The case of a Tory MP’s vanishing stay-at-home mom quote
Golly gee, what exactly did Mr. Dechert say? On Friday, the Brampton Guardian published a story about the Conservative income splitting plan and quoted Bob Dechert, Conservative MP for Mississauga-Erindale. The direct quote attributed to him about stay-at-home moms and new immigrants was, well, controversial. Here’s a screen grab of Dechert’s quote: There was an immediate uproar on social […]
Golly gee, what exactly did Mr. Dechert say?
On Friday, the Brampton Guardian published a story about the Conservative income splitting plan and quoted Bob Dechert, Conservative MP for Mississauga-Erindale.
The direct quote attributed to him about stay-at-home moms and new immigrants was, well, controversial. Here’s a screen grab of Dechert’s quote:
There was an immediate uproar on social media.
Dechert called up the news outlet “to say it may have been a miss-attribution,” reporter Joseph Chin of The Mississauga News (part of the same chain as the Guardian) told PressProgress in an e-mail. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the tape recording to double check. He’s now happy with his quotes.”
No doubt.
Here’s the updated quote in the re-do:
For his part, Dechert told PressProgress he was misquoted and contacted the Mississauga News to have the story corrected. He also alerted the Prime Minister’s Office.
“He taped it,” Dechert said of the reporter. “So he had my exact words.”
In a follow-up statement, Dechert said: “In this article I was misquoted, which I brought to the attention of the author of the article. The author, upon reviewing his notes, concurred with my assessment and issued an updated article correcting the quote.”
In an email to CBC News, PMO spokesman Collin Johnstone said Dechert was misquoted in the story and that the reporter “acknowledged his error.”
Hmm… Case closed then?
Not quite. On Friday evening, the Editor sent out a series of tweets. Turns out it’s not so clear-cut.
1/3 Editor’s note: A quote attributed to MP Bob Dechert was removed from the online version of the story about income splitting.
— The Mississauga News (@MissiNewsRoom) December 20, 2014
2/3 Editor’s note: Not sure where in the editing process it was changed, but it was not at the direction of an editor.
— The Mississauga News (@MissiNewsRoom) December 20, 2014
3/3 Editor’s note: Currently investigating why it was changed.
— The Mississauga News (@MissiNewsRoom) December 20, 2014
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