boat Veterans "for Truth" are gonna admit that they made up crap about John Kerry when they're bed-ridden. Or when Fox News pundits admit to smearing Democrats big time. But the thing with inaccurate "reports" is that they lend smears credibility. So that's why I'm sceptical when I see the little footnotes/sources cited in Whitman ads. Could Whitman be deliberately misreading sources or using discredited stories?

Curious about Brooks Jackson, I'm looking up some criticisms of his reporting:

- In July 2002 Jackson "discredited the latest media report, this time one from AP, about President Bush and Harken Energy, noting it's typical of the “thin reporting” on the topic" and "then launched into an exhaustive rundown of how the SEC long ago found there was no basis for the oft-repeated charges of wrongdoing by Bush over his 1990 stock sale."
- The Media Research Center also praised Jackson in April 2000 for reporting that the richest Americans pay the most in federal income taxes. That's the right-wing talking point to counter the left-wing talking point that during the Reagan years middle classes paid most taxes.
- However, in August 2000 Jackson produced 2 stories criticising the Bush tax cut plan (and you know what happened with 'em last decade!)
- Brent Bozell praised Jackson in 1996 for being a one of the "rare network investigators...without whom evening news coverage would be almost totally vacuous and unoriginal" because Jackson "corrected the 'cuts' claims of the Democrats".
- Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting commented in 1992: "CNN's Brooks Jackson did some of the most consistent and forthright work in setting the record straight "Judging it just on the basis of facts, Dan Quayle is the big loser here tonight," Jackson asserted (10/13/92) in a post-debate report refuting several of Quayle's claims. He also corrected some of Gore's half-truths (like the line that 17,000 people had gone off welfare in Arkansas, when the total number on welfare had actually increased)."
- Jackson appeared on NBC Nightly News in 2004 to debunk an anti-John Kerry ad claiming that Kerry supported a gas tax increase, but Brian Williams only responded: "It is hard to tell fact from fiction."
- During the 1990s, "CNN has aired numerous reports assessing theaccuracy of campaign commercials. Usually reported by CNN senior correspondent Brooks Jackson, the features virtually always address the commercials from the standpoint of truthfulness."
- Media Matters titled a 2004 review of a Jackson appearance on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: "Political Fact Check's Jackson should check the facts when discussing advocacy ads"

[Major Hogwash]

10. Wow, I'm glad this dude isn't a friend of mine.

If I would have borrowed $5 bucks from him and paid him back 20 years ago, he'd be running around for the next 20 years saying that I never paid the $500 bucks that I borrowed from him, before he corrected the story.

It's bad enough that politicians lie to us on a daily basis, they don't need mouthpieces on the news to filter the news for us!!

That is all Fox News is - a rightwing filter.
That's all they have done for the dozen years -- spin the facts of the story to the right to fit their agenda.

So, someone needs to tell me again, why is Fox News a member of the White House Press Corps??

The most honest news today is on the internet, via whistleblowers, and DU is one of the best conduits/depositories of that news.
One of the only reasons I stay online is to read the DU forum, to get the news.

[24601]

13. The history of journalism in the US is entwined with politics. The

WH just needs to understand but not act against a paper's or network's political philosophy. When a Dem administration can exclude fox (and the other networks strongly disagreed with the attempt to the point of rebellion) the precedent is set for the next admin to exclude msnbc.

When the government picks the coverage - it becomes nothing more than propaganda of the government-controlled message. Bad for the country regardless of your views.

And, it's all one big happy 1st amendment. Shall the government also be deciding that Episcopalians, Jews or Druids are not a legitimate religion?

[No Elephants]

16. FOX and MSNBC are both Republican. MSNBC simply has a programming strategy

of giving a nod to the group in power, in the hope of getting better ratings and maybe a scoop or two, which would lead to better ratings. In the early Bush years, it's line up was pure ugly, from Imus in the Morning to Dennis Miller's talk show ending original programming for the day.

Even Chris Matthews was saying then "I voted for Bush twice--and would again, given who he was running against" and "I'm a lot more conservative than people think."

Democrats should not let the current presence of Schultz, Olberman and Maddow on MSNBC lull them. MSNBC WH correspondent is no friend of Democrats. Neither is most of the daytime line up, and Matthews does whatever he thinks helps Matthews most at any given moment.

[AlbertCat]

20. FOX and MSNBC are both Republican.

EVERYBODY but Democracy Now and Link TV are republican!

[defendandprotect]

8. As they say: "Truth has a long arc" -- !!! Go, Jerry Brown!!

[No Elephants]

14. Did Clinton know he was quoting a lie?

Somehow, this reminds me of Bushco's planting an Iraq story in the NYT, then going on all the Sunday talking heads shows and quoting from the NYT story.

[Odin2005]

18. "Error" my ass!

[RedCloud]

19. Next they will tell us Gore carried several more states than previously reported.

[AngryAmish]

21. Ackowledgin error is ot enough. He needs to whip her with his belt.

Teach her.