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(John Hinderaker) This Reuters hit piece on Marco Rubio–nowadays, when I talk about Rubio, I have to stop and think whether it’s Marco or Ricky–is an early contender for the title. Reuters’ theme is that Rubio criticizes extravagant federal spending and deficits, but has had financial problems himself. The article is basically one false statement after another, leavened with quotes from Democratic strategists. At the Daily Caller , Matt Lewis deconstructs it: By my count, there were at least 7 errors or exaggerations: 1. “Rubio also voted against Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s Supreme Court nominee who is of Puerto Rican descent…” (Rubio wasn’t even in the senate then.) 2. “He soon …
1:23 am | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(Scott Johnson) We didn’t start the fire, but Ted Bromund might have. He follows up on our “A PolitiFact case study” with “PolitiFact’s Pants on Fire” over at Contentions . Broumund writes: I wouldn’t normally respond to a piece by PolitiFact, but because I’m quoted as a source for a recent piece on Mitt Romney, I think it’s worthwhile offering a bit of context. On Tuesday, I got the same email Tom Busciano received from Louis Jacobson at PolitiFact, asking my take on Romney’s recent debate claim the U.S. Navy is smaller …
9:22 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(Scott Johnson) We took a look at the phenomenon of political fact-checkers in “Who will fact check the fact checkers?” The post drew attention to Mark Hemingway’s Weekly Standard cover story “Lies, damned lies, and ‘fact-checking.’” Hemingway traced the rage for political fact-checking back to PolitiFact: Launched in 2007, PolitiFact purports to judge the factual accuracy of statements from politicians and other prominent national figures. A statement is presented in bold type at the top of the page, usually accompanied by a picture of the speaker. Off to the side is a “Truth-O-Meter” graphic depicting an old-school instrument gauge. The Truth-O-Meter displays a red, yellow, or…
2:41 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(Scott Johnson) According to Pete Yost last week in a superficial AP fact check story : “Republican presidential candidates have claimed that the Obama administration is cleansing government files of references to radical Islam, an assertion so juicy that politicians keep repeating it — even though it’s a wild exaggeration.” But I think the GOP candidates have it right, more or less, and Yost has it wrong. At least they are closer to the mark than Yost. See, for example, Cliff May’s NRO column “What’s Islam got to do with it?” …
12:21 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(Scott Johnson) Reader Sean O’Brien wrote New York Times reporter Scott Shane to ask if he was alluding to the Gulag Archipelago in the lead sentence to his big page-one story on convicted Islamic terrorists incarcerated in federal prisons, about which I wrote here . Shane’s lead is: “It is the other Guantánamo, an archipelago of federal prisons that stretches across the country, hidden away on back roads.” Sean commented to Shane: “Never would have thought of federal prisons as such.” Shane responded: “No, though after writing it that occurred to
11:47 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(Scott Johnson) Sunday’s New York Times featured Scott Shane’s long, long Sunday page-one story on the Islamic terrorists convicted of federal crimes and held in federal prisons. The point and purpose of the story are unclear to me, though some kind of advocacy on behalf of these terrorists is clearly in play. Somehow, I think it was written solely for Times reporter Scott Shane to render this unsubtle if evocative lead sentence suggesting the existence of some massive injustice: “It is the other Guantánamo, an archipelago of federal prisons that stretches across the country, hidden away on back roads. Today, it houses far more men convicted in terrorism cases than the shrunken population of the prison in Cuba that has generated so much debate.” You really have …
5:03 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(Scott Johnson) James Taranto takes up a great example of the absurd fact checking project undertaken by the mainstream media in his column “Newt year in Jerusalem.” It is a project that raises the question posed by the Roman poet Juvenal in Satire VI: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (Translation: Who will guard the guardians themselves?) In the cover story of the new issue of the Weekly Standard Mark Hemingway does a number on the whole fact checking genre. Hemingway’s piece is “Lies, damned lies, and ‘fact checking.’” It doesn’t tell you anything you haven’t already intuited or observed, but it is must reading nevertheless. Hemingway cites this incredible example …
