A story on the battle to liberalize Ireland’s abortion laws published in USA Today Thursday contained edits that grossly altered the original story, according to freelance journalist Caelainn Hogan, who wrote the piece.

Or rather, that was according to Hogan before she changed her mind about complaining about those edits.

Hogan, 24, told FishbowlDC that USA Today‘s version of her story, which was purchased through the freelance writer service Associated Reporters Abroad, added “material I had never seen before” and included “paraphrasing of my own words and manipulation of quotes which I feel distort the original.” Hogan is an Ireland native but is currently in Turkey.

The original version of Hogan’s story, which she forwarded to FBDC, is different from the USA Today version, but mostly by way of inconsequential edits. For example, the original story contained the following quote:

“The issue of abortion in Ireland s [sic] so contentious many are reluctant to discuss it,” said Clare Quigley, 23, a medical student in Dublin.

It was amended to read:

“The issue of abortion in Ireland is so contentious,” said Clare Quigley, 23, a medical student in Dublin.

Not exactly a nefarious edit.

Edits to the story include added quotes… Read more

A memo to WaPo: Next time you want to give credit to a paper for breaking a story, how about doing it in the first couple of graphs? How about doing it at all?

On Friday morning at 9:58 a.m., Paul Farhi wrote about the flap over Politico yanking a video on its “about” page because Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office got its knickers in a twist about the potential lack of ethics involving a video of his staffer on a page where they’re selling Politico.

The story is well-written and cites Politico Chief Operating Officer Kim Kingsley. But why does it take Farhi eight flippin’ graphs to mention the story and publication that broke it in the first place, which was Roll Call on Thursday at 4:58 p.m.? He writes,

“Roll Call, a Politico competitor, reported Thursday that senate ethics rules prohibit senators and their staff from making endorsements. The publication reports Holmes said he didn’t realize that the video would be used as an ad. He received a written request for a video interview from Politico’s director of marketing, who said the video would be ‘a profile of you first — and how you use Politico second.’”

Farhi told FishbowlDC by email: “I was not aware that Roll Call had broken the story until I got your email (I’m assuming you’re correct, btw). I was first alerted to the story yesterday by a colleague, who didn’t mention where he’d seen or heard about it. I reported it out and filed something short about it late last night. I DID notice that Roll Call had done some fine reporting on this and credited them accordingly.”

Psst…Farhi! Google is your friend.

We also reached out to Roll Call‘s Meredith Shiner, who broke the story, for comment.

UPDATE: WaPo‘s Erik Wemple also writes about the Politico-McConnell debacle — because why shouldn’t two media reporters from the same publication delve into the same story? He cites Shiner by name five graphs into a pretty lengthy post.

The House voted on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, yesterday, and the Twittersphere noticed, with uncommonly long hashtag #ObamaCareInThreeWords trending through last night.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) kicked off the avalanche of left and right-wing-aimed Tweets with this:

Hey folks, #ObamaCareInThreeWords — go!

— Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) May 16, 2013

Well, “folks” from all over took to Twitter to describe Obamacare in (mostly) three words. Here are some of the top Tweets from inside the Beltway.

Vince Coglianese of The Daily Caller opted to make an observation about the hashtag itself instead commenting on the healthcare bill.

A Long-ass Hashtag #ObamacareInThreeWords

— Vince Coglianese (@TheDCVince) May 16, 2013

Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) decided the hashtag wasn’t long enough, so he made up a new one while dutifully informing Twitter users of the proper terminology.

Not So Affordable & Hurting Small Businesses.#Obamacareinthreewords #butidontcallitobamacarebecausethatispejorative #affordablecareact

— Rep. Scott Rigell (@RepScottRigell) May 16, 2013

Unfortunately for Rigell, the hashtag didn’t catch on.

WaPo blogger Greg Sargent made up a new word as to not go over the three-word limit.

