MSNBC's Clipped Romney 'Wawa' Moment
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell aired a short clip of Mitt Romney marveling at a Wawa touchscreen ordering kiosk and likened it to George H.W. Bush's 1992 supermarket-scanner gaffe, implying Romney was out of touch with ordinary technology.
The truncated clip fed a 'Romney is out of touch' narrative helpful to the Obama campaign.
What was reported
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell aired a short clip of Mitt Romney marveling at a Wawa touchscreen ordering kiosk and likened it to George H.W. Bush's 1992 supermarket-scanner gaffe, implying Romney was out of touch with ordinary technology.
What actually happened
The clip omitted the rest of Romney's remarks, in which he used the kiosk to contrast private-sector competition with slow federal bureaucracy. After the Romney campaign and RNC complained, Mitchell aired the omitted remarks the next day, saying the network had not had a chance to play them, without an apology.
The proof
The full remarks, which MSNBC itself aired on June 19, 2012, show Romney was making a point about government inefficiency rather than expressing amazement at the technology.
The receipt. Copy this and paste it anywhere:
MSNBC's Clipped Romney 'Wawa' Moment — Debunked. The full remarks, which MSNBC itself aired on June 19, 2012, show Romney was making a point about government inefficiency rather than expressing amazement at the technology. Full file: https://www.thepropagandafiles.com/case/msnbc-romney-wawa-clip/
Original reporting
- HuffPost: MSNBC's edit of Romney Wawa remarks draws criticismhttps://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/msnbc-romney-edit-andrea-mitchell_n_1609298.html
Corrections, findings & records
- Free Beacon: Mitchell airs the omitted portion of the remarkshttps://freebeacon.com/national-security/mitchell-on-mischaracterized-romney-clip-we-didnt-get-a-chance-to-play-that/
- Mediaite: Mitchell doesn't apologize for Wawa editinghttps://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/msnbcs-andrea-mitchell-doesnt-apologize-for-romney-wawa-editing/
Archived copies
Stories get edited after publication. These open the Internet Archive's earliest saved copy of each original.
- Archived copy: HuffPost: MSNBC's edit of Romney Wawa remarks draws criticismhttps://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/msnbc-romney-edit-andrea-mitchell_n_1609298.html