An NPR correction tells you who lost the 2004 Spanish elections–but it didn’t tell you that the peace movement won. (cc photo: kippelboy/Wikimedia)
In response to a FAIR.org post by Sam Husseini (6/13/16) and the demands of FAIR activists, NPR News has posted an online correction to the on-air claim by “counter-terrorism correspondent” Dina Temple-Raston that conservatives won the Spanish election held in the wake of the 2004 Madrid bombing:
On June 12, 2016, during a live broadcast about the Orlando shootings, NPR‘s Dina Temple-Raston was mistaken when she said commuter trains in Madrid were bombed in 2007. In fact, that happened in 2004. She also was mistaken about the results of elections that were held three days after the bombings. Prime Minister José María Aznar’s party was defeated.
As Husseini noted in a response on his own blog (6/15/16), the correction does little to explain the significance of Temple-Raston’s mistake: She had speculated that ISIS might intentionally attack the United States in the run-up to the November elections, possibly in order to help elect Donald Trump, since “they would be able to perhaps get more recruits because of the way he talks about Muslims.” Though noting there was no evidence that this was happening, Temple-Raston claimed that “it’s happened in the past”—which is how she led in to her false statement that “the more conservative candidate ended up winning” in the Spanish election immediately following the Madrid train station bombing.
The correction tells NPR‘s audience (its online audience, anyway) that Aznar lost; one can infer from this that he was “the more conservative candidate.” Unless you are already familiar with Spanish politics, however, you wouldn’t know that the election was won by the Socialist Party running on an anti-war platform—so the bombing had a political effect opposite from what Temple-Raston suggested to NPR‘s listeners. The correction also leaves unclear whether there are in fact examples of terrorist groups successfully manipulating elections, since the one example she gives of this didn’t happen as she related.
If it was worth NPR‘s airtime to give a false impression of the connection between terrorism and electoral politics, isn’t it worth airtime to tell people what the actual historical record says?
Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org. He can be followed on Twitter: @JNaureckas.
You can contact NPR ombud Elizabeth Jensen via NPR‘s contact form or via Twitter: @ejensenNYC. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
Excellent work in forcing NPR to issue the (partial) correction, but why not post the above as a comment under the correction on NPR’s website as I just did?
good work, larry moffett, but the correction needs to be acknowledged and publicized here, there, and everywhere.
npr disappoints and infuriates me constantly. they are as awful as the rest, and I hope their listeners realize it.
some of their “reporters” sound like teenagers, and the old stand-bys sound depressed to me- having to read npr’s mass-media imperialist messages these days.
no kidding. npr and pbs are NOT what they used to be… like the rest of corporatized messed-up America.
they (NPR and all the M$M) should be making corrections EVERY DAY – ha-
or, better yet, they should just give it up totally- pretending to be worthy news centers … they are not!
…and like the two embarrassing political parties which at the same time- this terror era- they appear to be utterly awful failures, too.
CAN THEY ALL START OVER AGAIN? CAN WE START OVER WITH THIS RIDICULOUS ELECTION CAMPAIGN, TOO ?
CAN WE DEMAND IT? CAN WE DEMAND NPR AND PBS REALLY MAKE A CORRECTION?
because REALLY BIG corrections are direly. sadly. ABSOLUTELY.. needed. or … this country is toast.
Nice
Polite
Republicans
Who aren’t big on fact checking. And 2004 is so last war, oh wait, it’s still going on.
Have they fired Scott Simon yet for his attack on those who objected to the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001? Scott broke all sorts of NPR policies with that essay, can’t remember if it was published by the NYT or the WashPost.
More like National Propaganda Radio
RICHEST NATION — LOVES RICH FOOD
In order to endure the stress of making correct moral decisions, the brain needs an over abundance of oxygen and high blood flow exercise.
Problem is, research studies show that after a meal rich in fat the brain suffers a loss of half of it’s normal oxygen supply. For blood with a high fat content, it causes the red blood cells to clump together at the capillary openings, hence the 50% reduction in blood flow to the brain.
Take the research study into the cause of why in New York City the daily peak in violent crimes takes place in the early evening hours when the daily meal most heavy in fat is being digested.
The average American diet is 50% fat, which clogs up every internal organ in the body. Surely, this is why we have the poorest health of all industrialized nations. Surely, this is why we have the most violence and war-hawk tendency to make the most immoral political decisions of any democracy there ever was.
So, our nation having the most mass killings at home and the most violent wars of aggression abroad, have we not stumbled upon the root cause?
Your interpretation of the results of the 2004 Spanish elections is debatable because of your statement the “peace movement” won. That conclusion is incomplete. By most accounts the Socialists won because the Conservative Party (Partido Popular) totally mishandled the facts of the Madrid train bombings and lied to the public in their desire to make the Basque terrorist organization responsible. Polls taken shortly before the act of terrorism showed the Conservatives in the lead. You were not complete in your assessment in your desire to present the “peace” party has having won. They were indeed opposed to Spain’s participation in the Iraq war but that was as much a political decision as it was a grand movement for peace.
The reason Partico Popular mishandled the facts of the case was that they did not want it tied to their Mideast policy of participating in the Iraq war, thus the failed attempt to pin it on Basque separatists. So, in reality FAIR got it right. And the article does not say a “peace movement” won, but that the Socialists’ platform on opposition to Spain’s involvement in Iraq gave them the edge after the bombing.
Try WBAI 99.5 FM NYC