Politico has made significant changes to a report claiming 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson “fabricated” his story about being offered full scholarship to attend West Point, and there is nothing in the story to indicate that the article has been edited.
The story’s original headline read, “Ben Carson Admits Fabricating West Point Scholarship.”
The story’s opening paragraph also stated originally that, “Ben Carson’s campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from POLITICO, that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.”
However, the supposed scoop encountered heavy pushback Friday afternoon, as several reporters noted quickly that Carson never said he applied to enroll in the prestigious military school. Carson never claimed that he was accepted.
Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has always maintained that he was offered a full scholarship. He has stated repeatedly in interviews and in several books that he turned down the offer because he wanted to pursue a career in medicine.
A few social media users disputed Caron’s use of the term “full scholarship,” as West Point’s admissions process differs greatly from that of an ordinary university.
However, as noted by a few reporters Friday afternoon, West Point itself uses the term “full scholarship” in much of its recruitment material.
Politico has since amended its story to remove language that accused Carson of lying about the whole story.
The article’s new headline reads, “Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied.”
The report’s opening paragraph has also undergone significant changes.
It now reads, “Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Friday conceded that he never applied nor was granted admission to West Point and attempted to recast his previous claims of a full scholarship to the military academy – despite numerous public and written statements to the contrary over the last few decades.”
The most significant change made to the story is that the word “fabricated” has been removed from the headline.
Here’s the Politico story as it originally appeared:
Ben Carson Admits Fabricating West Point Scholarship – POLITICO by Becket Adams
Though the report has been heavily edited, it still reports that Carson and his campaign spokesman “conceded” he never applied to West Point. This is an odd word choice, considering Carson never said he did.
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UPDATE 11.06.15: Politico updated its report to include an editors note. Along with standing by its reporting, the Virginia-based news outlet also reiterated its claim that West Point does not offer scholarships and that the 2016 candidate clearly implied in the past that he had applied to enroll.
“POLITICO stands by its reporting on this story, which has been updated to reflect Ben Carson’s on the record response. The original story and headline said that Carson’s campaign had admitted he ‘fabricated’ a ‘full scholarship’ from West Point, but now Carson denies that his campaign’s statement constituted such an admission, and the story and headline were changed to reflect that,” it read.
The original report claimed a Carson spokesman “conceded” that the story had been fabricated. But a reading of the quote produced by Politico shows the campaign spokesman did no such thing.
“POLITICO’s reporting established that Carson said he received a ‘full scholarship’ from West Point, in writing and in public appearances over the years — but in fact he did not and there is actually no such thing as a ‘full scholarship’ to the taxpayer-funded academy. And today in response to POLITICO he acknowledged for the first time that was not the case. Carson never explicitly wrote that he had applied for admission to West Point, although that was the clear implication of his claim to have received an offer of a ‘full scholarship,’ a point that POLITICO’s initial report should have made clear,” it added.
West Point’s recruiting material uses the term “full scholarship.” Also, Politico’s claim that Carson clearly meant to imply that he had applied at West Point would seem to go against the entire purpose of his telling the anecdote. The point of his story is that he didn’t apply, opting instead to pursue a career as a doctor.
