FOX News reported today that N.M. Gov. Bill Richardson told the network he is running for president in 2008, but the governor says his comments were twisted and stuck by previous statements that he’ll make a final decision in January.
Using Richardson’s speech earlier today at Georgetown University as a springboard, the network interviewed him about 2008. On the video report, which you can view here, Richardson can be seen touting his credentials – one of them being that he’s Hispanic.
“But I’m not running as a Hispanic,” Richardson says. “I’m running as an American who’s proud to be a Hispanic.”
If you can’t watch the video, you can read a shorter print version of the report by clicking here.
“He’s in for ’08,” the reporter says at one point. “… He said he is running.”
Richardson’s office immediately put out a news release disputing the report.
“FOX News incorrectly reported that Governor Richardson has announced he will run for president,” said Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos. “When asked directly whether he will run for president, Governor Richardson said he will make a final decision in January. Other comments from the interview were taken out of context based on a hypothetical question that FOX News posed about the governor’s strengths, should he run for president.”
The network also reported that former Ambassador Joe Wilson and his wife, former CIA official Valerie Plame, are moving to New Mexico to work on the governor’s White House bid. It was the release of Plame’s identity in 2003 that led to the criminal investigation into who in the Bush Administration leaked classified information.
In an interview, Gallegos said Richardson knows nothing about the couple moving to New Mexico for the purpose of helping his potential presidential bid.
“The governor told them that and they still reported it,” Gallegos said.
If that’s true, FOX News conveniently left Richardson’s comment out of its story, and asserted its claim about Wilson and Plame as fact.
The network also reported that Richardson has begun hiring national staff and would visit New Hampshire in mid-January. Richardson has already announced that he will visit the state in mid-December.
The network, reporting on Richardson’s immigration policy speech, said he “chided Democrats” for not putting the topic at the top of their agenda. What FOX News failed to report is that Richardson also blasted Republicans for failing to enact meaningful reform and for passing disingenuous legislation.
That shouldn’t be a surprise. It isn’t as though FOX News is always fair and balanced.
Richardson is generally a brilliant handler of the media. Most I spoke with find it highly unlikely, especially knowing which network reported it, that Richardson actually said he’ll run in 2008.
Still, there is that quote in which Richardson says, “I’m running as an American who’s proud to be a Hispanic,” not, “If I run, it will be as an American who’s proud to be a Hispanic.”
To use FOX News’ own words: “We report. You decide.”
A previous version of this posting incorrectly reported that Gallegos said Richardson knows nothing about Wilson and Plame moving to New Mexico.
FOX News reported today that N.M. Gov. Bill Richardson told the network he is running for president in 2008, but the governor says his comments were twisted and stuck by previous statements that he’ll make a final decision in January.