http://mediamatters.org/items/200705100007?f=h_topicOn the May 9 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer asked House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) to explain what he meant when he said on May 6, "By the time we get to September, October, members are going to want to know how well this is working," which Blitzer said was Boehner's reference "to the new strategy in trying to deal with the security situation in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq." But Blitzer did not ask Boehner to reconcile that statement with one -- as Media Matters for America has documented -- that Boehner made during a January appearance on CNN, in which Boehner set a different timeline regarding the war's progress, for a period of time that has already passed. On the January 23 edition of CNN Newsroom, Boehner told CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel: "I think it will be rather clear in the next 60 to 90 days as to whether {Bush's} plan is going to work."
Also, during the May 9 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Fox News congressional correspondent Major Garrett reported on Boehner's May 6 statement without also noting that Boehner had laid out a timeline of just "60 to 90 days" in January. Garrett stated, "Boehner told Fox September is the time to judge the surge," and went on to air a clip of Boehner in which the congressman said: "We'll know in September how well this plan is going, whether it should continue."
As Media Matters noted, in their May 8 coverage of the Iraq war funding debate, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Associated Press all cited Boehner's statement that members of Congress will want to see results from Bush's troop increase by September or October, without noting his January 23 "60 to 90 days" declaration.