Let’s count what Susan Jones gets wrong in her Jan. 13 CNSNews.com attempt to discredit President Obama, shall we?
She writes:
At Wednesday’s memorial service in Tucson, President Obama announced that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since she was shot in the head on Saturday.
But three days earlier, the Tucson Sentinel reported that Giffords had opened her eyes on Sunday:
“Giffords is in a drug-induced coma in intensive care,” the newspaper reported on Jan. 9. “Doctors frequently awaken her to check her responsiveness, and she could open her eyes and respond to simple commands Sunday — an encouraging sign, said [Dr. Peter] Rhee.”
First, the TusconSentinel article is contradictory on the subject of whether Giffords’ eyes were open; it goes on to state that “Giffords cannot speak because she is on a ventilator, and cannot see because of the area of her injury and the surgery requires her eyes be kept closed, the doctors said.”
Second, Rhee specifically said in a Jan. 9 press conference: “No, we can’t get into too much more detail than what we already have. But I can tell you right now with the type of surgery, her eyes, she can’t open her eyes at this point, mechanical standpoints, and she’s also on the ventilator, so she can’t speak at this time.”
Third, the Tuscon Sentinel is not a “newspaper”; it’s “an online-only nonprofit that is attempting to fill the space left by the closing of the Tuscon Citizen.”
So, to sum up: Jones relied on a paraphrase from an online publication it mistakenly thinks is a real newspaper in order to attack the president, ignoring the actual words of the doctor being paraphrased. Just another day at work for CNS, it appears.