MSNBC's Blatantly Dishonest Editing Of President Obama

This morning whilst watching Morning Joe I happened to catch a clip of President Obama's townhall yesterday. Curiously the actual clip that they played never actually made it into the cutups of the show that are available online but they DID include the discussion that followed the clip.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Now since the clip itself wasn't included I will just do my best to explain it to you as it was run on MSNBC several times throughout the day. First you see an audience member talking about how FEMA has not been forthcoming in paying to rebuild certain important elements of New Orleans after Katrina, in particular a hospital that there is a big dispute about. In the clip after the man asks his question President Obama is seen saying, and I am paraphrasing here, that he wishes he could just write a check and the questioner responds I guess something to the effect of "Why can't you?" and then, in a moment of levity President Obama says "Well there is this whole thing about the Constitution and Congress..." And you can actually hear the audience members laugh. But you saw from the clip that Joe Scarborough and crew decided that this was beyond the pale to "make fun" of this guy's legitimate concern. Well you know what, I agree. If that WAS President Obama's response then that pretty much would have been a legitimate gaffe.

But of course it wasn't. Here is the full exchange filmed by someone in the crowd.



I am used to cable networks doing some shady editing but this shit went wayyyyyyyyy beyond the pale. And I am sure that is probably why you can't even find that edited clip on any part of MSNBC's site. Hell if people are rushing to apologize to Rush Limbaugh for misquoting him then the whole Morning Joe panel should have to apologize to President Obama for totally misrepresenting what he said in New Orleans.