Britney Griner released 12-08-2022

rajncajn said
You have to admit, it was a very significant & specific mistake if that's what it was. I have to say that I am very skeptical.

It's.. odd. Odd enough with the way it was handled that it opens the door for a reasonable amount of skepticism as to what exactly was going on there.

DavidM said
Ok, skeptical about what, exactly?

Let me explain what I'm under the impression happened and you or anybody else can correct me if I have something wrong, because I haven't dug into this at all today.

Sounds like in one report, not sure who filed it and who corrected it, that NBC reported in error that a choice to release either Whelan or Griner existed. That was corrected, but that correction wasn't acknowledged for some period of time. Unfortunate but reporting errors happen. Sometimes can be as simple as omitting a word (was vs was not) but I'm not entirely sure what happened. Help me out if I have this wrong.

I listened to the president's remarks yesterday and posted at 7:42 in the morning, in this thread, that he said there was no choice that included an opportunity to bring Whelan home in this exchange, so I was never under any other impression.

The idea of course would be that the administration is lying and that there was in fact a choice available for either Griner or Whelan and someone screwed up or something and told that story to NBC instead of the administration's preferred version which is that it was a choice between Griner or no one.

It certainly could have been an error on the reporter's part or a misunderstanding between the reporter and the senior U.S. official.. but I would say that considering the passage in question would easily be the most ripe for criticism portion of the story for the administration if it were in fact the true version of things.. I don't think it's crazy, considering the way it was handled by NBC, to wonder if there's maybe more to it than just human error.

If I flip it around in my head and it was a Republican President and Fox News did something like this.. it'd be the same for me as this where I'd really just like to know more as to what exactly was going on there with the change and why there was no immediate acknowledgment when it pertained to such a crucial portion of the story.

*I haven't followed this today so maybe they've already addressed it