Washington Post: No Do-Overs in Sports!

Howie Kurtz picks up on the story in today’s Washington Post by quoting Garance Franke-Ruta’s entry in TAPPED last week:

Hey — no do-overs in sports!

Josh Marshall lands an exclusive with Wes Clark, but American Prospect’s Garance Franke-Ruta does some fact-checking:

“Blogger Rick Klau has the goods on another example of what is becoming a pattern of easily avoidable inaccurate claims from the Clark camp. Earlier this week, Clark granted an interview to uberblogger Joshua Micah Marshall. It was just one interview the Clark camp tried to place with bloggers this week, and it was part of a broader strategy of trying to create a network of bloggers who could stir up Clark chatter in the blogosphere, according to my Clark sources. And it’s a pretty smart strategy: The Talking Points Memo interview provided Clark with a chance to give the sort of nuanced, thorough explanations of his policy stances and political beliefs that more traditional news outlets would never have space for — and Clark acquitted himself very well in the interview.

“But then his team announced on Clark04.com: ‘During the General’s recent trip to Washington D.C., Joshua Marshall over at the well-known Talking Points Memo did an interview enroute from Dulles Airport. This is the first time a blogger has interviewed a presidential candidate.’

“This simply wasn’t true. Liberal Oasis interviewed Howard Dean by e-mail back in May. Klau pointed this out and the Clark bloggers changed their story.”

First rule of politics and journalism: Be careful about claiming the “first” anything.

Clarification: Jerome Armstrong was the first blogger to talk with a presidential candidate in person Liberal Oasis has the distinction of the first formal interview. Both were with Howard Dean.

And a postscript: the Clark team has changed their language again, now saying, “This is believed to be the first time a blogger has interviewed a presidential candidate face-to-face.” (emphasis mine)

Believed by whom?