CBS News Producer Coaches Kerry

The story goes on to publish this quote: “The administration promised America several million jobs over the course of the next months, and I immediately said that those predictions would fall short, based on the promises they made with respect to the tax cut, which was supposed to give a million jobs. It cost a million, and the next tax cut was supposed to produce a million jobs, and it lost a million.” The Globe writes that this is what “Kerry told reporters.”
But that’s not how it happened. “Kerry’s remarks lasted three minutes,” the Globe reports, “yet it left TV reporters without a soundbite until one CBS News producer asked the Massachusetts senator to try again. ‘They don’t know what they’re talking about in their own economic policy,’ Kerry said of the Bush team. ‘Today it’s one thing, tomorrow it’s the next.’ Take two was the one that was used.”
The headline of this story has nothing to do with its body: CBS News producers are coaching Kerry to keep talking till he gets it right. Imagine saying, “Senator, it’s a little too long. Can you try it again and make it a little shorter for us?” He does so and that’s the take they use. This piece goes on to talk about Kerry’s “new style,” asking if it’s thanks to his advisors. It ends by gushing that his best performances come when Kerry’s “an underdog.” And when he gets a little help for his diarrhea of the mouth from CBS.