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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / What We Are Up Against With Our Failed Media Experiment

What We Are Up Against With Our Failed Media Experiment

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So earlier today, I took to twitter to taunt Glenn Kessler for his idiotic assertion that the SEC documents are somehow less relevant because a former Democratic SEC member discussed them, and this is what happened:

Got it? He attacked the GOP earlier, so when he puts the finger on the scale to ignore the SEC documents, it’s just an example of him being “nonpartisan.” When numerous people pointed out to our brave fact checker that the source of a fact doesn’t change whether something is factual or not, our super genius doubled down:

You see- for “nonpartisans,” the SEC filings would magically become more truthy if a GOP SEC commissioner discussed them.

Is it not now clear to everyone, even maybe Fred Hiatt, that the Washington Post fact checker couldn’t pass an undergraduate introductory course on logic?

Reader Interactions

259Comments

  1. 1.

    Valdivia

    facts are not facts unless they come from the mouth of a GOP operative if you are disclosing nasty truths about Romney? Huh?

  2. 2.

    the Conster

    1. I love you John Cole.
    2. See #1.
    3. Glenn Kessler FAIL. Let him go down with the SS. Romney.

  3. 3.

    Turgidson

    Holy hell. He seems to think the only way to climb out of the gaping hole he’s dug himself is to keep digging.

    Rock on, “fact checker.” What a clown.

    Also too, his “look at how nonpartisan I am” schtick is just…what the fuck is he even talking about? I thought he was a fact-checker. That means checking facts, right?

    Bring on the meteor already.

  4. 4.

    Valdivia

    I need to add that I love that your Pic is Lily. Her sweet face makes it more delicious that you are hitting that idiot over the head with his truthiness.

  5. 5.

    Trentrunner

    You know, I’d like to provide some of my grade-A snark, but this is really just too fucking sad. Really fucking disgusting.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    I tried to convince someone the other day that 2+2=4, but I couldn’t find a Republican to back me up.

  7. 7.

    Violet

    He’d insist on getting a Republican to confirm the sky is blue if the Obama campaign said it was blue first.

  8. 8.

    Valdivia

    @Baud:

    that made me laugh a lot. It reminds me of that paper that came out many years ago by Sokal about physics (it was a parody) and one of the footnotes said 2+2=4 was an imperialist equation)

  9. 9.

    RaflW

    In the continuing failed media experiment/GOP fluffing, I give you Mark Halperin:
    “The Boston Globe story suggesting Romney was at least the titular head of Bain for years longer than he has suggested might bring the ‘character’ portion of the Bain attack to a head.”

    The Globe does not suggest, it reports. Facts. You idiot asshole clowns.

    And with the two suggests, I realize I can’t even quite make sense of what halperin is trying to not say. It’s hard for me to admit, but I used to watch Charlie Rose quite avidly. That he lurv’s him some Mark Halperin so often really taint’s the Rose.

    Read more of The Page item, though I cannot fathom why you’d want to: http://thepage.time.com/2012/07/12/bainday/#ixzz20S61IPWp

  11. 11.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Wow, what do you say to such willful idiocy beyond “hack”?

    Kessar is saying “it’s true, but it don’t count because a member of the opposing party outed it”

  12. 12.

    General Stuck

    It seems the WAPO is fraught with multiple personalities when it comes to truthiness. They get credit for their first expo on Bain outsourcing, and then refusing to retract it, as requested by Mr. Romney. Then Kessler shows up to launder that with his Pinnochios, that I always have to google to spell right.

  14. 14.

    Turgidson

    and the bit about the backgrounds of sources. OK I guess. But since when ARE FUCKING SEC FILINGS PARTISAN?

    Egads. I’m on the west coast and I still feel like this guy is making me stupider by proximity.

  17. 17.

    Violet

    @RaflW: Halperin’s admitting that there might be something to the story. It’s the “might bring the ‘character’ portion of the Bain attack to a head’ comment. He hopes it’ll be fobbed off on a character discussion rather than the much worse “Did Mitt Romney commit a felon?” question.

  18. 18.

    Joseph Nobles

    Truth is bipartisan. If someone can deny it, then it’s only an opinion and no one can hold anyone else accountable for it being true or not.

  19. 19.

    Tonal Crow

    @RaflW: “Titular head”? Is that a new Republican sex position? Or just yet another way of evading the truth? BTW, if Romney really was just a “titular head” of Bain, its investors can sue him and Bain for securities fraud for misrepresenting his role in the company’s operations.

  20. 20.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Earlier this evening a guy on the Rev Al show said that Romney used his employment at Bain to give him residency status to enable him to run for Governor even though he had been in Utah for two years. Huffpo obviously picked up on that and got some of his testimony.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/mitt-romney-bain-departure_n_1669006.html?1342133671

    Romney has consistently insisted that he was too busy organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics to take part in Bain business between 1999 and that event. But in the testimony, which was provided to The Huffington Post, Romney noted that he regularly traveled back to Massachusetts. “[T]here were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth,” he said.

    Romney’s sworn testimony was given as part of a hearing to determine whether he had sufficient residency status in Massachusetts to run for governor.

    Romney testified that he “remained on the board of the Staples Corporation and Marriott International, the Life Like Corporation” at the time.

  21. 21.

    Justin Morton

    @Baud:

    Ha. Right.

    “The sun is hot”, says God. It should be noted that God created the sun, so he is biased on this issue.

  23. 23.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    And of course the GOP sussed this out years ago which is why they happily walk in lock step and you would never get a GOP commish to make this assertion…whether it was true or not. Truthiness. The new normal. Deal with it peons.

  24. 24.

    NonyNony

    Kessler made a mistake. A pretty big one. And so now, instead of re-evaluating his original fact check he’s going to double down. Because that’s what we do in American when we make a mistake – we can’t possibly learn from it and take it as an opportunity to perform a self-evaluation, oh no. We have to defend our errors until the bitter end no matter how stupid it makes us look.

    Either that or Kessler’s wants to keep Romney competitive for whatever reason (he wants his tax cuts, he wants his horse race narrative, he’s got a giant man-crush on Romney’s hair). Either explanation works.

    The first one is more charitable, the second more cynical. It’s probably the second.

  25. 25.

    me

    @Baud: I read once that the earth goes around the sun but the book was written by an Obama doner so I can’t be sure. #GOPwontcorroborate

  26. 26.

