[Update: Looks like NRO once again caught Dylan Matthews “fact checking” Paul Ryan. This time Matthews set his sites on the Carter/Obama comparison that Ryan mentioned. So Matthews decided to use his skillful, analytical intellect to compile some charts. One problem, the characterization of his intellect just used is completely inaccurate. A correct characterization would be something like: a bumbling, dullard confounded by logic compiled the charts. It turns out he got busted cherry picking metrics to favor Obama and then believed his own jive and stated that the economy is doing better now than in 2009. Problem is, “…this is the year of the fact-checkers, and under the standards set by Matthews’s editor, this sort of thing would be classified as dishonest and untrue.” Doh!]
A few times this week, I stumbled on information about Fact Checker’s malfeasance.
First, on Tuesday, the “Politifiction” piece by the Editors at National Review Online reported on the skullduggery of Politifact. Among others, it demolished Politifacts flaccid refutation of the Romney ad that claimed Obama raided $716 billion from medicare. It’s definitely worth a read because it portends what’s to come and how “mistakes”, “mishaps” and “misunderstandings” will all coincidentally benefit BHO.
Next, Wednesday, while I’m watching Paul Ryan release stemwinders at the torpid bunch in the Senate and White House, a tweet comes across my Twitter feed that the Washington Post just reported that Ryan’s comments about the GM plant in Wisconsin were false. Naturally, given the source of the report, I thought it was either a misunderstanding or mishearing of what Paul Ryan actually said. I didn’t have time to follow up at that moment because, like I stated, Ryan was stemwinding the cr@p out of the left, and I wasn’t going to miss a second of it.
Come Thursday, there’s a liberal din about “Fact Checker”’s and they’re tearing apart Ryan’s speech and not just the GM statement. There was an apparent apoplexy plaguing left; they were going ape and slinging droppings in a petulant frenzy . The titles that emerged from a “Paul Ryan speech” google search included “6 Worst Lies In Paul Ryan’s Speech” (obviously implying that there are so many, but they only have space for the top 6), “Paul Ryan’s Speech in 3 Words: Dazzling, Deceiving, Distracting”, and “Paul Ryan’s breathtakingly dishonest speech” .
At that point I was grinning like a cheshire cat that just cornered both Mickey and Jerry just in time for the arrival of a blind date. Those stemwinders hit and apparently stung.
However, in their frenzy they forgot one little thing: to do their homework.
I looked into it and, of course, NRO is, again, on the case in what turns out to be a very, very embarrasing moment for the Washington Post and fact checker’s–specifically for one Mr. Dylan Mathews. Apparently, Mr. Mathews didn’t hear what Mr. Ryan said, or didn’t understand it, or just took the word of, say, Obama flack Stephanie Cutter and went to print. Because he’s been rapidly backtracking and updating his post with corrections again and again and again.
This NRO piece is also a must read. There are three updates to the post. One includes how “…that even though this [Mr. Mathew’s post] was a “fact-check” post, at this point, there is no note or acknowledgement on the post that it was revised”. That’s not an egg on your face Mr. Mathews. That’s an entire trough of hen house products on your mug. Nice piece of … journalism?
Then today, Investor’s Business Daily weighs in with “The Media’s Fact Check Smokescreen” picking up right where NRO left off on Tuesday. It goes on to nail WP, AP, and CNN. And it comes full circle to Tuesday’s NRO piece:
“The problem is that the mainstream press is now abusing the “fact check” label, using it to more aggressively push a liberal agenda without feeling the need to provide any balance whatsoever. And, as the reaction to the Ryan speech shows, they are now blatantly using it to provide air support for Obama.
Is it any wonder that soon after Ryan’s speech ended, the Obama campaign rushed out an ad using the media’s “fact check” stories as its source?”
“Fact Checking” is like anything else. The left will abuse, corrupt, and distort it to serve the left’s ends. That’s not new to us. Of course we need to fact check the fact checkers.