New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait took a look at the Associated Press’s “fact check” of President Bill Clinton’s DBC convention speech last night and got a small taste of just what it is Republicans have been dealing with for almost five years:
This Associated Press “fact check” of Bill Clinton’s speech last night has attracted a fair amount of Internet abuse, but not nearly enough. It’s not only a prime specimen of journalistic idiocy — it’s one of those documents that reveals the incredibly blinkered quality of conventional wisdom, so contemptuous of facts that challenge its assumptions.
The broad conceit of the piece rests upon a complete inability to distinguish facts from opinion, manifesting itself most hilariously in this refutation of Clinton’s argument:
CLINTON: “Their campaign pollster said, ‘We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.’ Now that is true. I couldn’t have said it better myself — I just hope you remember that every time you see the ad.”
THE FACTS: Clinton, who famously finger-wagged a denial on national television about his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky and was subsequently impeached in the House on a perjury charge, has had his own uncomfortable moments over telling the truth.
This “fact” has gotten the most ridicule, but in defense of the AP, it is at least true that this is a fact: Bill Clinton did lie about his affair. It’s not a fact that in any way refutes what Clinton said, but it is a fact.
Oh, put it to music, Jonathan.
Chait has nothing to whine about because as stupid as this fact check is (and it is stupid), what harm is it doing?
It’s not like the media launched into a 10-day crusade to destroy Clinton’s credibility — which is exactly how the corrupt media used these degenerate liars we call fact-checkers to attack Paul Ryan after he told the truth about Obama breaking a promise to retool a GM plant in Janesville.
Nothing in the media I’ve seen today touched on Clinton’s lies last night. In fact, all I saw from the media today was something verging on the kind of blind and dangerous cult-like worship you see in films like “Gunga Din.”
From where I sit, the corrupt AP intentionally manufactured a ridiculous fact check so they could be on record fact-checking Clinton while at the same time doing zero harm to him and by extension Barack Obama.
If the AP was truly interested in doing some serious fact-checking of Clinton’s web of lies, its article today would look something like this.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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