    Turgidson

    @Violet:

    Give him a few more hours. He’ll find some hilariously hackish rationale for why this is good news for McCain bad news for Obama.

    If nothing else, he’ll just say Obama is “kind of a dick” for insisting on talking about it even though it’s hurting Mitty’s fee fees. I don’t want Morning Joke, but I suspect that’s where he’ll drop his “no matter what happens, it’s bad for Obama” turd on this topic.

  28. 28.

    Valdivia

    @Baud:

    Apparently what we have with Kessler is down with anything that isn’t backed by a Galtian Lord. What an asshole. Ugh.

    But–you should tweet that at him. Or better John should tweet that at him. So simple and devastating at once. :)

  29. 29.

    Anoniminous

    Lay off from banana brain. Stuffs are more truthiest when said by a Republican.

  31. 31.

    Jim C.

    Has anyone made the requisite “truth has a liberal bias” comment yet?

    Can I be the first?

  32. 32.

    the Conster

    @Tonal Crow:

    Yup. Romney’s got to choose between stupid and lying or evil and lying. Obama’s people ain’t letting the press off the hook this time for not asking the questions, because they’re asking the questions now, and leaving the media to play the “fact checking” game, now with obvious provable Romney bias. It’s almost like 11 dimensional chess. Popcorn!

  33. 33.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Romney testified that he “remained on the board of the Staples Corporation and Marriott International, the Life Like Corporation” at the time.

    that just means he showed up to BOD meetings 12 times a year.

  34. 34.

    scav

    Donatism is a heresy that holds that sacraments don’t work if the priest administering them is impure. Funny to see it popping up at this late date involving truths and the lips that speak them, and that impurity only adheres to Democrats, but what can one do with the holders of the scales of the underworld? I’d not seeing St. Michael so much as I’m getting a Osiris weighing a heart against the feather of truth vibe off Kessler.

  35. 35.

    Jay in Oregon

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    [Kessler] is saying “it’s true, but it don’t count because a member of the opposing party outed it“

    Highlighted for emphasis. It wasn’t even “they should have found a nonpartisan source,” it was “I need to hear it from someone who is part of my tribe for me to believe it.”

    I hope a Democrat never tells him that the light in the crosswalk is about to change, or he’s going to end up as someone’s hood ornament.

  36. 36.

    Fwiffo

    There needs to be a hashtag.

    “I was going to report that the 2+2=4, but I couldn’t find a Republican mathematician. #WaPoFacts”

    “I heard the sky was blue, but it must not be true – I didn’t get it from a Republican weatherman. #WaPoFacts”

    “The Boston Globe reported that water is wet, but their source is a Democratic scientist, so who knows! #WaPoFacts”

  37. 37.

    Todd

    Actually, none of this matters. Rmoney could draw pentagrams over the unicorn posters in a 7 year old girls bedroom, snort cocaine out of the naked asscrack of a dead underage twink AND eat the third trimester aborted fetus of the second coming of Jesus, have it all displayed on video, and he’d still start with 45% of the blue total.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    @Valdivia:

    To be completely fair to Kessler, if he checked facts honestly, he probably would be fired for being too partisan in favor of Democrats. The rot starts at the top.

  46. 46.

    Lev

    I was vaguely aware of this guy before today. Now I know he’s a complete clown. Thanks, Balloon Juice!

  47. 47.

    Another Halocene Human

    Facebook is alive tonight with shared images highlighting Mitty’s lies. The dam has broken…

  48. 48.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Did you go over to the link and read the article? I think not.

    Instead of leaving in 1999, Romney suggested in his testimony that he only left Bain after the Olympics in 2002: “I left on the basis of a leave of absence indicating that I, by virtue of that title, would return at the end of the Olympics to my employment at Bain Capital, but subsequently decided not to do so and entered into a departure agreement with my former partners. I use that in the colloquial sense, not legal sense, but my former partners.”

  50. 50.

    David Koch

    Earth to Glenn: “even the liburel” POLITICO says Romney may have committed a felony.

    When “even the liburel” POLITICO has turned against you, then the ship is sinking.

    Don’t go down with the ship, Glenn. It’s not worth it.

  52. 52.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Glenn Kessler @ Top:

    In these partisan times, the backgrounds of sources should be disclosed. The Globe should have gotten a GOP commish.

    So Kessler is admitting that his role is not fact checker, but partisanship referee?

    People read self-designated “fact-checkers” to find out the facts regardless of partisanship, not for someone to referee partisan balance. If one side is lying more than the other (as is currently the case for Romney and the GOP in general), then fact-checkers should be pointing that out — not making up absurd criteria just to look balanced.

    .

  54. 54.

    D0n Camillo

    Glenn Kessler should ask Politifact what happens to fact checkers who double down and refuse to fact check their own fact checks.

  55. 55.

    Violet

    As I said in a previous thread, the media is invested in the horse race narrative. They still remember high viewership they had during the 2008 race and they want more. Recent reports have shown that people are bored with this race and so they try to gin up the horse race narrative to make it more exciting.

    But the only thing better than a horse race is a scandal. Especially a scandal with legs. If this scandal is one that can doom Romney’s campaign, but do it slowly, as the information drips out and the lies mount, they’ll be all over that. It’s got the added bonus of being pretty close to the convention, so there’s the potential of a convention fight for the nomination. All eyes will be on that kind of action. Ad rates will be through the roof.

    The media knows the horse race narrative isn’t working. They’ll be looking at this scandal narrative as a way to increase interest and up the viewer count. Don’t discount their investment in this kind of story from that point of view.

  56. 56.

    pragmatism

    Sometimes idiocy like this makes me simultaneously wonder why and realize why I don’t just smoke weed and not pay attention. So I have a drink instead.

  57. 57.

    Elisabeth

    LOL

    Dave McW @DaveMc99TA
    Lol #Mitt2012 #p2 RT @jeremyjewitt: I have to hand it to Mitt Romney: he’s the first example I’ve ever seen of a documented unworker.

  58. 58.

    David Koch

    Kessler in 1972: WaPo articles on Watergate are suspect because of their refusal to identify sources.

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    @John Cole

    You and your fancypants page views (and your pets) are making them pay attention to you.

    Yay, score one for the little guys.

    Have to say, Willard and Bain (in vain) are splattered across the intertubes today. I know it’s just mid-July but from here in the hot & cheap seats, it sure looks like he’s imploding even before the convention.

    Cue scare-comment about UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH(tm).

