White House has "corrected" transcripts from Biden's public comments at least 148 times since the beginning of 2024

[Nithavela]

What are the average corrections per day of other presidents?

 

[Zaha Torte]

But they happen so infrequently that it's easy to miss them. On the other hand, in a few dozen five minute speeches in front of the Manhattan County Courthouse, Trump's opponent cast out more insults than Biden has mentioned in his entire 3 1/2 years (so far) as president---perhaps more than in Biden's entire 50 year political career.

He badly needs a thesaurus to give him more appropriate terms than the ones he uses. Knowing some socially acceptable synonyms would help him clean up his act.

Which opponent of Trump? What do they say?

 

[Zaha Torte]

Who’s his “Jim Henson”?

Great question. Someone sick enough to stick their arm way up in there.

 

[Fantine]

Which opponent of Trump? What do they say?

Oops. I meant Biden's opponent. Will edit.

 

[wing2000]

What are the average corrections per day of other presidents?

I would venture to guess, the error rate of Ronald Reagan was high, especially in his 2nd term.
Alas, "The Dailer Caller" wasn't around back then to count.....

 

[probinson]

I have listened to many of his talks.
He has a thorough command of the facts.
He has goals, plans, direction.
His clear priorities are helping the American people.

Are you auditioning for a position in his campaign? I can almost hear the patriotic music while Biden shakes hands with an auto worker and kisses a baby gently on the forehead.

Seriously, the only people who truly believe what you wrote are already part of the tribe. Probably one of the reasons his approval rating is near historic lows.

 

[probinson]

How do you know that it's not normal?

Because I have ears?

If I'm speaking to someone and I say, "Every American voted against my bill", chances are good that I'll catch myself and say, "my mistake, every REPUBLICAN voted against my bill" and not rely on transcriptionists to let people know what I really meant. In that case, a transcriptionist wouldn't have to make any corrections at all, because the person speaking would correct themselves.

People obviously make mistakes and freudian slips when they're talking, but they usually correct themselves. Sure, the occasional slip-up may get by, but Biden apparently just relies on his crack transcriptionists to set the record straight.

Yes, it sounds like a high number,

That's because it is.

but has the Daily Caller done analyses of corrections from past administrations?

That sounds like a job for someone who thinks that 148 corrections in 114 days is "normal".

 

[iluvatar5150]

Because I have ears?

Your ears tell you how many times a transcript has been corrected? Dang. I literally use my ears to pay the mortgage and I couldn't manage that. Do you have a Masterclass I can sign up for?

 

[probinson]

Your ears tell you how many times a transcript has been corrected? Dang. I literally use my ears to pay the mortgage and I couldn't manage that. Do you have a Masterclass I can sign up for?

Touché. My words were poorly chosen. Allow me to try again.

I've listened to Biden speak. When I watch his speeches, I don't watch any commentary. I watch the entirety of his speech so I'm not getting someone else's opinions or edits. When he makes a mistake, he generally just keeps right on going. It's like he's fully unaware when he's made a mistake. Like when he loudly proclaimed that 720 million people had been vaccinated against COIVD. You'd think he would realize how nonsensical that is, since it's more than double the population of the US, and you'd think maybe he'd catch it and correct himself. But no, the transcriptionist just fixes it in post for him.

And before someone says, "Everyone makes mistakes", sure they do. But most people at least have awareness of when they misspeak.

I don't know how anyone could watch Biden speak and think that this is "normal".

"We hold these truths to be self evident. All men and women created by the... co... you know, you know the thing. You know how we talk about it. Or We the People. Folks, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights."​

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-President Joe Biden​

​

​

​

It must be exhausting being a White House transcriptionist.

 

[Hazelelponi]

I guess I am just comparing his speeches to his competition--50% insult and 50% demagoguery.

I guess you don't pay any attention at all to the Democrats:

Bidens recent college speech at Morehouse College was a classic example of demagoguery and I'm actually happy to see that those young men see right through it.

It's really hard to throw stones from a glass house.

 

[iluvatar5150]

I've listened to Biden speak. When I watch his speeches, I don't watch any commentary. I watch the entirety of his speech so I'm not getting someone else's opinions or edits. When he makes a mistake, he generally just keeps right on going. It's like he's fully unaware when he's made a mistake. Like when he loudly proclaimed that 720 million people had been vaccinated against COIVD. You'd think he would realize how nonsensical that is, since it's more than double the population of the US, and you'd think maybe he'd catch it and correct himself. But no, the transcriptionist just fixes it in post for him.

And before someone says, "Everyone makes mistakes", sure they do. But most people at least have awareness of when they misspeak.

I'm not going to pretend that Biden doesn't misspeak regularly. He does. What the OP is about is the number of corrections that have been entered into the official record.

ETA (derp, I forgot to finish)
The number of corrections is not the same as the number of errors made. I don't know who decides what gets corrected in the record and what doesn't. To put a finer point on it: Trump said a lot of dumb stuff, too. It would not surprise me if Trump's error count was just as high, if not higher than Biden's, but for various reasons, his administration chose not to correct the record.

​

It must be exhausting being a White House transcriptionist.

To go off on a bit of a tangent - have you ever read anything about professional stenographers? It does sound exhausting, but for different (i.e. technical) reasons. I have a friend who switched careers to being a court reporter, and since this is her second career, she's pretty into it and likes nerding out about it to others. Their WPM counts are ~bananas~. They average over 200 WPM, which is on par with the world record on a dvorak keyboard.

