Get PJ Media on your Apple

Fraudulent ‘Fact Checks’ and Preemptive Narratives

Today's press would make the Soviet-era Pravda and Izvestia proud.

by
Tom Blumer

Bio

October 2, 2012 - 12:00 am
<- Prev  Page 2 of 2   View as Single Page

Despite the overwhelming consensus of subject matter experts on the left and right, PolitiFact gave a Mitt Romney ad objecting to HHS’s move a “Pants on Fire” rating, even though the Journal insists that “it’s worse than Romney says.” PoltiFact’s Molly Moorhead, who wrote the “Pants on Fire” dispatch, cannot possibly still believe that what she wrote is true.

But that isn’t what really matters in the land of leftist “journalism.” What matters is that the Obama campaign and the Pavlovian press now have carte blanche to routinely and gleefully cite her supposedly authoritative but in reality bogus “fact check” to frustrate efforts to expose what HHS has done. More generally, the real reason for the creation and proliferation of fraudulent “fact checks” is to drown out any attempt to expose serious flaws in Democratic candidates’ records and statements, while dishonestly discrediting legitimate Republican and conservative actions and contentions.

Like “fact checks,” preemptive narratives predate this presidential cycle to a limited extent, but have been given heavy doses of steroids this time around while seriously smacking of Democratic campaign coordination. This second new tactic wasn’t in and arguably didn’t belong in the MRC letter, because while the TV networks are its willing beneficiaries, its originators usually toil at the wire services. Two specific examples will illustrate its use.

On September 22, as I noted in my most recent PJ Media column, Thomas Beaumont and Charles Babington at the Associated Press (aka the Administration’s Press), despite the absence of proof and the presence of significant contradictory evidence, declared that “the advantage has shifted toward President Barack Obama” in the presidential race. During the next five days, a poll in Pennsylvania showed Romney within two points of Obama in a state the president supposedly has locked up, within one point in Ohio in a poll which sampled Democrats over Republicans by 10.3 percentage points, and still tied nationally with Rasmussen. But reality isn’t what matters.

The AP pair’s narrative claiming that Obama is close to putting Romney away, which might as well have been drafted by an Obama campaign spinmeister (who knows? Maybe it was) has driven TV and other press coverage all week long.

The Thursday morning trigger I mentioned in my opening paragraph was the arrival of two pieces of absolutely awful economic news demonstrating that the “recovery,” such as it is, has slowed from its already snail-like pace and, as James Pethokoukis wrote, entered “the recession red zone.”

In a rare third-estimate writedown, the government said that second-quarter economic growth was an annualized 1.3% instead of the already anemic 1.7% reported a month ago. After its issuance, Reuters noted: ”Data in hand for the third quarter suggest little improvement.” Even more troubling, durable goods orders in August fell by 13.3% to a raw level over 30% below their April 2010 value.

That’s funny, because the previous morning, AP White House Correspondent (note: not business or economics writer) Jim Kuhnhenn incoherently claimed in another piece – which appears to have Obama administration spin all over it — that economic results “are merging into a straighter line which, while below optimum performance, is moving in a positive direction for the country and for the president in his contest with Republican rival Mitt Romney.” Again, Thursday’s truth didn’t seem to matter. An AP dispatch from Christopher Rugaber that afternoon which surely drove TV news coverage that evening incorporated a relatively unimportant unemployment claims report showing decent week-to-week improvement and “suggested” that “the economy is sturdier than it might appear.” Nothing can be allowed to disturb the pre-determined, election-rigging narrative.

The Soviet Union’s old Pravda and Izvestia would be impressed at the media’s determination to have fake “fact checks” and preemptive narratives control the borders of what can be discussed between now and Election Day, all in the name of advancing the current regime’s reelection efforts. The country’s “journalists,” now serving as willing administration truth-twisting apparatchiks and campaign assistants, should be ashamed.

<- Prev  Page 2 of 2   View as Single Page
Tom Blumer owns a training and development company based in Mason, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. He presents personal finance-related workshops and speeches at companies, and runs BizzyBlog.com.
Click here to view the 22 legacy comments

Comments are closed.