  60. 60.

    beltane

    @Violet: Any hint that there could be a mutiny at the GOP convention would definitely be a ratings booster. While there was similar anticipation of trouble with PUMAs before the 2008 DNC, I don’t think the Republicans will be dancing along to “Love Train” at their shindig.

  62. 62.

    dmsilev

    Kessler seems to be a tad confused about the whole “fact checker” thing. The idea, and this may be difficult to follow so I’ll type it slowly, is to check facts. Not to say “it’s only a fact if a Republican agrees that it’s a fact”. There is in fact (you see?) a difference between the two.

  63. 63.

    Turgidson

    But the only thing better than a horse race is a scandal. Especially a scandal with legs. If this scandal is one that can doom Romney’s campaign, but do it slowly, as the information drips out and the lies mount, they’ll be all over that.

    Especially since their lazy asses probably won’t even have to do the investigating. I’m increasingly confident the Obama team has taken care of that and will gladly deliver it in nice bite-sized chunks.

    We’ll see where this goes. Now that it’s the end of the day and the coverage isn’t full-saturation (from what I can tell), I’m starting to doubt it’s the potentially fatal blow I thought it was a few hours ago. Though Romney’s insistence on crying about it could keep it going…

  65. 65.

    trollhattan

    O/T How the Dems keep driving me crazy &/or to drink. TPM:

    New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker and Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy (Ret.) will serve as the chair of the Democratic platform committee at this year’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

  66. 66.

    RaflW

    Also, this from Jay Rosen explains really well why Kessler sort of can’t help himself from being a total fuckup.

    Doesn’t excuse Kessler, mind you, but elucidates.

    Also explains why we may be in deep shit this cycle.

    And, if the press fails to learn from the mistakes being made this cycle, then we may just be witnessing the Zenith of George Orwell, just a few decades late…

  69. 69.

    Calouste

    Kessler btw looks like a serious 1%er. His great-grandfather was one of the founders of Royal Dutch Shell.

  70. 70.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I think that the bottom line is this 1) Romney took one position when it came to qualifying for running for Governor, 2) took another position when it came to running for POTUS, 3) took another position when it came to filing SEC forms 4) took another position when it came to filing FEC forms. Can we at least agree on the fact that he will change his position depending on the circumstances every single time?

  71. 71.

    Violet

    @Turgidson: Watergate wasn’t full saturation initially either. I’m not saying this is the same as Watergate, but with these kinds of scandals it’s the drip, drip, drip that allows them to build. And it’s always the cover up that gets them in the end.

  74. 74.

    Turgidson

    @Violet:

    True, true. Though I wonder if today’s press, or the electorate, has the attention span to follow a gradual story of that nature.

    Anyway, today’s been surprisingly fun on the news front. Eat shit, Mitt.

  76. 76.

    Violet

    @Turgidson: The public won’t really pay attention until a little ways in, just like with Watergate. At that point it’ll be easy to get up to speed. News outlets will probably provide helpful “What We Know So Far” type of articles to help people understand the bullet points.

    By that time the drip, drip, drip will have started to add up. People will understand that there’s lying and Mitt Romney and the SEC and court documents and so forth. They may not understand the details but saying you’re not CEO, but still collecting a CEO salary and putting your name on the official SEC documents is pretty easy to understand.

    The Etch-a-Sketch thing is out there. Mitt changing his tune for every new person fits the meme. And if Republican elected officials are seen to be distancing themselves, or worse yet, abandoning Mitt, it’ll be everywhere. Chaos in the ranks! People will tune in for sure at that point. Just as it gets really juicy.

  77. 77.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Turgidson:

    True, true. Though I wonder if today’s press, or the electorate, has the attention span to follow a gradual story of that nature.

    Based on watching a lot of Law and Order, Bones, CSI:Everydamnplace and such the answer is ‘Yes, but only if it involves the periodic mailing of parcels containing body parts and taunting messages…’

  78. 78.

    Jamey

    Wow, that James_P_Ballot guy who posted Kessler is something else! Everybody should follow him on Twitter!

    /not james_p_ballot… well, maybe

  79. 79.

    Violet

    @Anya: Just an FYI, full-length Daily Shows and Colberts are no longer available online due to the Viacom/DirecTV dispute. Viacom is playing hardball and screwing everyone who watches online, whether they have DirecTV or not.

  80. 80.

    Richard Fox

    This story has legs, and at its heart is the limitless arrogance of the man. The belief that facts and accountability are for the little people will be Romney’s undoing, and it could not happen to a nicer political animal. Watch his history with Bain Capital get slowly teased out. Watch him deny and become vicious, sloppy, and ultimately defeated. He really is his own worst enemy. What’s the expression? Character is fate. And these guys– they never, ever learn……

  81. 81.

    encephalopath

    I agree with Booman on this.

    The problem isn’t just that the documents name Romney as the CEO of Bain at time when Romney says he wasn’t working for Bain.

    It’s also that Romney was getting paid a six figure salary when he claimed he wasn’t working for Bain.

    If he was doing nothing for Bain, what was he taking all that money for? Was it just a gift? Was he really taking assloads of money for doing not a damn thing?

  82. 82.

    Brian R.

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    May I suggest ‘I am not accusing you of being partisan. I am accusing you of being wrong.’?

    Somebody else on Twitter shot something like that at him.

  83. 83.

    jl

    Could some one with a tweeter machine explain to Kessler that he did not just disclose the source, but based his conclusion about the facts on who the source was? And the difference between those two things?

    Cole has a twitter sccount with a Tunch pic on it? That might do the trick.

  85. 85.

    JR in WV

    So.

    Willard Romney has filed mutually contradictory documents with two different Federal offices, the SEC and the FEC.

    Wonderful. For the Federal Elections Commission Mr. Rmoney has sworn that he was no longer associated with Bain after (some date in) 1999.

    For the Securities and Exchange Commission Mr. Rmoney has sworn that he was sole owner and chief executive of Bain thru (at least) 2002.

    Wonderful. One of these mandatory statements is true and one is false. Sweet.

    Thanks, everyone who dug this up. Thanks.

    J R

  86. 86.

    shortstop

    Maybe Kessler is a drinker. The only way he could humiliate himself further would be to keep doubling down while tossing them back all night.

  87. 87.

    Brian R.

    @encephalopath:

    It’s also that Romney was getting paid a six figure salary when he claimed he wasn’t working for Bain.

