The trumped-up West Point “scholarship” issue displays rank hypocrisy by liberal “journalists” and gullibleness (or partisanship) of some conservative outlets looking for a story.
As regular readers of Clarice Feldman already know, she has a real knack for providing the details to the most complicated stories of the day. She presents them in ways that make them understandable, clearing away the underbrush of MSM misdirection and misinformation. This she has done once again , this time in the Ben Carson failed hit job by the incompetent hacks at CNN and Politico.
There are position statements made by Dr. Carson that we find troubling, or simply do not favor, but there is no substance to criticisms of a statement by him reflecting on circumstances decades previous about being “offered” a West Point “scholarship.” Readers are urged to check the entire column out. It does provide interesting detail that has not been widely reported. Excerpts:
They (Politico) asserted disingenuously that Carson’s autobiography falsely claimed he’d been admitted to West Point on a scholarship and turned it down. Even some conservative pundits fell for this untruth.
Here’s what Carson said about West Point:
“At the end of my twelfth grade I marched at the head of the Memorial Day parade. I felt so proud, my chest bursting with ribbons and braids of every kind. To make it more wonderful, we had important visitors that day. Two soldiers who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor in Viet Nam were present. More exciting to me, General William Westmoreland (very prominent in the Viet Nam war) attended with an impressive entourage. Afterward, Sgt. Hunt introduced me to General Westmoreland, and I had dinner with him and the Congressional Medal winners. Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point. I didn’t refuse the scholarship outright, but I let them know that a military career wasn’t where I saw myself going.”
Under the headline “Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship” it claimed that Carson said he’d applied for West Point and been admitted with a scholarship but turned it down. In fact, as the quoted passage reveals he never said that.
Given his academic and ROTC success, and the personages who knew of his achievements mentioned in his actual statement, even a suggestion that he should consider West Point is an offer. That he was told it was available to him would be reasonably interpreted as an offer as well.
Not ALL personal academic records are ‘generally’ not available….
Below is definitely the “Quote of the Day”, if not the week, month, year. The NY Times:
As reporters tried to interrupt, peppering him with new questions, Mr. Carson dug in. Why are the president’s academic records sealed? he wondered.
“No, no, no, no — don’t change the topic,” he said, talking over a reporter. “I am asking you, somebody, please, why you have not investigated that. I want to know. You should want to know, too.” (Personal academic records are generally not available to the public.)
The NYT must be losing it or they figure that their readership has no reason to question their evenhandedness. They were compelled to offer the readership this editorial note:
“Personal academic records are generally not available to the public.”
Gee, how did us “public” learn that Rick Perry- received a ‘C’ in political science at Texas A&M?
How did we learn that George W. Bush’ academic record was superior to Al Gore’s (who received *5 ‘F’s at Vanderbilt’s Divinity school, by the way)?
Jack Cashil writing at World Net Daily, also linked in the Feldman piece, has a devastating column about liberal media treatment of Obama and his “biography” compared to the essence of their attention directed at Carson.
Absurd double standard for Carson, Obama
DLH with R Mall
*Washington Times profile of Mr. Gore
