In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
The White House rewrites history... literally
From: Talking Points Memo
[Reader]: "A few days ago (10/23), you quoted Bush as speaking to the Australian Parliament and saying that he "sees" a China that is free, etc. At the time, I didn't go back to the White House press release, but if you look at it now you will see that it says he "seeks" a free China. Did you misread it, or have they been massaging the record after the fact? I don't know how to go about looking for a cached version of the page, but maybe it's worth pursuing."
Well, I'm not sure I'd know how to go about getting the cached version either. But luckily that's not necessary, since I made a PDF version of the original White House transcript as it appeared on the day in question. (Call me suspicious.) You can see it right here. If you scroll down to the big, clumsily-drawn red circle you'll see that the word was 'see' not 'seek'. Then compare it to the current version now at the White House website.
At some later point, they (i.e., someone in the White House press operation) simply changed the word and thus utterly changed the meaning.
Now, I've heard some speculate that the president had meant to say 'seek' but somehow misspoke or perhaps was supposed to say 'seek'.
Maybe.
But I find that a touch dubious because I think that on such a delicate matter the White House would check the 'transcript' against the prepared speech that the president read from.
And Atrios points out, the Australians heard "see" as well, as you can see from a transcript from an Australian site, which also has the audio of the speech where you can hear the president say "see" for yourself.
So do you see China as a nation working to secure the freedom of it own people? Bush does:
Bush: "We see a China that is stable and prosperous - a nation that respects the peace of its neighbors and works to secure the freedom of its own people."
- rob 2:00 PM - [PermaLink] -
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