    That’s the best part. For Romney and his pals, $100K was basically a finder’s fee, just a pittance that was tossed to him to keep his name on the letterhead.

    But if he says that, all it does is drive away anyone who’s not a mustache-twirling tycoon.

  88. 88.

    jwb

    Drudge has banner headlines saying Condi is head of the short list for VP. The Tweetmachine is all a twitter.

  91. 91.

    Brian R.

    @jwb:

    Yeah, because having Bush’s Secretary of State on the ticket is just what you should do if you want to distance yourself from charges that you’re going to replay Bush’s administration.

  92. 92.

    J

    @JGabriel: Good point. I’d add that there Kessler’s–all too widely shared–assumption is deeply pernicious. This and other democracies depend on the idea that people can honorably discharge offices of public trust–as judges, policemen, civil servants and so on–and belong to a political party. if the opposing idea, that members of the opposing political party (well, at least, if it’s the Democrat(ic) party) can be assumed to be dishonest evidence, then an important principle has been conceded.

  93. 93.

    Davis X. Machina

    @jwb: Basic dramaturgy. If you want to make something disappear stage left, you need helluva bang stage right….

  96. 96.

    the Conster

    @encephalopath:

    Like I said in a previous thread, I want him to try and campaign on his experience getting paid for a no-show job, right after his comment about if you want to get stuff for free, vote for Obama. Go ahead Mitt – make my day.

  97. 97.

    beltane

    @jwb: Romney will need a shinier shiny object than Condi to deflect attention away from his sketchy finances.

  98. 98.

    MikeBoyScout

    Does Kessler wear a pearl necklace he can clutch in “these partisan times“?

    Did a Republican give him that pearl necklace?

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate .. partisan times and all.

  99. 99.

    Lee

    I guess Kessler doesn’t realize that it was turned over by a Republican. Didn’t Mitt sign the thing? Isn’t he a Republican?

    All the SEC chief is a damn librarian fetching the book.

  101. 101.

    shortstop

    At this point, hundreds of people have invited Kessler via tweets, blog posts and WaPo comments to simply address the nondebatable content of the SEC filings. He still has not done so, yes?

  102. 102.

    Roger Moore

    @JGabriel:

    So Kessler is admitting that his role is not fact checker, but partisanship referee?

    No, he’s admitting that he’s no longer capable of making the distinction.

  104. 104.

    the Conster

    @jwb:

    Perfect. Then Condi can answer questions about what she knew about Mitt’s finances and when did she know them. She was so forthcoming about answering when she found out about “bin Laden determined to attack the United States”. That’s just got WIN all over it.

  105. 105.

    jwb

    @beltane: I agree. But the Romneybot campaign seems to be particular inept at the manufacture of shiny objects. McCain played that game pretty well even before he threw the shiniest object of all time.

  107. 107.

    Turgidson

    @jwb:

    Interesting timing, that.

    If true, bring on Condi. She has about as much charisma as a potted plant, and far less integrity (a mean thing to say that might hurt someone’s fee fees I admit, but for corroboration I direct you to her abominable tenure as National Security Advisor).

  108. 108.

    Anya

    @Violet: Fuck Viacom with a rusty pitchfork. I get all my DS/ Colbert shows online. How did those shows end up with these greedy fuckers

  111. 111.

    MattR

    @MikeBoyScout:

    So Kessler is admitting that his role is not fact checker, but partisanship referee?

    As proof of his nonpartisanship, he has two. One from Republican Darrel Issa and one from Democrat Ben Nelson.

  112. 112.

    muddy

    Anderson Cooper is about to talk about Rmoney’s Bain lies. He’s explaining the basics.

  114. 114.

    Violet

    @Anya: Don’t know. For DirecTV customers, all Viacom channels are dark. That includes Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, MTV and others. I think there are eleven.

    People said, “I can just get my DS/Colbert online” and Viacom slammed that door shut as part of the negotiation. But since being a DirecTV viewer doesn’t have much to do with how you get to the internet, it affects everyone.

    Speculation I’ve read today is that it may be permanent. They mentioned something else that was available online and now isn’t after some contract dispute. So…

  115. 115.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I like Condi, I said in 2008 that Condi was the Repubs secret weapon, if she had run she would have had a shot. Making her VP candidate is a smart move for Romney, it is a shiny object, ALA Palin. If Romney is considering Condi as a VP it is a sign that he is in real trouble, and he knows it.

  116. 116.

    jwb

    @Turgidson: I’m almost certain it won’t be Condi. We couldn’t be that lucky. This is just being drudged to deflect attention momentarily from the Bain news. But what I find particularly delicious is that the Romney clown car can’t even manage drudging very well.

  117. 117.

    Tonal Crow

    @jwb:

    Drudge has banner headlines saying Condi is head of the short list for VP. The Tweetmachine is all a twitter.

    Would that be Condi “No one could have anticipated that terrorists would fly airplanes into buildings” Rice? The one who was DUBYA’s national security advisor in the runup to 9/11? And then DUBYA’s Secretary of State? That Condi?

  119. 119.

    russ

    can somebody mail a letter for me to Mr Rmoney, I’m out of stamps?

    The letter says, Mr. Romney:

    U R Doing it rong!

  120. 120.

    MikeJ

    @Anya:

    I get all my DS/ Colbert shows online

    People will continue to get them online, they’ll just use TPB instead of Viacom’s website.

    Recombination Viacom Safeway.

  121. 121.

    muddy

    Now John King as explained to Anderson that he spoke to 4 people from Bain, some of whom were Democrats supporting Obama !!!! and they said Rmoney was telling the truth. King said there were no signatures or anything, but that’s not so. Now David Gergen is confessing that he has gotten money from Bain, but Bain is really full of noble people, so nevermind.

  122. 122.

    slightly_peeved

    @Brian R.:

    That’s my best guess at the Team Obama calculations – at worst, they’ll get Mitt Romney admitting that he was getting paid $100,000 a year for doing nothing, and the concept that this is such a piddling amount of money to Old Weather-Vane that he didn’t even think it counted as a job.

  124. 124.

    different-church-lady

    So earlier today, I took to twitter…

    Ah, I think I see the problem.

  125. 125.

    jwb

    Ha, what does it mean when even Erick son of Erick thinks Condi is a shiny object? He’s wrong almost as often as Bill Kristol. Of course it’s just a RT, so maybe that disqualifies it as a data point.

  126. 126.

