Cindy Sheehan vs. Matt Drudge and the Right Wing Disinformation Machine

Check out what Matt Drudge is saying about Cindy Sheehan:

PROTESTING SOLDIER MOM CHANGED STORY ON BUSH

Mon Aug 08 2005 10:11:07 ET

The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who is holding a roadside peace vigil near President Bush's ranch -- has dramatically changed her account about what happened when she met the commander-in-chief last summer!

Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., who last year praised Bush for bringing her family the "gift of happiness," took to the nation's TV outlets this weekend to declare how Bush "killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity."

Please follow along to understand the calculating procedures Matt Drudge employed in order to manufacture this "scandal" and character assassination of a grieving mother.

Here is the basis of Drudge's attack on Cindy Sheehan, continuing from the same post, quoted, above:

CINDY 2004

THE REPORTER of Vacaville, CA published an account of Cindy Sheehan's visit with the president at Fort Lewis near Seattle on June 24, 2004:

"'I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,' Cindy said after their meeting. 'I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith.'

"The meeting didn't last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son's sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.

"The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

"For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

"'That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,' Cindy said."

CINDY 2005

Sheehan's current comments are a striking departure.

She vowed on Sunday to continue her protest until she can personally ask Bush: "Why did you kill my son?"

In an interview on CNN, she claimed Bush "acted like it was party" when she met him last year.

"It was -- you know, there was a lot of things said. We wanted to use the time for him to know that he killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity. And we wanted him to look at the pictures of Casey.

"He wouldn't look at the pictures of Casey. He didn't even know Casey's name. He came in the room and the very first thing he said is, 'So who are we honoring here?' He didn't even know Casey's name. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear anything about Casey. He wouldn't even call him 'him' or 'he.' He called him 'your loved one.'

Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject. And he acted like it was a party.

BLITZER: Like a party? I mean...

SHEEHAN: Yes, he came in very jovial, and like we should be happy that he, our son, died for his misguided policies. He didn't even pretend like somebody...

END

On her current media tour, Sheehan has not been asked to explain her twist on Bush; from praise to damnation!

Developing...

Notice the absence of links. I tried to figure out where Drudge came up with the quotes by googling an exact phrase from the article. The only thing that came up pre-Drudge's Mon Aug 08 2005 10:11:07 ET posting was a page that is no longer hosted by Angelfire.* The google cache led to a page that was blank, save for the the text I searched on and some links at the bottom of the page. I hit ⌘-U to get Firefox show the page source, cut and pasted the code into ecto, and voià, here's what renders**:

Sheehans meet President Bush

By David Henson/Staff Writer

Thursday, June 24, 2004 - Since learning in April that their son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, had been killed in Iraq, life has been everything but normal for the Sheehan family of Vacaville.

Casey's parents, Cindy and Patrick, as well as their three children, have attended event after event honoring the soldier both locally and abroad, received countless letters of support and fielded questions from reporters across the country.

"That's the way our whole lives have been since April 4," Patrick said. "It's been surreal."

But none of that prepared the family for the message left on their answering machine last week, inviting them to have a face-to-face meeting with President George W. Bush at Fort Lewis near Seattle.

Surreal soon seemed like an understatement, as the Sheehans - one of 17 families who met Thursday with Bush - were whisked in a matter of days to the Army post and given the VIP treatment from the military. But as their meeting with the president approached, the family was faced with a dilemma as to what to say when faced with Casey's commander-in-chief.

"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."

The 10 minutes of face time with the president could have given the family a chance to vent their frustrations or ask Bush some of the difficult questions they have been asking themselves, such as whether Casey's sacrifice would make the world a safer place.

But in the end, the family decided against such talk, deferring to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act. In addition, Pat noted that Bush wasn't stumping for votes or trying to gain a political edge for the upcoming election.

"We have a lot of respect for the office of the president, and I have a new respect for him because he was sincere and he didn't have to take the time to meet with us," Pat said.

Sincerity was something Cindy had hoped to find in the meeting. Shortly after Casey died, Bush sent the family a form letter expressing his condolences, and Cindy said she felt it was an impersonal gesture.

"I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."

The meeting didn't last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son's sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.

While meeting with Bush, as well as Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, was an honor, it was almost a tangent benefit of the trip. The Sheehans said they enjoyed meeting the other families of fallen soldiers, sharing stories, contact information, grief and support.

For some, grief was still visceral and raw, while for others it had melted into the background of their lives, the pain as common as breathing. Cindy said she saw her reflection in the troubled eyes of each.

"It's hard to lose a son," she said. "But we (all) lost a son in the Iraqi war."

The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

"That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together," Cindy said.

There is very little in the supposedly damning passage that is actually a quotation from Cindy Sheehan. Once you get rid of all of Drudge's misleading quotation marks, the only sentences actually attributed to Cindy Sheehan are:

1. "We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."
2. "I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith."
3. "It's hard to lose a son," she said. "But we (all) lost a son in the Iraqi war."
4. "That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together," Cindy said.

Quotation number 1—which Drudge omits—is unambiguously negative about the war. Quotation number 2 could be read in any number of ways, including ironically: the three things Cindy Sheehan "now know[s]" are things that she probably already knew from the impersonal form letter Bush had previoulsy sent them. Quotation number 2 actually could have been said in bitterness over Bush's unresponsive behavior. Quotation number 3 is without context and has nothing to do with Bush. Quotation number 4 is like number 2: it could be read in numerous ways, including that the only thing the president gave the Sheehans was the opportunity to be together as a family as they made the trip to see him.

Are my readings of the four Cindy Sheehan quotations from 2004 conclusive? Certainly not. However, the only Cindy Sheehan quotation from the original 2004 article in the Vacaville, CA Reporter article that has enough context to be interpreted clearly is quotation number 1:

"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."

After genuine scrutiny, the context for quotations 2, 3, and 4 is too loose and too colored by reporter David Henson's expository embellishments for Matt Drudge to assert that anything has "dramatically changed" in Cindy Sheehan's account of her family's meeting with President Bush.

A couple of hours affter Drudge posted his report, The Reporter decided appropriately to republish the original 2004 article in question.

UPDATE

The Raw Story and Brad Blog have also noticed that The Drudge Report is quoting Cindy Sheehan out of context in order to defame her.

~

NOTES

*The nonexistent page was on the Caey's Peace Page website, still in operation.

**Some of the original source for the google cache of the Angelfire web page mentioned, above, was stripped or altered by ecto in rich text mode. For transparency's sake, I've uploaded a PDF file, printed from what firefox displayed after I keyed ⌘-U for Page Source.