I’ll say this for the Romney campaign, they are BOLD LIARS.
Not only have they built their entire campaign on a web of lies, but now they are bragging about it. Essentially they are telling the press and their “fact checkers” to go fuck themselves:
“Our most effective ad is our welfare ad,” a top television advertising strategist for Romney, Ashley O’Connor, said at a forum Tuesday hosted by ABCNews and Yahoo! News. “It’s new information.” [snip]
The Washington Post‘s “Fact Checker” awarded Romney’s ad “four Pinocchios,” a measure Romney pollster Neil Newhouse dismissed.
“Fact checkers come to this with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs, and we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers,” he said. The fact-checkers — whose institutional rise has been a feature of the cycle — have “jumped the shark,” he added after the panel.
They must be serving cocktails made from Glenn Kesser’s tears to celebrate down in Tampa. The big question for the media organizations is: Do they let the Romney Campaign bully them into silence or do they decide to stand up to these grifters. Greg Sargent laid out the challenge Team Romney has given our failed media experiment:
In this sense, the Romney campaign continues to pose a test to the news media and our political system. What happens when one campaign has decided there is literally no set of boundaries that it needs to follow when it comes to the veracity of its assertions? The Romney campaign is betting that the press simply won’t be able to keep voters informed about the disputes that are central to the campaign, in the face of the sheer scope and volume of dishonesty it uncorks daily.
I expect that most will lay down and let Mitt cut their hair or lock them into a closet through November.
Mitt Romney is a man without shame. Romney and the wingnuts have embraced the politics of race baiting and division as the core of his campaign and the conservative movement. Tonight, Rick Santorum will double down on the Welfare Lie when he gives his official GOP talking points speech. Expect many other speakers to do the same.
But Joe Biden said the word “chains” once so that balances it all out…
Cheers
LanceThruster
This what the stocks and public shaming was invented for.
Let’s go back to “the good old days!”
The Other Chuck
So now Kessler is one of the good guys today? Frankly, the self-appointed fact-checkers brought this on themselves.
Of course there’s the little problem of every single media outlet not connected with Kessler or Politifact _also_ saying the Romney campaign is full of shit …
LanceThruster
@LanceThruster:
It would certainly increase the sales of rotten produce (even drought-withered corn could be put to use – pucker up!).
Rob in Buffalo
“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.”
Priceless.
cathyx
Romney promises that once elected, he will not lie anymore. He swears.
Disco
Can you blame Team Romney? The media have demonstrated over the years that they are complicit numbskulls. He’s simply taking advantage of that.
Now Obama needs to do the same. Yes, this is hardball.
Nemesis
Were I on the romney campaign, I would not hesitate to lie. Media has proven incapable and unable to do more than simply exist to profit.
The RNC can say to the tv networks: Hey if you guys dont play by our rules, we will cancel our gazillion dollar ad buys. So STFU and grovel before us!
EconWatcher
This would all be a lot funnier if I were confident it would backfire on them. But I’m not, so it isn’t.
jrg
No one takes the media seriously because they refuse to do their fucking jobs.
LanceThruster
You know, in all honesty, I’d trust R-Money a whole lot more if he availed himself to the power of a seer stone.
I heard those things are wicked accurate in revealing that which is hidden.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Other Chuck: the existence of journalists called “fact checkers” indicates the problem. Political journalists today are not truth seekers, they’re balance seekers. It was fascinating to watch Brokaw bloviate about how he wasn’t upset by Romney’s birther joke becasue it wasn’t part of a “narrative”, or “pattern”, and thirty second later he was tut-tutting about how terrible it is that Donald Trump is part of our political discussion. IT was intersting, if repellent, to see this low-information voter dressed up as an icon of political journalim who probably gets his news from Politico, tweeting with Brian Williams and FoxNews on at a low volume in The Nineteenth Hole at Southhampton CC.
EconWatcher
@Nemesis:
Yes, exactly this. The most important institution that can be bribed or blackmailed with Citzens United dollars is the media. That may be even more important than the messages broadcast with the ad money.