    Turgidson

    @muddy:

    Now John King as explained to Anderson that he spoke to 4 people from Bain, some of whom were Democrats supporting Obama

    Well golly gee! John King wouldn’t dare purposely fuck up a news story, would he?

    Call off the dogs, everyone, John King has rendered his judgment that this is a non-story after all. Better luck next time.

    What a tool.

  128. 128.

    beltane

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Not really a smart move at all. 1) It reeks of fear and desperation on the part of the Romney campaign; and 2) Condi’s “No one could have anticipated” remark will remind voters of the Bush administration’s utter impotence in dealing with Osama Bin Laden. Condi failed, thousands of Americans died, and an illegal war was launched partly on account of her failure.

    A Romney/Rice ticket will be like a flashback to the worst acid trip anybody could ever imagine.

  129. 129.

    BGinCHI

    Who wants to bet a C note that the VP will be Artur Davis?

    ETA: I know there’s no gambling at Bushwood, but still….

  130. 130.

    eli

    While i agree on the content, framing it as an issue of him being “Romney’s surrogate” gives him a rhetorical out, if only cynical and angled toward fools.

  131. 131.

    gnomedad

    @Baud:

    I tried to convince someone the other day that 2+2=4, but I couldn’t find a Republican to back me up.

    Mathematicians only say 2+2=4 because they have to to get liberal socialist “research” grants.

  134. 134.

    Tonal Crow

    @beltane:

    beltane Says: @Litlebritdifrnt: Not really a smart move at all. 1) It reeks of fear and desperation on the part of the Romney campaign; and 2) Condi’s “No one could have anticipated” remark will remind voters of the Bush administration’s utter impotence in dealing with Osama Bin Laden.

    Not to mention Obama’s success in whacking Osama bin Laden.

  135. 135.

    beltane

    @Tonal Crow: And don’t think for a second that the Obama campaign won’t exploit Rice’s light touch regarding OBL for all it’s worth, and it’s worth quite a lot.

  137. 137.

    Roger Moore

    @MikeJ:

    The Life Like Corporation? The Romdroid was on the board of a company called the Life Like Corporation?

    He’s not just on the Board, he’s their best product yet!

  140. 140.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    If Glenn Kessler told me Romney’s ass had a hole in it I wouldn’t believe him.

  144. 144.

    Bob Munck

    Good Lord, Wikipedia says that Kessler graduated from Brown University! I’m going to have to re-evaluate every thought and opinion I’ve had since leaving Providence myself.

  147. 147.

    Darkrose

    The only way Condi’s on that list at all is if she announces her engagement to a man very shortly…and sells the house she owns jointly with her female best friend.

  149. 149.

    JPL

    The Condi trinket is funny because the 27 percent could care less who the vp is.. they just hate the guy in the white house.

  150. 150.

    burnspbesq

    Rained here today. Rain in SoCal in July is nearly as rare as truthful statements from the Romney campaign.

  152. 152.

    Richard

    What a pathetic asshole. Balancing the truth with lies isn’t exactly the definition of fact checking, you fucking shithead.

  153. 153.

    JPL

    Most news media are ignoring this. I read Rosen’s statement but at some point they really do have to question Romney’s truthiness. He signed the papers. Glenn said they interviewed someone from the SEC that was a democrat..who cares. That person did not sign the paperwork, Romney did.

  154. 154.

    Elmo

    Shorter Kessler: Reporters shouldn’t read documents; they should ask party flacks what they say. #WaPoFacts

  155. 155.

    Princess Leia

    @Jewish Steel: They don’t think that will matter enough– they don’t have anyone else as distracting to the press, so Condi it will be. Watch for the private lives are private angle.

  159. 159.

    FlipYrWhig

    @muddy: What did the Bain Dems say Romney was “telling the truth” about? That he was only nominally in charge during that period? That is, that the person listed as CEO and exclusive shareholder and whatnot did nothing for his $100K?

  160. 160.

    David Koch

    BREAKING NEWS: World is round. WaPo discounts findings, says science has a well known liberal bias.

  161. 161.

    jwb

    @Princess Leia: Condi makes little sense once you ask yourself where Condi helps Romney’s campaign and where she might hurt it. Plus, I don’t think they would drop this now if she was actually high on the list unless they were planning to make an announcement sometime next week. Thus, it seems like a comical attempt at distraction.

  162. 162.

    Anya

    @jwb: I really, really doubt that Romney will choose a woman. If Ann Romney’s description of Romney’s VP qualities is any indication then he’ll choose a bland white guy. This is what she said about the qualities she wants from Romney’s VP pic:

    “same personality type that will enjoy spending time with him, and also competent, capable and willing to serve this country”

  163. 163.

    Jewish Steel

    @Princess Leia:

    It would be a splashy pick, no doubt. But she’s a wonk not a politician. She has zero charisma and has never stood for office. I think the campaign trail would eat her alive.

    Also, she describes herself as “mildly pro-choice,” whatever that equivocating bullshit is supposed to mean. That’s not exactly a base-inspiring position.

  164. 164.

    shortstop

    @Elmo: You wonder what the “GOP commish” quote Kessler was insisting upon was supposed to say. That Bain’s SEC filings do not identify Romney as prez, CEO, chair and sole stockholder during those years? And if such a quote were forthcoming, does Kessler think his job is to say that there’s just no way to know what’s actually in those filings, given that Democrats and Republicans see different things in them?

    He’s beyond fucking ridiculous.

  166. 166.

    Darkrose

    @Princess Leia: The problem with the “private lives are private” angle is that the people who will really care will be on Romney’s side. He caved when they got grumpy about him having a gay foreign policy advisor–and that was a white dude. Condi’s already got two strikes against her with the base; the rumors about her being family will be more than enough to scare Mittens away.

  167. 167.

    Calouste

    @Anya:

    also competent, capable and willing to serve this country”

    I don’t think Romney picking a Democrat as VP is going to go down well with the base.

  168. 168.

    Princess Leia

    @jwb: True that–and it is hard to imagine that they are smart enough to think things through, that has been proven without a doubt. I will now go back to contemplating the death star.

  169. 169.

    gogol's wife

    @General Stuck:

    You still didn’t spell it right! That’s cute.

    I’m busy with a lovely visitor from Moscow, but I miss all you guys. I’m missing all this great Romney snark . . . .

  171. 171.