3:37 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(John Hinderaker) NPR’s Laura Sullivan did a three-part series on Indian children in South Dakota, and the role of that state’s Department of Social Services in providing foster care for such children. The essence of NPR’s sensationalized account was that the state kidnaps Indian children from their homes for profit. I, in return, have done five posts critiquing the NPR story, the last of which, with links to the earlier posts, is here . In connection with my posts, I sent emails to Laura Sullivan asking questions about her reporting. Those questions went unanswered until a number of our readers emailed Ms. Sullivan, urging her to respond. Within a matter of hours, she did so. Thanks to all of our readers who wrote to Ms. Sullivan. Below, I set forth the questions that I …
11:32 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed | Read More »
(John Hinderaker) We are nearing the end of my investigation into NPR’s disgraceful three-part series on South Dakota’s Department of Social Services. NPR alleged that the state agency “kidnaps” Indian children from Indian reservations, and places them in white foster homes because it profits by doing so, and because this kidnapping scheme financially benefits South Dakota’s current governor, Dennis Daugaard. I deconstructed these absurd accusation here , here , here and here . NPR’s story was, to put it politely, a tissue of lies and deceptions. In a sane world, South Dakota’s responsible officials would be able to sue NPR for defamation. That, of course, is not the world we live in. Apart from all of NPR’s specific misrepresentations and errors, a broader and more important point looms over the series on South …
3:16 am | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(John Hinderaker) I have been investigating National Public Radio’s three-part series on child welfare in South Dakota. Briefly, NPR claimed that South Dakota’s Department of Social Services sends social workers onto Indian reservations to “kidnap” Indian children, who are then placed more or less exclusively in white foster care–a transaction which NPR alleged that the state carries out for profit. I refuted these bizarre claims here , here , and here . I have also sent two emails to Laura Sullivan, the NPR reporter responsible for the series, asking her a number of questions about her allegations. She has not responded. Now on to Part IV. It was only a matter of time before NPR’s series turned explicitly partisan–after all, NPR doesn’t exist…
2:08 am | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
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(Scott Johnson) I watched President Obama’s press conference from the APEC meeting in Hawaii last night live on television. Obama only took six questions, but a couple of them were really bad. Time has posted a transcript here ; video is posted here . After calling on AP reporter Ben Feller, Obama called on CNN White House correspondent Dan Lothian. Lothian’s question was the worst of the lot (it’s at 10:00 of the video): Last night at the Republican debate, some of the hopefuls — they hope to get your job — they defended the practice of waterboarding, which is a practice that you banned in 2009. Herman Cain said, “I don’t see that as torture.” Michelle Bachmann said that it’s “very effective.” So I’m wondering if you think that they’re uninformed, out of touch, or irresponsible? Before launching…
12:33 am | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(John Hinderaker) I am investigating a three-part series by NPR on South Dakota’s Department of Social Services; specifically, the work that DSS’s Child Protection Services division does with Native American children. In a nutshell, NPR reporter Laura Sullivan charged that South Dakota’s agencies “kidnap” Indian children off reservations so that they can make a profit by placing them in white foster homes. In Part I , I introduced the series and wrote about the hostility that liberal media manifest toward red states like South Dakota. In Part II , I rebutted Ms. Sullivan’s absurd claim that Child Protection Services “kidnaps” …
4:33 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
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(John Hinderaker) NPR recently ran a three-part series on South Dakota’s child protection system, specifically as it relates to Native American children. The series was a scathing indictment of South Dakota’s Department of Social Services, which NPR accused of kidnapping Indian children for profit. The series included an attack on the current Governor of South Dakota, Dennis Daugaard (coincidentally, a Republican). On Sunday, I previewed my own series on the quality of NPR’s reporting. Tonight’s installment focuses on the central theme of NPR’s programs: that South Dakota’s …
3:12 am | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