 

[probinson]

I'm not going to pretend that Biden doesn't misspeak regularly. He does. What the OP is about is the number of corrections that have been entered into the official record.

ETA (derp, I forgot to finish)
The number of corrections is not the same as the number of errors made. I don't know who decides what gets corrected in the record and what doesn't. To put a finer point on it: Trump said a lot of dumb stuff, too. It would not surprise me if Trump's error count was just as high, if not higher than Biden's, but for various reasons, his administration chose not to correct the record.

One could argue that the purpose of a transcript is to accurately record what was actually stated, right wrong or indifferent. For example, when Biden said that he was Vice President during the "pandemic" and the transcriptionist decided that what he really meant was "recession", they are changing what was actually stated.

To go off on a bit of a tangent - have you ever read anything about professional stenographers? It does sound exhausting, but for different (i.e. technical) reasons. I have a friend who switched careers to being a court reporter, and since this is her second career, she's pretty into it and likes nerding out about it to others. Their WPM counts are ~bananas~. They average over 200 WPM, which is on par with the world record on a dvorak keyboard.

When I got called for jury duty and had to go to the stand to answer some private questions, the stenographer typed EVERYTHING I said, EXACTLY as I said it. Every, uh, um, er, and more was being typed at a rate that seemed inhuman. All while looking directly at me and never looking at their keyboard.

 

[iluvatar5150]

One could argue that the purpose of a transcript is to accurately record what was actually stated, right wrong or indifferent. For example, when Biden said that he was Vice President during the "pandemic" and the transcriptionist decided that what he really meant was "recession", they are changing what was actually stated.

Yeah, to be clear, I'm not sure I'm on board with cleaning up official transcripts like this. I don't know what standard procedure for these sorts of things is, but that does seem off to me. I think I would prefer some sort of annotation that preserved the original while putting corrections off to the side. Or maybe some combination of the two that at least allows you to retain what actually happened.

When I got called for jury duty and had to go to the stand to answer some private questions, the stenographer typed EVERYTHING I said, EXACTLY as I said it. Every, uh, um, er, and more was being typed at a rate that seemed inhuman. All while looking directly at me and never looking at their keyboard.

They have all kinds of custom macros, too, for different combinations of letters and words. It's more involved than one might assume.

 

[probinson]

Yeah, to be clear, I'm not sure I'm on board with cleaning up official transcripts like this. I don't know what standard procedure for these sorts of things is, but that does seem off to me. I think I would prefer some sort of annotation that preserved the original while putting corrections off to the side. Or maybe some combination of the two that at least allows you to retain what actually happened.

They're sort of doing that now.

For example, on February 22, Biden said this:

“I kept my promise to appoint the first Black Supreme Court justice”

But the transcript reads

“I kept my promise to appoint the first Black [woman] Supreme Court justice”

So they are putting in brackets what they've changed or added. I still don't like it. I think the original transcript should remain untouched. Maybe have footnotes or an addendum to make any such corrections separately. But like you, I don't know what standard procedure is for this.

They have all kinds of custom macros, too, for different combinations of letters and words. It's more involved than one might assume.

I can imagine. It was nerve-wracking having someone stare at me typing every syllable I uttered.

 

[rambot]

I'm glad he has people beneath him that will correct him.

Better that than the having his foolishness unfiltered

 

[probinson]

I'm glad he has people beneath him that will correct him.

The positive spin that people try to put on Biden making multiple "mistakes" per day is interesting to me.

 

[Yttrium]

The positive spin that people try to put on Biden making multiple "mistakes" per day is interesting to me.

I don't put a positive spin on it. He's prone to gaffes, and I hold that against him. But it's nothing new for Biden.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Yeah, to be clear, I'm not sure I'm on board with cleaning up official transcripts like this. I don't know what standard procedure for these sorts of things is, but that does seem off to me. I think I would prefer some sort of annotation that preserved the original while putting corrections off to the side. Or maybe some combination of the two that at least allows you to retain what actually happened

100%

 

[Hazelelponi]

They're sort of doing that now.

For example, on February 22, Biden said this:

“I kept my promise to appoint the first Black Supreme Court justice”

But the transcript reads

“I kept my promise to appoint the first Black [woman] Supreme Court justice”

So they are putting in brackets what they've changed or added. I still don't like it. I think the original transcript should remain untouched. Maybe have footnotes or an addendum to make any such corrections separately. But like you, I don't know what standard procedure is for this.



I can imagine. It was nerve-wracking having someone stare at me typing every syllable I uttered.

Yeah you never ever "correct" a quote, you add [sic] after errors within the quote that are more egregious.

If you can't correct a person in a normal quote why on earth would you literally add or change words in the historical record?

It's utterly dystopian really. Across the board this practice needs ended.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

When I got called for jury duty and had to go to the stand to answer some private questions, the stenographer typed EVERYTHING I said, EXACTLY as I said it. Every, uh, um, er, and more was being typed at a rate that seemed inhuman.

That's for legal reasons. The exact wording of everything that's said in a courtroom under oath must be preserved, because cases can sometimes hinge on that wording. A speech - even a speech by the President - is not subject to such strict reporting requirements because it carries no legal weight and imposes no obligation.