# Bush crowd boos Clinton health news. The lie. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 5, 2004, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173 "2004-09-05T03:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173/21 "2004-09-05T17:39:07Z")
If Giuliani were there, and there were such booing, he would have shouted “Quiet!” There was nothing on the tape that warranted a “Quiet!” command. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173/22 "2004-09-05T18:42:00Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > It is inconceivable that the crowd would have embarrassed Bush in such a manner, and much less that anyone other than Fred Phelps (who has condemned Clinton to hell) would be pleased to hear this news. I for one am not surprised. Not everyone is as civilized as you are. You can find assholes in any crowd, regardless of political orientation, and it’s fairly safe to conjecture that most people who would boo the idea of wishing for the speedy recovery of a political rival aren’t socially astute enough to ponder how that might reflect on the candidate they’re supporting. > [@](#): > > The almost inaudible sounds that people say they hear could just as well be “Oooo” as in “that’s horrible” rather than “Booo” as in “Clinton sucks”. Even my wife, who despises him with a passion, reacted with, “Oh no,” when she heard the news. So clearly did the crowd, as Bush announced Clinton’s hospitalization. The suspected booing comes long after that moment of gut reaction, after Bush wishes Clinton a speedy recovery. The time for a reaction of “ooo, that’s horrible” was over. The time for assholes to boo if they wanted to couldn’t have been better scripted. > [@](#): > > There is simply no evidence of any boos, not from witnesses and not from videotape. The AP reporter did this deliberately, and anyone who makes an issue of this is a jackass of the first order and will alienate every decent person who hears him. There is inconclusive evidence of isolated booing. Did “the crowd” boo Clinton? Heck no. Did Bush fail to admonish an unruly crowd? No, because the crowd was not unruly. Do I think the reporter make a biiiig honkin’ error in judgement? Yes. Should any of this be a big issue? I don’t think so. > [@beagledave](#): > > Good thing that my OP claimed that “not a single person booed”, making this response meaningful and on target! You didn’t say this, but **Random** in this thread did, as well as **Liberal** after I posted. There was some disagreement, and that’s why I listened and posted my own analysis. (30 seconds of listening carefully to a 4 second section of audio is hardly over the top tinfoil hat behavior, eh?) > [@Random](#): > > There was no booing on that clip. is, judging by what’s audible, no more accurate than saying “There _were_ boos on that clip.” It’s inconclusive. It’s possible the reporter was in fact standing near someone who booed, and chose to focus on that. It wouldn’t excuse his poor reporting, nor make the story true by a stretch of the imagination, but it would indicate he didn’t make it up out of whole cloth as some want to suggest. Exaggeration is somewhat different that an outright lie, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173/23 "2004-09-05T18:50:24Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Incidentally, Phelps has now also condemned Cheney to hell (for his “dyke daughter”, of course) and President Bush for keeping Cheney on the ticket. Wonder if Phelps will condemn Keyes, too, for not being harsh enough. After all, Keyes didn’t specifically say “No faggot will ever possibly be able to get into Heaven,” so there is room for improvement, so to speak. It’s possible, but IMNSHO rather unlikely, that the reporter in question was sitting in the middle of fifteen or twenty people who were booing, or that he was distracted during the cheering and heard only the booing in response to the cheering. Mind, I wouldn’t attach any meaningful probability to either of those, but it’s possible (highly bloody unlikely). [sub]Now watch me get labeled a liberal sheep for this;)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173/24 "2004-09-05T20:02:15Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > There is inconclusive evidence of isolated booing. Did “the crowd” boo Clinton? Heck no. Did Bush fail to admonish an unruly crowd? No, because the crowd was not unruly. Do I think the reporter make a biiiig honkin’ error in judgement? Yes. Should any of this be a big issue? I don’t think so. That sounds to me like an absolutely level-headed and reasonable take on the matter. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173/25 "2004-09-05T21:57:44Z")
I’ve listened to the clip and I think there’s no booing at all. It seems to me that what you can hear is a sharp intake of breath by multiple parties (presumably in shock as Clinton isn’t that old), no more. Should the reporter be fired for blatantly lying? Absolutely. From what I’ve read, reporters in the USA can get away with lots of things, but they absolutely cannot get away with lying to the public. But kudos to the blogosphere for correcting itself so rapidly. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173/26 "2004-09-05T22:50:06Z")
I can do better than the audio clip; they showed both Bush’s statement and the crowd’s reaction on the television news here when it happened. And I was specifically listening for booing, because I was curious as to how the convention audience would react. Undoubtedly there were a few yahoos who did boo, but they were more than drowned out by the cheering and generally supportive applause (although I was amused by the expression of one onlooker behind Bush who applauded in a decidedly grudging manner). Nevertheless, there was nothing for Bush to chastise the audience for, and the reporter is officially a dipstick of whatever political persuasion. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173/27 "2004-09-05T23:53:14Z")
A reporter with a personal agenda? I’m shocked! Just shocked, I say! **From what I’ve read, reporters in the USA can get away with lots of things, but they absolutely cannot get away with lying to the public.** Sure they can! All you have to do is change the word “lying” to “spinning” and anything goes. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173/28 "2004-09-06T00:24:29Z")
This wasn’t a blog; this was Associated Press. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-crowd-boos-clinton-health-news-the-lie/263173.md?page=1)