Having the money to spew propaganda 24-7 is valuable. Having the power to silence criticism by threatening to withold that money is priceless.
And yes, Anthony Kennedy is a tool.
LanceThruster
@cathyx:
Honest Native American?
Comrade Javamanphil
MtP will have an exclusive with John McCain this week to explain to us that the one really lying is “that one.”
wrb
I trust what he says about his tax returns though.
cervantes
The corporate media are ineluctably committed to an ethic of “balance,” in which the fulcrum has been moved steadily to the right throughout the Obama administration.
And whose fault is that? Obama, in his desperate search for postpartisanship, has brought this awful result. He keeps reaching further and further to the right expecting the opposition to meet him, and they just keep retreating, luring him on, with the corporate media following. The lesson seems finally to be dawning on him, but rather too late.
Disco
@EconWatcher:
They don’t need bribing. They’re more than happy to follow along and not ask questions — and for free.
Zifnab
It’s not even that. The media could, easily enough, put up a running alert that a given political statement is bullshit. It’s not like Romney’s attacks aren’t predictable or repetitive.
But if you call Romney out as a liar, he’ll start crying “Liberal Media!” and run away. Then his rich friends will start pulling their media ad buys and the RNC will boycott your channel come debate time. And you’ll be cowed because you can’t afford to be honest.
Mitt Romney is going to fight the way he’s always fought, buy wielding a giant duffle bag full of money.
gogol's wife
@cervantes:
Aw, go suck an egg.
Hill Dweller
@cervantes: The media’s obsession with ‘balance’ started long before the Obama administration.
Dave
It’s funny…back in W’s first term, that functionary talked about creating a “new reality”. And now you have this guy talking about having their own facts.
The advantage is that it allows you to say whatever the hell you want without any cognitive disconnect or ethical dilemma.
The disadvantage is that you can’t force everyone else to follow you on your magical carpet ride. You start believing your own bullshit and thinking you’re a genius while the rest of America looks at you with horror because you’re acting like this.
And sooner or later they WILL piss off the Fourth Estate to the point that they sharpen the knives and come a’carving.
MattF
@The Other Chuck: That’s a good point. Establishing a ‘facts department’ in a newspaper is just asking for humiliation. And Romney is now supplying humiliation for the fact checkers, by the truckload– it’s the thing he’s actually good at.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@cervantes:
Uh huh. David Broder, Cokie Roberts and Tim Russert never existed before Obama came to Washington, and nobody in politics ever talked about the importance of comity, compromise and bipartisanship.
Davis X. Machina
Hey, it moves product.
This is what “run government like a business” looks like….
Nemesis
@cervantes: I figured it was Obamas fault.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
__
Something about that quote sounds awfully familiar. Hmmm, what was that quote from the W years. Oh yes: “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
This is merely the logical extension of postmodern imperial thinking to election campaigning. The only thing novel about this situation is that the would-be imperial actors don’t actually hold the reigns of power of the national security state just yet, and so coming from them there is less acting per say and more just talking instead. But the basic principles are identical.
Sorry Fact-checkers, but you can’t say you weren’t warned. If any of you had been paying attention that is.
Here’s a scary thought: if the GOP are this brazen about it when out of the WH, imagine how unfettered their lies will be from within the cozy confines of a seated administation, with all the vast powers that confers? Consider this the birth of the post-truth era.
...now I try to be amused
This:
“Fact checkers come to this with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs, and we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers… [Fact checkers have] jumped the shark.”
reminds me of this:
“That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” — attributed to Karl Rove
[Edit: Too late, dammit.]
wrb
@Zifnab:
I don’t believe this.
The election is too close. They can’t neglect the viewers or listeners to any channel. The media
does have power here, although they may not believe it.
In fact, if one outlet started presenting a damaging narrative, it would be even more important for the campaign to counter it before those viewers or listeners.
PaulW
If Romney’s team is openly refuting the need to check their facts, then the TV companies need to refuse airing their lying ads.
