Did Manning tell a lie?

People are wondering if Prime Minister Patrick Manning deliberately told a lie this week about who asked for the meeting he held Tuesday with opposition leader Basdeo Panday.

Panday was very clear about how the matter came about. He told the media that last Friday the prime minister met with him behind the Speaker's chair and asked for the meeting to discuss constitutional matters and crime.

Read the story: Manning, Panday to meet on constitution

But media reports ahead of the talks quoted Manning as saying that it was Panday who requested the meeting "and I did not hesitate to agree with him."

Clearly both of them could not be telling the truth. So Panday said he asked Manning to clear up the misunderstanding.

That was when Manning admitted that he was the one who requested the meeting and he blamed the media.

"We wanted to begin the meeting by clarifying an erroneous report in the media and that is that the meeting was called on the insistence of the Leader of the Opposition. That is not true, okay, and that has been in the media all morning.

"On Friday, the prime minister asked the Leader of the Opposition to speak with him behind the Speaker’s chair. We went there and I invited him to a meeting," Manning said.