NY Times' Healy, USA Today advanced myth that Clinton switched
 
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:08:07 -0400

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<a href="http://mediamatters.org/"><img src="http://mediamatters.org/static/images/logo_email.jpg" border="0" /></a>
<p><b><em>NY Times'</em> Healy, <em>USA Today</em> advanced myth that Clinton
switched baseball allegiances  <br /> </b></p>
<p><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200710260004?src=item200710260004">http://mediamatters.org/items/200710260004</a></p>

<p>In an October 26 <i>New York
Times</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200710260004&to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2007%2F10%2F26%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2F26hillary.html">article</a>,
staff writer Patrick Healy reported that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
"took a rare shot at an old New York
rival and current Republican presidential candidate, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for
saying he would root for the [Boston]
Red Sox [against the Colorado Rockies] in the World Series." Healy was
referring to Giuliani&#39;s recent <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200710260004&to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Faponline%2Fus%2FAP-Giuliani-Red-Sox.html" title="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ioRVOtJvlSbC1CJGJwNaWSRm3VBw">statement</a>
that he will "root[] for the Red Sox" -- <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200710260004&to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Farticles%2FA8479-2005Mar28.html" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8479-2005Mar28.html">longtime
rivals of the New York Yankees</a> -- despite being a longtime
Yankees fan. Healy continued: "Giuliani, a Yankees fan, has mocked Mrs.
Clinton over the years for professing allegiance to the Yankees, even though
she grew up a Chicago Cubs fan and recently said she would split her loyalty
between those teams if they met in the World Series." Similarly,
side-by-side <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200710260004&to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Felection2008%2F2007-10-25-baseballcash_N.htm%3Fcsp%3D34">photographs</a>
of Clinton
wearing a Yankees cap in one and a Cubs cap in the other accompanied an October
26 online article on <i>USA Today</i>&#39;s
website. The caption read: "Hillary Rodham Clinton
has said she has split allegiances, rooting for her childhood team, the Cubs,
as well as the New York Yankees now that she is a resident and senator of New York."
However, the idea that Clinton
proclaimed herself a Yankees fan only after she decided to run for a New York
Senate seat or that she "switched allegiance" from the Cubs to the
Yankees during her Senate campaign is a <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200709250013?src=item200710260004" title="http://mediamatters.org/items/200709250013">myth</a> commonly repeated
in the media that is not supported by evidence. As <i>Media Matters for America</i> has <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200710240005?f=s_search">repeatedly</a> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200703140001?src=item200710260004" title="http://mediamatters.org/items/200703140001">noted</a>, Clinton&#39;s 2003
autobiography, <i><a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200710260004&http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&amp;pid=414621" title="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200710260004&http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&amp;pid=414621">Living
History</a></i> (Simon &amp; Schuster), contains a photograph of her
wearing a Yankees cap in 1992 -- eight years before she ran for the Senate.
Further, <i>The Washington Post</i>
reported on September 12, 1994, that "Mrs. Clinton ... as a kid was a
&#39;big-time&#39; fan of the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees and &#39;understudied&#39;
Ernie Banks and Mickey Mantle."</p>

<p>Below are the photographs and caption from the October 26 <i>USA Today</i> online article, headlined
"Baseball bosses play on political field":</p><blockquote>

<p><img  src="http://mediamatters.org/static/images/item/clinton-baseball_caps.jpg" border="0" alt="Clinton in a Yankee&#39;s cap; Clinton in a Cub cap" width="245" height="345" /> <br /></p>

<p>Hillary
Rodham Clinton has said she has split allegiances, rooting for her childhood
team, the Cubs, as well as the New York Yankees now that she is a resident and
senator of New York.</p></blockquote><table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>Patrick Healy</b></td>
<td valign="top"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>The New York Times</b></td>
<td valign="top">Clark Hoyt, <i>NY Times</i> public editor
<br /><a href="mailto:public@nytimes.com">public@nytimes.com</a>
<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/infoservdirectory.html#a">New York Times</a>
<br /><a href="mailto:letters@nytimes.com">letters@nytimes.com</a>
<br /><a href="mailto:executive-editor@nytimes.com">executive-editor@nytimes.com</a>
<br /><a href="mailto:managing-editor@nytimes.com">managing-editor@nytimes.com</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" style="background: #e8e8e8; 
border: 1px solid  #ffffff; font-size: 80%" cellpadding="1">
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid  #ffffff;" 
width="40%">
</b> Contact: <br />
<b>USA Today</b></td>
<td valign="top"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/marketing/feedback/feedback-online.aspx?type=12">USA Today</a>
<br />USA TODAY / USATODAY.com
<br />7950 Jones Branch Drive 
<br />McLean, VA 22108-0605</td>
</tr>
</table>



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