They do have a right to refuse, yes?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
I saw this coming. I’m just surprised it took this long.
BC
I was confused why there was so much blowback on Biden using chains, when the context was clear – you unchain Wall Street and Wall Street will use those chains on the middle class. But there was so much over-the-top crying about that being race-baiting so now I understand it is to get the balance.
Violet
I think you’re wrong. I think the media is starting to wake up. Some of them are realizing that if they don’t do their job, they won’t have a job to do. I think Romney’s lies are a bridge too far. They already don’t like Romney, so this isn’t all that big of a step for them. Once the first “respectable” media person makes the leap, they’ll all follow.
Soledad O’Brien is doing a very good job of trend-setting in this regard. Let’s see who follows her.
Nemesis
@wrb: Lets say one network, MSNBC, started really getting after the gop bullshit. Like Tweety yesterday and doing so routinely. Do you not think the gop heavy hitters would threaten to pull ads? We’re talking tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
The beauty in pulling ads is this: you only have to do it once. Then the media lapdogs know who the alpha is and they will never cross that line again.
SatanicPanic
@EconWatcher:
I was under the impression that media companies have to sell ads at their lowest rate to political campaigns- would this includes superpacs as well?
I’m personally of the opinion that media companies are big suck ups to Republican polls for the simple reasons that their bosses are a combination of politically conservative and risk averse. I don’t buy the idea that “we’d run ads for communism if it made money.”
General Stuck
Seems the Gauntlet is thrown down, in the most brazen attempt ever to cow the media into treating black lies as legitimate topics for debate. It really isn’t that far out there for his campaign to go this route, when it is the only one possibly leading to victory. The nutter nation in general, has kept the pol media, like aphid herded ants, as a sort of natural version of indentured servitude for decades now.
Big gamble, probing the wire of a POTUS campaign run on pure fiction, with a dare attached for the 4th estate to chew on. After the dem convention, out will come a bevy of then and now ads by Obama with new sources of funding. One flip flop pander after another. That will almost certainly destroy what little credibility Romney has left with swing voters that will likely decide the election. So, it’s out with the stuff of white fear race baiting with extreme prejudice, and very little coverings. They are going to run a 61% election. The percent of white voters theoretically needed for Romney to win. Whatever else it is on the ugly scale, it is goddam bold as it comes.
Can an empty clown suit pull it off? Stay tuned
Zifnab
@wrb:
This fight goes beyond election cycles. Once a channel manager gets a reputation as a “liberal” it affects where he can (or, more specifically, can’t) work. Once a network gets the reputation of being “liberal”, the GOP Congressional Reps go out of their way to give you shit just because.
Whatever happens in November, the Republican Party isn’t going to just disappear in a puff of smoke. They carry grudges. If NBC and CBS could be shut down tomorrow, the GOP would pull the trigger. If they can smear your lead anchor and tank your ratings, they’ll do that too. That’s the kind of threat that keeps media people on their heels.
Dennis G.
@Dave: I remember the time I met Jack Abramoff and asked him about his work protecting sweatshops. His answer: He was working from a different data set so he did not see the problem.
Once you create your own rules it is easy to lie.
? Martin
Huh. I hadn’t considered Citizens United in this context. What happens when the money for political ads exceeds the production budgets of the news organizations? Essentially, it becomes a calculation of who has more purchasing power with viewers, and the news outfits might be outgunned here.
CNN’s annual revenue, including HLN, etc. is about $500M. Let’s say the total TV news revenue for the US is $5B annually. So in the last 4 months, about $1.5B to produce the entirety of TV news. I think the campaigns might have that covered enough to feel that they can drown out the news – particularly when they have Fox in their camp.
Villago Delenda Est
@Nemesis: \
And because they are such money-grubbing, integrity and honor free whores, they will simply roll over and accept it.
They frankly make actual prostitutes look virtuous in comparison.