    Roger Moore

    @Anya:

    “same personality type that will enjoy spending time with him, and also competent, capable and willing to serve this country”

    Shorter: Romney wants a suck-up yes man for VP. What a shock.

  175. 175.

    Elizabelle

    @Anya:

    Re Stephen Colbert:

    OTOH, he watches the news and current events and probably thinks “I can’t believe this is the world I have to bring my children up in.”

    And next: for a comedian, it’s like swimming through the Gulf Stream.

  177. 177.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Will it be WaPo or the Romney campaign that first goes full Pontius Pilate and asks “What is Truth?”

  178. 178.

    Citizen Alan

    @JPL:

    Not to mention the fact that if Condi ever said a single positive word about affirmative action, ending corporate welfare, racism in America, gay rights, or even a few kind remarks about the policy successes of Obama and Hillary Clinton, the 27% will turn on her even faster than they did on Colin Powell.

    Meanwhile, I’m still reeling over the idea that if you publish something even mildly negative about Republicans, you are obligated to scour the Internet to find something bad you can say about Democrats in order to consider yourself non-partisan.

  179. 179.

    BrianK

    I don’t know why anyone should expect anything different from Kessler. One of his first posts was whining about how an NPR piece spent a few seconds longer on one point of view than on another. Reminded me exactly of that classic Daily Show bit:

    “I’m a reporter, Jon. My job is to spend half the time repeating what one side says, and half the time repeating the other. Little thing called objectivity, might want to look it up some day.”

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-23-2004/kerry-controversy

  180. 180.

    Cacti

    The fact check orgs were briefly useful because they would actually, you know, check facts.

    Then they realized pointing out that Republicans lie all goddamn time was bad for business, and they morphed into Truthiness-checkers in service of the almighty narrative:

    Both sides do it!

  181. 181.

    amk

    @Valdivia: But they did. From the nasty newtie to idjit perry to sick rantorum onwards about mittbot’s vulture capitalism.

  183. 183.

    waratah

    This is the newspaper that exposed Watergate, and this is the best they can do now?

  185. 185.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    @J, @Comrade Mary: Danke, danke.

    @Roger Moore: I’m not sure there’s any functional difference between the two statements, though your interpretation may well be correct. I suppose, if you’re right, that would make Kessler less mendacious but even dumber I suspect.

    .

  187. 187.

    Cacti

    @waratah:

    This is the newspaper that exposed Watergate, and this is the best they can do now?

    Yup.

    Facts are only factual when they come from approved Republican sources. Otherwise, they’re 4-pinnochio, pants-on-fire, poopy pants lies!

    If it doesn’t come from a Republican, it’s partisan.

  189. 189.

    Roger Moore

    @JGabriel:

    I suppose, if you’re right, that would make Kessler less mendacious but even dumber I suspect.

    I think it shows just how postmodern the contemporary news media has become. He’s supposed to be a fact checker, but he acts as if there isn’t actually any such thing as a fact, just conflicting points of view.

  190. 190.

    Punchy

    “SEC filings”? WTF? Did LSU, Alabama, or Florida have a Sandusky moment today?

  193. 193.

    schrodinger's cat

    Kessler,
    Some Democratic operative said that you will fall toward the earth with an acceleration of 9.8m/s^2 if you jump from the top of a building, why don’t you test it for partisanship?

  194. 194.

    jwb

    Heh. Erick son of Erick is almost in panic mode trying to swat away the Condi rumors.

  195. 195.

    General Stuck

    For the first time since I started blogging, am going through and reading each and every website off of memerandum. The bullshit wingnuttery is tears of sweetness and denial, that swells my heart. As did this little quip from Harry Reid

    “He couldn’t be confirmed as a dog catcher,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., whose leadership post hinges on the ability of Obama and Democrats to hold their Senate majority.

    My My, the dog catchers are out for Mitt Romney on this one.

  196. 196.

    Cacti

    I’m having a hard time deciding…

    Is it hubris? Is Kessler such a diva that he can’t admit he was wrong?

    Is he dumb as a bag of hammers?

    Or does he just have his head that far up his ass for the R-money campaign?

  197. 197.

    Jay in Oregon

    @BGinCHI:

    My guess is he’ll make the 100K isn’t even real money defense.

    Of course it isn’t real money. Why, Mitt Romney makes $10,000 bets over simple disagreements!

  198. 198.

    Steeplejack

    @Raven:

    Didn’t see that coming. I was expecting a picture of you on a boat holding up a big-ass fish while a great white surged over the gunwales behind you.

    Have a good time! We will maintain the snark while you’re gone.

  199. 199.

    General Stuck

    @Cacti:

    I don’t think it has sunk in the long legs of this story. It is not a one off on the Romney campaign screwing something up, and talking themselves out of it. It goes to the very core of why and what he is running for president on, as well as basing his entire credibility on. And what this election is about, economic stuff, and creating jobs.

    And that on top of all the other Wall Street milieu coming out as how Romney has conducted that business experience.

  200. 200.

    David Koch

    Josh Marshal hammers him

    Meanwhile, Glenn Kessler seems to be sticking with his earlier claims that Romney actually did end his role at Bain in 1999, hanging his hat on the fact that the former SEC official the Globe asked about documents had given money to Democrats. This strikes me as the feeblest crutch of contemporary journalism. The issue is the filings – not the person you found to give a quote about them.

  205. 205.

    muddy

    @FlipYrWhig: I doubt there is such a thing as a Bain Democrat. I think John King pulled that right out of his ass, as though they are foreign taxi drivers with whom to gesture.

    “Yeah, yeah, they told me it was all lies – and you have to believe them because really they love Obama and would never criticize him, except that these lies are just *so* egregious, and as honorable men they cannot let that stand. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”

    I was expecting AC to take him up on that, but they had to get to the part with Dr. Drew telling us that Jesse Jackson, Jr. is probably an addict, and we don’t know why they would say he was an inpatient, it must be incorrect, but we shouldn’t talk about it because it’s private. wtf I just watch to get a sense of what mainstream media is up to, but it’s hard because they are just maddening.

    Now I’m watching Wilfred, which is much less surreal.

  207. 207.

    Kilkee

    @slightly_peeved: Unfortunately for Mitt, the reality is that the filing indicates only “more than $100,000.” So Mitt, how much did you get for doing nothing? $500,000? $1M? $10M? I’m afraid we’ll have to see your tax returns.

  208. 208.

    AA+ Bonds

    I found this interesting image about hippie-bashing today.

