“New example” of Blumenthal quote “unearthed” by Politico is anything but
Written by Matt Gertz
Published
Politico is reporting tonight that the Danbury News-Times has “unearthed two new examples of Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal suggesting that he served in Vietnam.” One of those examples, however, seems to have appeared in the original New York Times article on Blumenthal's service.
In its original article, the Times reported (emphasis added:
At a 2008 ceremony in front of the Veterans War Memorial Building in Shelton, he praised the audience for paying tribute to troops fighting abroad, noting that America had not always done so.
“I served during the Vietnam era,” he said. "I remember the taunts, the insults, sometimes even physical abuse."
Compare that quote to the one offered by the Connecticut Post in a May 18, 2008, article, which describes an event at Shelton's Veterans War Memorial Building (accessed from Nexis, emphasis added):
“When we returned from Vietnam, I remember the taunts, the verbal and even physical abuse we encountered,” Blumenthal said. “It has taken 30 years for people to realize that, however they feel about the wars, they must honor the men and women who serve our country who had nothing to do with the decision to wage the conflicts.
It is the Post's quote that the News-Times and Politico are both citing today as “new.” But it seems clear -- unless there were two events at the same building during the same year in which Blumenthal offered nearly identical comments -- that the Post's quote and the New York Times' quote are from the same speech. Indeed, searches of the Nexis and Factiva databases uncover no contemporaneous reports besides the Post's of a Blumenthal speech in 2008 at Shelton's Veterans War Memorial Building.
Also -- and here we see the problem with relying on print reports to draw conclusions about a speaker's specific word choices -- it appears that one of the accounts misquotes Blumenthal, as the Times' and Post's quotes are slightly different.
Adding to the confusion is that the News-Times has incorrectly placed that speech as occurring in May 2009, rather than in May 2008, an error that Politico copied.
The News-Times reports:
During a May 18, 2009, military board tribute to veterans in Shelton, Blumenthal was quoted by the Connecticut Post as saying, “When we returned from Vietnam, I remember the taunts, the verbal and even physical abuse we encountered.”
A year later at a Stratford Memorial Day event covered by the Post, Blumenthal dropped the “we” reference but didn't go out of his way to say that he never went to Vietnam.
“I am called general all the time in my role, but the highest rank I will ever have in life is as a sergeant in the United States Marines,” said Blumenthal, who went on to comment how tough it was for veterans of the unpopular conflict to return to “taunts and jeers.”
Politico similarly reports:
Blumenthal was quoted by the Connecticut Post at a May 2009 event as saying, “When we returned from Vietnam, I remember the taunts, the verbal and even physical abuse we encountered.”
The News-Times notes that at a veterans event nearly a year later, Blumenthal did not use the word “we” to make a similar point.
It seems extremely unlikely that Blumenthal would have appeared at a Memorial Day event in Stratford this year; the holiday isn't until May 31. Indeed, the quote cited by the News-Times as occurring “a year later” appears in a May 25, 2009, Connecticut Post article.