There's Backwards and there's . . .

BurkeWords

Friday, June 5, 1998

In this issue:

• Bob Hope Is Not Dead

Just three days after Internet reporter Matt Drudge holds his own against a hostile Washington Press Club which accuses him of making up stories, Drudge has a story that no one else has . . .

ABC News reported it. They got it from Reuters, who said that a Congressman had announced it on the House floor. The Congressman said he was reading a note handed to him by Dick Armey. The Washington Post was putting 8 reporters on the story. The Associated Press got it wrong, too.

Did anyone think to check with Hope's publicist? Or anyone close to Hope? Or did they just make up the facts as they go along.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am about to do something that I am loathe to do. I am about to extend a congratulatory hand to none other than Al Franken! Yes, Al Franken, the author of that "Rush Limbaugh . . . " book. Why?

Because, for as much as I dislike Franken, his recent TV effort, Lateline had its moments. One of them was a show devoted to getting a story that wasn't "sexy" on the air, and when it finally gets there, the anchorman pauses to announce that comedian Buddy Hackett has passed away.

The next thing you know, all the Beltway insiders are recalling their favorite "Buddy" moments and how he touched their lives. Hackett starts to dance across the screen in clips from The Music Man. On the following evenings broadcast, the anchor apologizes, and then interviews a living Hackett from his hospital bed.

Life imitates art.

I'm told that during the initial ABC report, they received word that Hope was, in fact, alive.

In the immortal words of Emily Latella, brought to life by the late Gilda Radner: Never mind!

Score one for Drudge.