ABC’s Peter Jennings Blamed President Bush for Failing to Protect the U.S. Terrorist Attacks–Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
On September 11, the day of the “Attack on America” by terrorists, Peter Jennings allegedly said that President Bush should “quit hiding behind the Secret Service, come out and face the nation and explain the ‘President’s failure’ to protect the country.”
The Truth:
This eRumor was broadcast from several sources, but the most commonly-circulated version on the Internet was from a retired U.S. Army General who called for a boycott of ABC.
The story was given propulsion when Rush Limbaugh talked about it as well on his nationally syndicated radio program.
ABC says the harsh criticism of the president that is attributed to Jennings did not happen, although Jennings did have questions on the day of the attacks about where Bush was and what he was doing.
Rush Limbaugh researched it and could not find that Jennings said it either and realized that the quote had come from an email from a friend of his.
Rush says that what did take place was a comment by Peter Jennings that followed one of President Bush’s statements to the nation about the terrorist attacks. He is quoted as saying, “Well, some presidents are just better at it than others.”
Howard Kurtz dealt with this in an article in the Washington Post.