Drove conservatives batsh*tcrazy #ObamacareInThreeWords

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 16, 2013

Read more

The Breitbart Embassy on Capitol Hill will host a memorial gathering for Chip Gerdes, a behind-the-scenes conservative operative, who died last week of a sudden heart attack. He was 42.

If you’re looking for the video on Politico’s website featuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Chief of Staff Josh Holmes, then good luck.

Roll Call’s Meredith Shiner, a former staff writer at Politico, reported that as of Thursday, the video had been removed from the advertising page of the Rosslyn, Va. news outlet’s website at the request of McConnell’s office.

As the piece explains, the video may have violated Senate Ethics Rules, which prohibit senators and the staffs from using their “official congressional capacity” to endorse outside entities. This would not prevent Holmes (pictured at left) from endorsing Politico as an avid reader, but it does apply to the use of his chief of staff title.

From Roll Call:

“The video, posted earlier this week under the ‘audience’ tab of Politico’s advertising page, features Josh Holmes and identifies him with the title: “Chief of Staff, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, KY.” Holmes spends the first half of the video explaining his job, with shots taken inside McConnell’s office, and the second half of the video explaining why he reads the Washington publication. The video ends with the top staffer saying, “I’m Josh Holmes and I’m a Politico.”

A shortened version of the video can be found here on Vimeo.

The full video was removed from the advertising page but can be found on a different Politico page, by itself, which Roll Call found “via a live Politico link.” Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris was asked by FBDC to comment on the situation, but is on the road and unable to respond so he passed the request along to Sara Olson, Politico‘s VP of Marketing.

Read more

As they showcased the upcoming issue of GQ on this morning’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, Co-host Mika Brzezinski wondered about all the boobage in the magazine. We’re talking full-on breast shots that she flashed for the TV screen.

The story with the naked breasts concerned five-day cruises with Kid Rock.

The hosts were appropriately disgusted and outraged and quickly crumpled the magazine so the boobs were hidden. But not before Brzezinski flashed viewers with this bold shot. Those are Joe Scarborough‘s fingers at the top crease of the magazine.

One question. If nudity isn’t allowed on national cable TV, are pictures of naked breasts acceptable?

See the other shots and chyron that helped hide the picture of the guest holding up the nudy feature. Read more

Back on May 3, the world commemorated “World Press Freedom Day.” Everyone except North Korea, that is. They decide to wait until May 15 to celebrate by running an editorial in the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun. The piece is called “Mockery of Press” and it takes several shots at American media and the so-called ”Freedom of report.”

WaPo reports on the rambling editorial, which seems to make the argument that American media is both too restricted and too free. While it seems to be a generalization of ALL of American media, two reporters get glowing reviews from The Dear Leader.

Who are Kim Jong-Un’s approved reporters? Read more

Huma under fire: NYT Vs. Politico –  NYT‘s Raymond Hernandez writes that Huma Abedin, wife of the most ambitious weiner in New York, former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Schlongville), did not disclose how much income she earned in her private consultant role while working as a top advisor for Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. The story rolled in last night around 11:31 p.m. (at least according to a @nytimes tweet as there is no time stamp). In graph three, he cites a Thursday afternoon Politico story published at 4:14 p.m. triple bylined by Maggie Haberman, John Bresnahan and Glenn Thrush. Politico reported the special arrangement that Abedin had with the State Department, but did not report that the information was not disclosed on Weiner’s financial disclosure report. They wrote that the information was not publicly available. Abedin declined to speak to the NYC; Politico‘s story never mentions requesting to speak with her. While Hernandez cites longtime Hillary Clinton press aide Philippe Reines and “an associate of Ms. Abedin,” Politico, meanwhile, cited “a source familiar with the arrangement,” “a friend of hers,” “several sources” and “one source.”

White House Scandalpalooza 

Benghazi Timeline—Rowan Scarborough’s piece in TWT this morning gives an in-depth analysis into the Benghazi scandal. Organized in somewhat of a timeline, the story explains step by step what went wrong from before the attack up until recent weeks when the scandal broke. Read here.

