THE MYTH

Posted at 8:48 a.m. ET

A story that has gotten major play in the last few days, and has been used against John McCain and Sarah Palin has apparently turned out to be a myth.  This is from a small newspaper in Pennsylvania that bothered to check facts.  Let's see if major media pick it up:

SCRANTON – The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded.

The Scranton Times-Tribune first reported the alleged incident on its Web site Tuesday and then again in its print edition Wednesday. The first story, written by reporter David Singleton, appeared with allegations that while congressional candidate Chris Hackett was addressing the crowd and mentioned Obama’s name a man in the audience shouted “kill him."

News organizations including ABC, The Associated Press, The Washington Monthly and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann reported the claim, with most attributing the allegations to the Times-Tribune story.

Agent Bill Slavoski said he was in the audience, along with an undisclosed number of additional secret service agents and other law enforcement officers and not one heard the comment.

“I was baffled,” he said after reading the report in Wednesday’s Times-Tribune.

So are we, Agent Slavoski.  So are we.

He said the agency conducted an investigation Wednesday, after seeing the story, and could not find one person to corroborate the allegation other than Singleton.

It is time for Singleton's editor at the Scranton Times-Tribune to take him on a little walk around the block and get to the truth.  Faking a news story is the most serious offense in journalism.  It gets you tossed out of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia.  It cost a Washington Post reporter the Pulitzer Prize.  But what is the newspaper's response?  I doubt if this will surprise you:

When contacted Wednesday afternoon, Singleton referred questions to Times-Tribune Metro Editor Jeff Sonderman. Sonderman said, “We stand by the story. The facts reported are true and that’s really all there is.”

How would brother Sonderman know if the "facts" are true?  Was he there?  Did he hear the line spoken?  How does he explain the real fact that no one else heard the comment?  This is a classic example of journalistic arrogance.  It's the old "We stand by our story" gimmick.   

Slavoski said the agents take such threats or comments seriously and immediately opened an investigation but after due diligence “as far as we’re concerned it’s closed unless someone comes forward.”

Not a great moment in journalism.  There haven't been too many recently.

October 16, 2008.