Chyron HR
@cervantes:
Thank you for so succintly revealing the nugget of bullshit at the core of “True Progressive” thought.
mamayaga
Ya know, I’d be happy for genuine balance, if we could get even that. But I’m remembering all too clearly how eagerly the corporate media jumped on all the fake Clinton scandals, all the bogus stories about Gore, and particularly how sloooowly they came around to fact checking the Swiftboaters, all while eagerly parroting their lies. It’s not just that the media is reluctant to call out politicians for lying — they have been gladly complicit in the lies, as long as they are told by Republicans. No wonder Romney realistically expects them to do for his welfare lies what they did for Rove et al’s Swiftboat lies.
The Moar You Know
Good for them. Maybe Democrats can learn from this; the press gets the vapors? Won’t report with your spin?
FUCK ‘EM WE’LL DO IT ANYWAY
I hope Romney loses by thirty points but I like how he’s running his campaign. He’s putting the “bully” back into the bully pulpit.
PS: I expect the press will fall in line. With this election it won’t matter. That will not be the case in the future.
? Martin
@SatanicPanic: The news folks suck up to Republicans because old people/Republicans watch the news. Young people/Democrats read blogs. The news folks side with who brings in the ad revenue.
Dave
@Dennis G.: Exactly. And those poor souls in the sweatshops didn’t have a choice but to go along with his bullshit. Thankfully, we (still) do have that choice. We just have to exercise it.
quannlace
Well, let them create their own reality, fine. Let Romney go and be president of that little world and leave the rest of us normals, the hell alone!
wrb
@Zifnab:
That I can accept
Nemesis
@Villago Delenda Est: Thats because “news” outlets have no connection to news or truth.
Their only mission, their reason to exist, is to return value to shareholders, hence, whores to the highest bidders.
We may get a crash course in this activity over the next few months. Kinda intimidating, frankly.
SatanicPanic
@? Martin: I think that’s part of it. But the ads they’re trying to sell aren’t political ads, they’re ads for Viagra or hip replacements or whatever old people buy. But is it possible that you’d piss off old Republicans enough to stop watching? Or did old people become Republicans because they’re exposed to too much FOX? I don’t know the answer to these questions.
Villago Delenda Est
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.
These are the motherfuckers Orwell was warning us about.
eric
@Nemesis: i disagree. You dont pull the ads. he ads are there because they get votes. No ads, no votes. Were I MSNBC or a local station, i would call that bluff everytime. You dont need us, we will sell ad time and you wont reach voters. good luck with that. this is just easy ad time to sell.
SatanicPanic
great, stuck in moderation.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@mamayaga:
__
Our news media are lapdancers who really do have a thing for their favorite client.
The Moar You Know
@PaulW: In theory, yes. In practice, no, as they are publicly held corporations, and even I, a non-lawyer, could whip up a ruinous case for “breach of fiduciary duty to shareholders” if a network refused a few hundred million dollars worth of ad buys.
EconWatcher
@? Martin:
Yes, Citizens United has transformed the world, and it’s only just begun.
What I envision for the future is some big Republican thinker creating the equivalent of a “K street project” for the whole media. As you’ll recall, Tom Delay for a while acted as the middleman between lobbyists and Republican legislators, enabling him to punish legislators who strayed from the party line by witholding money and to punish lobbyists who might be tempted to play both sides by witholding access.
Now, with billions of Citizens United dollars, why not say to network execs–do you want to be flithy rich, or do you want to fact-check and occasionally critcize the Republican Party? Because you can’t do both, buddy.
We haven’t seen the full glory of Citizens United yet, because it will take them a cycle or two to figure out how to squeeze every last drop of goodness from it. But they’ll get it soon enough.
pseudonymous in nc
What it takes, I think, is for the Dems — and for Obama — to start calling Rmoney a liar in every interview, and to his face in the debates, and for the press corpse not to start squealing about “incivility” and “negative campaigning”.
No pussy-footing about it: turn “Mitt Romney is a liar” into the coin of the realm.
eric
@The Moar You Know: not if they are false. that is a whole other set of problems.
Mike E
@Disco:
Umm, yer not serious, are you?
The Moar You Know
If Romney wins I want that goddamned piece of future dog food, Rafalca, to be appointed the new Senate Majority leader.
