The death of truth: ‘lazy’ lying Tea-Publicans

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Steve Benen makes an important point: The truth is supposed to matter most. Unfortunately, the modern corporate media believes in "balanced" reporting rather than truthful reporting. This leads to the corporate media giving equal time and equal weight to obviously false or patently ridiculous statements to factual and truthful statements, creating false equivalencies and debasing the truth.

A case in point is the sorry state of reporting on the lawsuit over Governor Brewer's removal of AIRC chair Colleen Mathis. Allowing the governor's media villager idiot Matthew Benson to expound on the law to create a false equivalency and "balance" with a learned jurist such as former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Thomas Zlaket is the height or irresponsible journalism.

But I digress. Steve Benen addresses the recent fraudulent GOP attacks on President Obama for allegedly calling Americans "lazy" at the APEC Summit. Only he did not. The truth is supposed to matter most:

President Obama told business leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that U.S. policymakers have been “a little bit lazy” when it comes to attracting businesses to American soil. Republicans have taken this line and said the president called Americans “lazy.” They’re lying.

It’s been pleasantly surprised by the number of news outlets who’ve been willing to tell the public the truth. Usually, it’s up to blogs to set the record straight — in this case, MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, Slate, Time, ABC, and National Journal have all said Republicans are taking Obama’s comments out of context. [CBS Evening News also set the record straight on Thursday's broadcast.] Good for them.

[But] then there’s Politico, which ran a 1,300 word piece that emphasized Republicans’ use of the out-of-context quote, while downplaying the relevant detail: Republicans are misleading the public.

* * *

Politico’s report is one of those stories that’s frustrating to read. The piece is 30 paragraphs long, not about Republicans deceiving people, but about how explosive the misleading attacks are. What matters, according to the cynical Politico article, is the way in which the GOP is exploiting an opportunity, not whether that exploitation is accurate, fair, or advancing the public debate.

That’s just not how quality political journalism is supposed to work.

Alec MacGillis also skewers this silly Politico story hailing the GOP’s new strategy of falsely claiming Obama said Americans are “lazy.”

For the Fact Check of The Day, FactCheck.org absolutely demolishes the widespread and reprehensible GOP claim that Obama called Americans “lazy.”

The media has an obligation every time this fraudulent lie is repeated to call it out as a lie. Bookmark this post as a resource.

The DNC is out with a new video "Oops," which responds to the Tea-Publican false attacks.