ABC's Snow quoted Palin attacking Obama over troop-funding vote but left out key facts about McCain's voting record

Media Matters for America

Thu, Oct 2, 2008 11:00pm ET

Summary: ABC News correspondent Kate Snow uncritically quoted Gov. Sarah Palin's claim that Sen. Barack Obama voted for "[c]utting off funding for our troops while in a war zone." However, Snow did not report that Sen. John McCain voted against legislation to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as Obama noted during the September 26 presidential debate.

During the October 2 edition of ABC's World News with Charles Gibson, correspondent Kate Snow uncritically quoted Gov. Sarah Palin's claim that Sen. Barack Obama voted for "[c]utting off funding for our troops while in a war zone." But, while Snow said Obama "vot[ed] to cut off funding for U.S. troops in Iraq unless there was a firm timetable for withdrawal," she did not report that McCain himself voted against legislation to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as Obama noted during the September 26 presidential debate.

As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, during the debate, McCain stated that Obama "did the incredible thing of voting to cut off the funds for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." Obama responded: "Senator McCain opposed funding for troops in legislation that had a timetable, because he didn't believe in a timetable. I opposed funding a mission that had no timetable, and was open-ended, giving a blank check to [President] George Bush. We had a difference on the timetable. We didn't have a difference on whether or not we were going to be funding troops."

Snow did not note that McCain -- along with all but two of his fellow Republican senators -- voted against a March 2007 bill that would have funded the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and would have provided more than $1 billion in additional funds to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

From the October 2 edition of ABC's World News with Charles Gibson:

SNOW: Good evening, Charlie. It is almost time. Sarah Palin's aides say she is rested and ready, after some period of time that her sister has called being like "the worst college exam prep session ever."

[begin video clip]

SNOW: Governor Palin landed in St. Louis this afternoon with her husband and three of her five kids. About an hour later, Joe Biden's plane pulled up right beside hers. Palin gave what may be a might be a preview of one her lines of attack tonight on a radio show, using Joe Biden's own words to go after Senator Obama for voting to cut off funding for U.S. troops in Iraq unless there was a firm timetable for withdrawal.

PALIN: Cutting off funding for our troops while they're in a war zone is so reckless and so political. And Biden had even called Obama on that one.

SNOW: Palin's challenge tonight is clear. Aides acknowledge she has little room for error.

—E.H.H.