It would be so appropriate for so many reasons.
SatanicPanic
Interesting- stations are NOT required to sell Ads to superpacs at the preferential rates mandated for pols. This makes more sense now
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike E:
Can’t be serious.
This is about benjamins. The media suits have to answer to boards of directors and shareholders like any other set of suits.
No way they do this for free. They’re not frosh girls in the dorms, handing it out for free. These are professionals. You pay before you play.
The Moar You Know
@eric: Not at all. The media has a right to lie, and a right to broadcast lies for parties paying for said broadcasts. The Fox/Monsanto case settled that.
Mike E
I’m sure it sounded better in the original
GermanRussianLatin.Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know:
Collision course of “fiduciary duty to shareholders” (who may not even be US citizens) and “broadcasting on public airwaves in the public interest to serve the public’s right to know.”
Money vs. mission, at least for the news divisions.
And I am hoping Citizens United is kaput before the next Congressional election cycle, even.
Anthony Kennedy and John Roberts should be followed around by furious mobs (like Dan Rostenkowski when seniors were furious with him).
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
This isn’t just about who wins the election, either this year or in the future years. It affects how governable the country is between elections. A nation in which a large majority of its citizens cannot agree on even the most simple and basic facts is headed rapidly towards the state of being A House Divided which Lincoln warned us about. What the GOP is doing here is a twofer: either they win the election based on lies, or Obama wins another chance to try his hand at governing an angry volcano of a country seething with sedition. Either way, they win.
eric
@The Moar You Know: no they dont. that was not an FEC case.
gene108
@Nemesis:
Catch 22.
The ad buys allow them to drown out the media coverage and alter reality to what they want it to be.
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know:
More details on Fox/Monsanto, please.
Biggest problem is the FCC or FEC will rule on the matter, two-three years after the transgressor is sworn in. Any penalty is too late and too small to discourage.
JPL
Isn’t this the party that wants the ten commandments on every street corner?
ruemara
@cervantes: Dude. GFY.
Paul
@Disco:
It’s not just the media. It amazes me that there are actually voters out there who sees a political ad and believes it 100% without asking any questions.
Hell, if they are that gullible, they truly get the government they deserve. Good luck…
EconWatcher
@JPL:
What, are you thinking of that whole “bear false witness” thing? There was as an asterisk next to that one. It’s not to be applied when fighting muslim socialists.
The Moar You Know
You guys realize what step 2 is? The Citizens United long game?
The parties – I should say the party of money – buy the news outlets entirely. Between the Kochs and Adelson, those three alone could buy every non-Fox news network in the nation.
If they lose this time they’ll assuredly do it. They might even if they win, although in that sad outcome they might not have to.
We are bigger than you think
Geezer band “Romney and the Plutocrats” with their new smash hit “Freedom from Reality [Is the bestest freedom of all]”.
The Tragically Flip
The fact checkers did jump the shark when they awarded “lie of the year” to the fact that Ryan’s budget ends Medicare (fine, add “as we know it” if you really want).
Romney is lying, but we know that because we can discern reality for ourselves, not because “fact checkers” said so.
General Stuck
The status quo of allowable bullshit by the media for republican lying, has been a sort of wink nod relationship, that msm pundits will do it, long as they get to keep some semblance of the appearance of being in control of that debate. And that the memes are at least plausible, if highly unlikely for truth in real life, to be allowed in the national media dialogue with politicos.
This has kept the wingers largely competitive with dems, on the whole, despite some very bad recent behavior. But has not been an all out coup from the goopers, like what is shaping up with the R campaign, desperate as it is.
And there are some red lines that the anchors and msm in general has not given free sway. These of basic human dignity areas, and race and racism is a big part of that, as well as not going after other minorities, and women folk in their quest for equal treatment under the law. At least in a direct and sustained way with bald faced lies.
