ABC Steps In It?

The initial reports were that Sarah Palin actually started talking about 2012 yesterday in an interview with ABC News, including the line "I'm not doing any of this for naught." After massive amounts of damage control and probably plenty of angry phone calls, ABC revised their own reporting, claiming instead that Palin was talking about this election. An AP story reflects the change.

Asked about 2012, whether she was discouraged by daily campaign attacks and whether she would return home to Alaska, the Republican vice presidential nominee said she was focused on defeating Democrat Barack Obama next week.

"I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we've taken ... I'm not doing this for naught," Palin told ABC News in a taped interview airing on Thursday.

A campaign spokesperson said Palin was talking about being focused on winning the White House this year and is not going to quit despite her critics.

In its initial report on the interview, ABC said Palin was looking ahead to the 2012 election cycle, regardless of the outcome of the November 4 vote.

ABC issued a revised release after the McCain campaign clarified Palin's comment.

This is kind of weird. Are news organizations in the habit of changing their stories completely after campaign aides "clarify" comments? Shouldn't comments speak for themselves?