Herald let Obama rewrite history
In the Nov. 8 edition of the Daily Herald, you did a disservice to your readers.
You ran an Associated Press article that essentially became a free ad for Senator Obama for President, in that you quoted Senator Obama directly giving his account of why he failed to have his hand on his heart in the photo taken in Iowa that is circulating on the internet.
He said that the photo was taken during the national anthem and not the pledge.
That would not explain why the others in the photo all had their hands on their hearts.
I did a "snopes" check on the image and found that there was an ABC video taken of the event, not just the still photo. According to the fact checkers, the video shows the opposite of what you quoted Senator Obama as saying.
The purpose of the newspaper is to report the news, not provide a platform for an individual to attempt to rewrite history. Yet by not questioning the quotation and running it as stated, you allowed him to rewrite the events -- therefore giving the impression to the reader of your paper that Senator Obama was in fact the victim of a dirty trick, when it is he and the Herald that is guilty of the dirty trick on their readers.
You have an obligation to report the news, and if the information you are given from the wire service is wrong, as this was, then you can go ahead and quote Senator Obama, but then provide the reader the facts involved.
Orlando J. Stratman
Lake Zurich