But for Romney to take this step into the breach, he is doing it with most of the country, including some soft republicans on social issues, not liking him much from the git go. I predict it will backfire in a bigger way than can be imagined under the rules we have been going by up till now. As well as the public getting to know and like Obama, even if they are disappointed with the economic recovery.
pseudonymous in nc
In moderation, but it’s up to the Dems to say “Mitt Romney is a liar” as often as possible, and to push back on the Village tutting about “incivility”.
gene108
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Most people, the majority of people, agree on the facts.
Unfortunately this country was not set up to be run via majority rule, therefore you get institutions like the Senate that give disproportionate power to small groups of people, which in this case are right-wingers in small states.
50% of the country lives in the 9 most populous states and out side of Georgia and Texas, the other 7 are either swing states or lean Democratic.
f space that
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: We have a winner !!
EconWatcher
@The Moar You Know:
I must disagree. It’s much better for them to have indirect rather than direct control. They need to make it look good, to create the appearance of an independent press. So it’s much better to use money to bribe and threaten than to assume direct control.
It’s much like what Putin does with the alleged opposition political parties in Russia. Many of their leaders are quietly paid off and controlled by allies of Putin. Putin would much rather do that than destroy them or openly control them. You need the appearance of an opposition.
There’s a great book called Virtual Democracy about how this works in former Soviet republics. Useful now for thinking about our own situation.
Elizabelle
@The Tragically Flip:
Yeah, too bad the Fact Checkers blew up their own bridge.
They were going to need it.
Ash Can
I can just see Glenn Kessler’s take on this: “The record clearly shows that Neil Newhouse really did say what the Democrats say he did, about ‘not [letting] our campaign be dictated by fact checkers,’ and I happen to know personally that Neil Newhouse is neat, punctual, and likes dogs. Therefore, we would have to award four pinocchios to the charges that Romney’s entire presidential campaign is based on lies.”
Joseph Nobles
Holy Christ on a Trisket! I’ve got a former acquaintance from Bible college sending out birther nonsense in the wake of this BS 2016 movie. I’ve told him twice in no uncertain terms to not send me this rot, and that I don’t want to discuss it with him because I’ve done my time trying to talk 9/11 Truthers out of their tree for ten years.
Here’s his response:
Compartmentalization, party of 1+1=1, your table is ready.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: Sure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Akre
The takeaway: She tried to claim whistleblower protection after her and her husband were fired for reporting that Fox was lying about rGBH milk. She was denied thusly:
So, that takes care of the FCC’s end. Eric, the FEC end was dealt with explicitly with Citizen’s United.
It’s fucking Chinatown, Juicers. The media will not save us from the Republicans. Look elsewhere.
The Moar You Know
@EconWatcher: Oh, I agree. Good point on how stuff works in Russia. Of course, you’ve got a far greater diversity of political opinion there than here, so the indirect method works best for God Emperor Putin. Here, we know that 27% of the populace would cheer the move, and another 20-30% of the populace wouldn’t be too offended.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I blame the fact checkers and Romney. If the fact checkers hadn’t decided that siding with their party was more important than calling out lies, then Romney would be having to defend himself. Instead, we all sound like Romney.
Applejinx
Holy crap. “Fact checkers have jumped the shark”?
That’s political suicide. You can’t just SAY that.
A major political party going crazy and turning ‘evil’ (read: not deferring to news media as an arbiter) is super controversial and compelling information- with Big Media ready-cast in the role of Tweety-like fierce and bold journalistic hero, whether they deserve to be or not.
Shocked, shocked they will be, that the Republicans have been acting like this all along!
Suddenly the campaign of brazen lies and racism will be considered a BAD thing, with Big Media happily glorying in ratings-friendly confrontation with these mysterious usurpers who have TOTALLY UNEXPECTEDLY decided out of the blue to wreck the spirit of America…
Supported by not a few Republicans who will be more than happy to stick in the shiv and cling to their old school roles as the honest good guys who’ve been cast aside by these new creeps. Et tu, McCain? Feel like more tongue baths? They await…
This is big media. They don’t only want money. They want a big dramatic story, and they and their well-analyzed multicultural 2012 audience are being handed one on a silver platter.