    Is this a picture of ‘snark‘, I see that word a lot, is that what the liquid we see in the picture is called, ‘snark’

  210. 210.

    jl

    IANAL, but doesn’t this all hang on squishy stuff like ‘operational role’ means? If so, then doesn’t seem like something that would end up seriously investigated, or end his candidacy. But, could seriously damage him, which is fine with me.

    I laughed at the first Political Wire headline: Romney walks into Bain trap.

    Yeah, that reminds me that in my past, when I have been caught in a lie, that was how people described the situation: “Poor jl, the dude sure walked into that trap.”

    I like the next one better: Romney contradicts own testimony. That has a nice familiar ring to it. Earworm potential? Maybe!

    Edit: any commenter here with the skills to work that into a rap.

    Mad Mittster just contradicted his own testimony
    On the truth of any matter, he’s his worst enemy

    That’s all I got. Sorry. Not in the mood.

  212. 212.

    rikyrah

    I learned something new today on the Willard story watching Lawrence O’Donnell’s show tonight.

    We need to stop saying that Willard earned $100,000 in those years after he supposedly left. That is not the case. He got AT LEAST $100,000. The actual amount is ….you guessed it….IN THE TAX RETURNS.

  214. 214.

    kay

    I can’t believe back-dating is just common practice.
    Is that literally true? He signs in 2002 and they just announce it was “really” dated 1999?
    Or does “back date” have some special meaning in finance?

  217. 217.

    Karen

    Maybe it’s my imagination but I’ve noticed that none of the GOP politicians (not the pundits but the politicians) are defending Romney with this. They’re not jumping all over Fox defending him. Are they? Or am I wrong?

  218. 218.

    Elmo

    @Darkrose:

    “Family.” Ha! I haven’t ever heard anyone use that but my partner and me, and the waiter who taught us the expression.

    Is that a thing?

  219. 219.

    Karen

    Is the Boston Globe a conservative, liberal or non partisan paper? And do they hate Romney? They seem to be behind a lot of the stories.

  220. 220.

    beltane

    @Karen: Far from defending him, some GOP politicians, e.g. Mike Huckabee, Pete Sessions, and Walter “freedom fries” Jonesm are demanding that he release his tax returns immediately.

    We haven’t heard from Newt Gingrich yet, presumably because Karl Rove has him gagged and locked in a closet somewhere.

  222. 222.

    rikyrah

    Is anyone else watching Larry O?

    this former SEC Commissioner is cracking me up. She’s so soft, and mild mannered, yet, with her words, it’s shiv shiv shiv to Willard.

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA

  224. 224.

    jl

    @Valdivia:

    If I had enough money, dammit, I could buy somma that.

    Mitt’s lines are just not dope
    And truth just has no hope
    Don’t be a mope, get your soap on a rope
    See the thing whole
    Look in the bowl
    Mitt’s shit it just don’t float.

    Nope. Not working. One of the BJ parody squad might help out.

  225. 225.

    Kilkee

    Condi Rice for VP? Wait: isn’t she that blah woman? Ha ha ha! Just when the GOP has managed to drag its Southern white male evangelicals to maybe, maybe hold their noses and vote for the Mormon, now they’re going to ask them to do the same with a black woman on the ticket? Nevah gonna happen…

  229. 229.

    kay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    There must be more to it, because they just breezed by it in the article.
    I don’t think even Mitt Romney is allowed to time-travel. He must abide by the same calendar as the rest of us, although it’s clearly regulatory overreach.

  230. 230.

    cmorenc

    David Gergen is on CNN doing a complete hack job on the Bain story, supposedly as a journalist personally familiar with Bain but he might as well be a surrogate for the Romney campaign trying to deflect the notion that there’s any substance whatever to this, steadfastly explaining that Romney’s paper relationship with Bain had no real substance. “It takes some time to unwind the formalities of this sort of business relationship” and “I know the people at Bain, and they’re fine people” etc. (those are paraphrases actually, but nonetheless completely accurate in conveying the substance and tone of what he said). Gergen stuck to the notion that Romney had no meaningful ties with Bain after 1999, never mentioning the FIVE new ventures in 2002 which Romney signed onto on Bain’s behalf nor Romney’s citation in 1992 of his continued role as Bain’s President and CEO in the hearings before the Mass electoral commission over the issue of whether he qualified as a Mass resident after spending three years in Utah. Gergen also maintained that the burden of proof was on the Obama campaign to show there was any substance to the charges. Um…David, the Boston Herald did JUST THAT!

    John King and Anderson Cooper sat there like useless sidekicks, never once calling Gergen on his bullshit misrepresentations.

  231. 231.

    Steeplejack

    @Elmo:

    Yeah, my brother and his gay entourage use that. As in, most recently, “Who didn’t know Anderson Cooper was family?!”

  232. 232.

    PeakVT

    Remember, R-money has to find someone who would be willing to accept Veep the offer. Rice may be the only person left after today.

  233. 233.

    rikyrah

    Now Larry O has David Corn on with his story about Willard investing in a Chinese company involved in OUTSOURCING. …and there is NO DISPUTE that Willard was in charge of Bain at the time.

  234. 234.

    Heliopause

    Is it not now clear to everyone, even maybe Fred Hiatt, that the Washington Post fact checker couldn’t pass an undergraduate introductory course on logic?

    Good god, John, there won’t be a single journalist in the country if you enforce onerous requirements like this. Please understand, the discipline known as “journalism” is in fact a fanatical religious cult. Logic and critical thinking are anathema to its devotees. The religion’s tenets are well-defined and strict. Please keep this in mind when conversing with poor, deluded Mr. Kessler, he’s no more responsible for his actions than Tom Cruise.

  235. 235.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Karen: The Boston Globe is owned by the New York Times. Think of it as the east suburban edition…

  236. 236.

    J. Michael Neal

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I can’t believe back-dating financial documents is legal.

    It depends upon what sort of financial documents. Backdating a resignation letter, which is the only specific instance of backdating I’ve heard today (though I sure as hell am not claiming that there aren’t any that I haven’t heard about at this point) is probably fine. I have no idea why they’d do it, other than the obvious of giving him a prop to wave around, but if they didn’t file it with anyone and didn’t use it to make fraudulent claims about their business, I can’t see why it would be illegal. Just pointless.

  238. 238.

    Anne Laurie

    @Karen:

    Is the Boston Globe a conservative, liberal or non partisan paper? And do they hate Romney? They seem to be behind a lot of the stories.