IRS questions unanswered—Politico’s Lauren French and Rachel Bade examine holes in the IRS scandal that have yet to emerge. The piece thoroughly outlines questions the case has left unanswered and why they’re important. Read here.

Scandal ADHD—In a piece in WaPo this morning, Aaron Blake puts the week in scandals involving the IRS, Benghazi, and AP phone records into perspective. Though the scandals have dominated news media this week, not many Americans are paying attention. Read here.

FishbowlDC intern Austin Price contributed to this report.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) changed out of his usual bow-tie this morning for a complete nerd ensemble for Current TV’s “Full Court Press.”

Seriously. A member of Congress shows up for TV in a dorky “Back to the Future” T-shirt and running shorts? “F–king gold,” one observer remarked to us.

Quotes of the Day

RAINING IN THE ROSE GARDEN: “Overheard: ‘Melt the Press.’ @MarkLandler of NYT pops out a Georgetown umbrella.” — NPR White House Correspondent Ari Shapiro with the accompanying photograph. And NBC’s Luke Russert: “The #Marines holding the umbrellas at this presser are unbelievably cool, had no idea there’s military protocol for umbrella holding.”

Umbrella memories

“In my first job as a sports reporter, my editor had me hold the umbrella over him & his camera on the sidelines. Good times.” — HotAir’s Mary Katharine Ham.

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 5:48 a.m.

From the Dept. of Bragiculture…

“So much happening-impt stuff must be slipping by for bandwidth lack. Just in my niche, turned in 7 stories in past 4 days & 8th mostly done.” — NYT‘s Charlie Savage.

ABC “Scandal” finale fallout

“So Fitz is porking a black woman to bring diversity to the Republican Party? Wow. #StartedFromATwerkNowWereHere” — Javonni Brustow, Washington editor of The DC Pundit.

“Oh damn Fitz just went rogue! And quotes Dillon Thomas to boot!” — Essence and theGrio.com‘s Sophia Nelson.

“Damn, Fitz just went Bulworth on Mellie! @ScandalABC #Gladiators” — Washington Watch and Tom Joyner Show regular Roland Martin.

“When @tonygoldwyn saw this two page monologue for the first time at the table read, he gasped. Then he dove in.” — Scandal creator and writer Shonda Rhimes.

“Mellie is going to fuck everybody. #Scandal” — @emokidsloveme.

“Liv. #shutitdown and call a locksmith.” — Avid “Scandal” watcher Shawna Thomas of NBC News as Olivia Pope nearly gets killed. And later, after Fitz sees a video in which Olivia, his mistress, has sex with another man, she writes, “OK Fitz. She is not a virgin nor your wife and she didn’t know that guy was charged w/ bedding/protecting her. STOP BEING A CHILD.”

“Can’t even type. This ending kills me! #scandalfinale” — Actress Kerry Washington, who plays Olivia Pope.

“Lemme get this straight, the season finale of Scandal is on during #ScandalWeek? THIS TOWN” — TPM Assistant Editor Igor Bobic.

Brian’s Stelter’s walk on the moon

“I vividly remember my first time watching ‘The Office.’ It was May 2005, on my laptop, on a train from Baltimore to NY.” — NYT‘s Brian Stelter. And were you simultaneously monitoring your Tumblr account, Facebooking, and checking your MySpace?

The power of ass kissing

“The power of @carr2n: He tweets your story and you get 126 clicks in 15 minutes.” — Slate‘s Jack Shafer in reference to NYT‘s David Carr.

Journo annoyed by mouth breather

“This kid who is mouth breathing next to me really needs to get off the train. Can’t deal. #imsoannoying” — Roll Call‘s Emily Cahn.

Unnecessary Tweet of the Day

“Intrigued by Cool Ranch tacos tho I’m normally not a Taco Bell fan & hearing cool ranch flavor gets overwhelmed by filling. Anybody tried?” — Washington Examiner‘s Philip Klein.

See more exciting Morning Chatter… Read more