Watch the media

Closely. When you catch them in a gaffe which they just cover up, while calling events as they see them, realize that may not be the way it is.

Kudos to NRO’s media blog for catching this one.

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell has been on something of a roll lately. First, while appearing on The Chris Matthews Show last Sunday, she delivered this erroneous report about a briefing Gen. David Petraeus supposedly held for only Republicans:

ANDREA MITCHELL: Excuse me, Chris, but Petraeus went to the Republican caucus and told them, `I will have real progress to you by August.’ They told him, `We’ll stick with you…’

This sent left-leaning bloggers into a tizzy over the possibility that Petraeus was holding Republicans-only briefings. That was Monday. Then, on Hardball yesterday, Mitchell reversed course:

MATTHEWS: What is Petraeus, General Petraeus saying over there about — what`s he been telling people about that?

MITCHELL: Well, it`s a good thing you bring that out. He`s been telling senators — he had, in fact, a closed-circuit briefing for the senators, Democrats as well as Republicans, and he is telling them that he will report some progress, that he hopes to be able to report some progress by August. And in turn, what many Republican senators are saying, Chris, is that if there isn`t real progress by the end of the summer, that`s when there are going to really break with the president, that they`re going along with this surge out of respect for the generals. But in his closed briefing — they went over to the Pentagon and had that briefing, Democrats as well as Republican senators, and he made it clear to them that he thinks he can report some progress.

Suddenly, according to Mitchell, Democrats were at the briefing too. So what really happened?

In fact, Democrats were invited to the March 8th briefing Mitchell is probably describing, but they never showed up. House Minority Leader John Boehner even criticized the Dems for not attending the briefing in one of his press releases from that day…

Boehner’s release responded to the Democrats plan for the war on terror, he remarked on political interference in the war, and he ended with this:

NOTE: This morning, General Petraeus briefed congressional leaders from Baghdad live via satellite feed, providing them with an assessment of the situation on the ground, outlining the successes of the new plan to date, and some of the challenges that lie ahead. Not a single Democratic Leader from the House attended to receive the General’s first progress report.

Therefore, notes NRO…

Both Mitchell’s initial report and subsequent correction appear to be wrong.