    The Globe is a totebagger paper, now under the ownership of the NYTImes. But the Sulzbergers didn’t have to live with Willard as their (nominal) Governor for 4 years. People think I’m exagerrating for comic effect, but seriously: The more time you spend around Willard Mitt Romney, the more you will loathe him!

  239. 239.

    Bobby Thomson

    Is it not now clear to everyone, even maybe Fred Hiatt, that the Washington Post fact checker couldn’t pass an undergraduate introductory course on logic?

    I think I see a problem with this.

    Is it not now clear to everyone, even maybe Fred Hiatt, that the Washington Post fact checker couldn’t pass an undergraduate introductory course on logic.?

    Yup. That’s it.

  240. 240.

    slightly_peeved

    @Kilkee:

    Missed that. Looks like there are plenty of angles to hit him on here…

    let X = Mitt’s salary from Bain, 1999-2002.

    if X < 1,000,000:
    Mitt thinks 'X' is funny money.
    Mitt got paid 'X' to do nothing.
    else:
    Mitt expects us to believe that he got paid 'X' to do nothing, which is farcical.

  241. 241.

    Jebediah

    @Valdivia:

    Because Romney is never ever responsible for anything! No agency. Always someone else’s fault.

    And yet for some reason we’re supposed to think he would make a great President.

  243. 243.

    Jebediah

    @Valdivia:
    Yes, and they’re counting on everybody else doing that too. That causes them another problem, though – lots of non-logical voters rely on stuff like ‘regular-guy-ness” and likeability. And as we know, Mitt fails spectacularly at those.
    These days, Mitt is making me happy.

  245. 245.

    danielx

    @Baud:

    I’ve had the same experience, more than once. Except that once I found a conservative to agree that 2 + 2 = 4, that conservative became a liberal, had obviously always been a closet liberal all along and hence was not a credible source. See Bartlett, Bruce.

    As we all know, conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed.

  246. 246.

    bootsy

    @Valdivia: I’ve been feeling great since I heard this in the morning.

    “It’s like a Koala bear crapped a rainbow in my brain!” — Sealab 2021

  247. 247.

    danielx

    @Violet:

    Violet Says:

    @beltane: No, they’ll be dancing along to a hologram of Lawrence Welk.

    No, they’ve moved a little past Lawrence Welk. But they will be wearing out various renditions of that obnoxious Lee Greenwood song.

  250. 250.

    Tonal Crow

    @kay:

    I can’t believe back-dating is just common practice.
    Is that literally true? He signs in 2002 and they just announce it was “really” dated 1999?
    Or does “back date” have some special meaning in finance?

    Yeah, like looking up the winning numbers for an unclaimed lottery prize, buying a ticket with the same numbers today, “backdating” it, and claiming the prize.

  251. 251.

    RaflW

    From the new Globe Bain story

    The firm did not respond to Globe questions about why SEC filings show Romney in control of five Bain Capital business partnerships that were formed in January 2002 — long after Romney claims to have left.

    Emphasis added. This sure looks like he fully retired in 1999, no? He just had a hard time negotiating his 10 year golden parachute, right?

    I hate to say it, but on Bain, Newtie was most likely right. Gahh. Anyway, this story lives into Friday.

  252. 252.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I am being me, and I always have a point, which is that the Real Shit is going on and because the TV isn’t talking about it, the radio isn’t talking about it, and because they aren’t talking about it, liberals on blogs aren’t talking about it, and so they are missing the goddamned party where they might have an outside fucking chance of getting what they always claim they want, and are instead screeching AHA, BUT, YOU SEE, THIS RICH ASSHOLE’S HORSE JUST STARTED LAGGING AROUND THE BEND

    Remember that brief moment when liberals paid attention to Occupy? Just for a second?

    Remember how overwhelmingly positive that was for liberalism and liberal parties, just from the afterglow?

    Exactly how long do you expect this horse race shit to prop y’all up?

    Maybe moving the debate from “capitalism obviously sucks” to “was this obvious bloodsucker working for his bloodsucking vampire company during said years or just sucking blood in another way” – maybe that’s the Overton Window?

  253. 253.

    AA+ Bonds

    But then again HOLY SHIT KESSLER MIGHT BE READING THIS RIGHT NOW

    Man oh man I am almost letting all the pee pee out of my body thinking that such a Great and Terrible Loser has something to say to me!

    Clearly the man is shit, their man is shit, the whole system is shit and there is a fulcrum in Spain right now

    Start talking about it if you want to jam Archimedes’ lever in, force a seismic shift, fucking force Kessler onto your turf by moving the turf itself

  254. 254.

    rea

    Goodness–John says Kessler doesn’t know what a fact is, and Kessler proceeds to confirm it.

  255. 255.

    Larv

    Kessler gives away the game by his repeated use of “partisan.” He is “consistently non-partisan” even in these “partisan times.” It’s a core part of his self-image, and he views absolutely everything through that filter.

    Why should the Globe have gotten a Republican commish to give them a quote? Not because it would change the factual basis of the story, but simply because that would make it officially “non-partisan” and Glenn Kessler, non-partisan journalist, can’t allow anything else to mar his beautiful objectivity. Lets ignore the rather obvious fact that, in these partisan times, getting a potentially very damaging quote about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee from a Republican political appointee would be…unlikely at best.

    The irony is that it’s people like Kessler who are the most partisan of all, in that they pay the most attention to it. You have to if your idea of even-handedness is writing exactly the same number of criticisms of Democrats as Republicans (note his first response to JC). How else can you keep score? I wouldn’t be surprised if he keeps a running tally of Pinocchios awarded to Dems and Reps, lest he allow it to become unbalanced (which might cause him to become tainted with the dread specter of partisanship, and we can’t have that if we’re to be an Objective Fact Checker).

  256. 256.

    TenguPhule

    Is it not now clear to everyone, even maybe Fred Hiatt, that the Washington Post fact checker couldn’t pass an undergraduate introductory course on logic?

    Kessler can donate his brain to science, obviously he doesn’t use or need it.

  257. 257.

    brantl

    His point is supposed to be this: If you get a GOP guy to confirm the damaging information about R_Money, it must be the truth. Never mind the idea that it’s SOP in real journalism to actually go fact check the individual who gave you these “facts” regardless of what his slant might be. That would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much to hope for, right? Dipshit.

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