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(John Hinderaker) One of the ideas underlying our republic is that states have latitude to follow different policies. Therefore, we can see which policies work best, and they can be adopted by other states. It’s a great theory, and no doubt it has worked at times in the past. Today, we have a stark contrast: blue states like California, New York and Illinois are careening toward bankruptcy as a result of the irresponsible policies imposed by their Democratic politicians, while red states like Texas, Utah and the Dakotas are showing the way …
4:01 am | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(John Hinderaker) Yesterday the Washington Post launched a rather weird smear of Marco Rubio, accusing him of “embellishing” his family history. What was the embellishment? Rubio’s parents first came to the United States before Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba; thereafter they planned to return to Cuba, and his mother actually did, but by then it was evident that the regime was Communist, so she came back to the U.S., where the family remained in exile. All of this, of course, was long before Marco was born. So the Post’s point is…what, exactly? Rubio responded at Politico : The Washington…
10:42 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
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(John Hinderaker) We have written several times about Tim Groseclose’s new book, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind . That the press is biased toward the left is obvious, but Professor Groseclose is the first academic to use social science techniques to measure the extent of the bias and its influence on our culture. Our first post on Left Turn explained what the book is about and why it is so important. We have done several more posts on the book, including …
5:36 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(John Hinderaker) I have done a series of posts critiquing Bloomberg Markets’ hit piece on Koch Industries. If you haven’t already read them, you can follow these links to parts one , two , three and four . I concluded each of my first three posts with questions directed to Jonathan Neumann, the Bloomberg editor who was responsible for the Koch Industries article. I suggested that our readers join with me in urging Mr. Neumann to respond; apparently a large number did so. On Friday, I received answers to some (but not most) of the questions I had posed to Mr. Neumann. Oddly, they came in an email not from Neumann, but from a New York lawyer whom Bloomberg has retained to represent it, …
6:05 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
**Written by Doug Powers ABC’s Diane Sawyer, who is ensconced in the 1% of America that the “Occupy Wall Street” occupiers are complaining about, is nevertheless fairly excited about the rapid spread of the protests. In fact, Sawyer is so thrilled that yesterday she added several hundred countries to the world: Speaking of Wall Street, we thought we’d bring you up to date on those protesters, the Occupy Wall Street movement. As of tonight, it has spread to more than 250 American cities, more than a thousand countries — every continent but Antarctica. And of course they are calling for the one percent of richest Americans to find more ways to help the 99 percent and we wondered what’s the gulf between them tonight? So how much does the top one percent in…
2:54 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(John Hinderaker) My dissection of Bloomberg Markets’ hit piece on Koch Industries is drawing near a close. Parts one , two and three covered the main themes of Bloomberg’s article. This briefer post addresses Bloomberg’s use of a single source, a German named George Bentu. Bentu worked for a Koch subsidiary in Germany from 2001 to 2007. Bloomberg uses him in two ways. First, he is part of the theme that Koch “flouted the law” by acting “in defiance of a U.S. trade ban” and making “illicit” sales to Iran. This claim was entirely false, as Bloomberg’s own sister publication admitted, no doubt with some embarrassment. Bentu doesn’t add anything substantive to Bloomberg’s false charge, but provides a little color by saying that he complained about Iran sales to his bosses: Koch-Glitsch told employees …
1:50 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »
(John Hinderaker) We have written several times about Tim Groseclose’s new book, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind . That the press is biased toward the left is obvious, but Professor Groseclose is the first academic to use social science techniques to measure the extent of the bias and its influence on our culture. Our first post on Left Turn explained what the book is about and why it is so important. We have done several more posts on the book, including here , here , here , here and here . It is unquestionably one of the seminal works of 2011. Now for the good news: Professor Groseclose will be in Minneapolis on…
6:45 pm | Posted in Conservative Bloggers News Feed,General | Read More »