I am calling it. If the Romney folks don’t frantically walk this back- Tweety and Soledad will be the trial balloons, mysteriously allowed to get more and more righteous and heroic and to play the role of guardians of the Truth to a bored and credulous audience, who will be told that consuming more media is indispensable patriotic duty, because look- shocking revelations!
Nobody will mention the years of collusion.
You don’t shit on the guy with the bullhorn until AFTER you have taken the bullhorn away from him, lest he go rogue on you and use it against you. This is the Romney forces’ fatal error.
Montysano
Super Genius Noot Gingrich was on Tweety’s show last night, and when called to task about the work-for-welfare lie, said “Well, it’s easy to imagine that
that ni66erPresident Obama might do such a thing”. Tweety just shook his head in amazement.Chris
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Quoted for truth.
Be nice if we could get the general public to agree that the 1% are the problem again. Alas…
LABiker
The media had better just STFU or it’s the crate on the roof of the station wagon for them. And if they shit themselves, they’re going to get the hose.
Dave
@Applejinx:
This. It reminds me of a story I read back in college about the League of Nations when Italy invaded Ethiopia and wanted the League to condone it. The French representative said (and this is a paraphrase) “They want us to eat shit. Fine. We will eat it. But they also want us to say it smells like a rose. That we will not do.”
If Romney and the GOP just kept peddling their crap with a wink and nod to the news, I doubt they’d call them on it. But their insistence on rubbing their lies in the media’s face and almost mocking them about it…that ain’t gonna fly.
LanceThruster
@gene108:
Essential observation.
Imagine if the Senate really was the nation’s most deliberative body, and the fly-over F-ups didn’t keep sending the most embarrassing cross section of their gene pool.
Rommie
I am just grateful that the D convention goes last. They’ll have a week’s worth of The Wingularity, aka Sauron’s Eye in full display to the general public, and that material is pure gold to bury Mittens in the nearest field.
And I’m all for the R’s saying what’s really on their mind. Let them go out in a Yes We Klan blaze of wanna-be glory, and we can watch the Chicago Beatdown live and in color. Remember, they WANTED Ryan as the VP – Obama’s campaign is ready for this final stretch.
Josh G.
This is really nothing new. I’ve come to the conclusion that Reagan was the first postmodern President. Other Presidents before him, of course, told lies on a regular basis – but Reagan was the first who genuinely seemed to think that his repeated false statements were true, and even more so, that they were true because he was saying them. The hypnotic power of his voice was so great that he fooled not only his listeners, but himself. The utter disregard for objective reality in Reagan’s campaigns had no precedent. Remember, this is the guy who thought he had been at the liberation of Buchenwald during World War II, when he actually had spent the entire war in Hollywood.
soonergrunt (nexus 7)
I’m sure someone has already said this, but every time a Dem gets in front of a camera, they need to hammer the point that Romney is a liar with no honor or integrity. Force the press to deal with the issue, “I’m doing your job here, Mr. Lauer.”
Ash Can
Apparently this is now a GOP meme. Courtesy of Charles Johnson at LGF, the National
White SupremacistReview is telling its readers to ignore whatever the fact-checkers say about the GOP convention and its proceedings. (Link goes to LGF, not NRO.) I wonder who will be saying this next. (I’d bet the ranch that it gets mentioned by at least one prime-time speaker tonight.)Haydnseek
@SatanicPanic: …”with the Memphis blues again…”
Linda Featheringill
Well, you know the old saying: There’s no Pravda in Izvestia and no Izvestia in Pravda.
Haydnseek
@The Moar You Know: Hey, if Caligula can do it, why not Mittens?
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know:
God, your FOX vs. [their own!] journalists who reported on Monsanto case is beyond horrible.
This topic should get some followup by BJ’s legally-trained commenters.
and it gets worse — find “Kaplan” and USA Today in this passage:
J.
[Insert voice of Romney supporter Jeff Foxworthy here.] You might be a Republican if… you think facts are things invented by Liberals to make Republicans look bad.
joes527
@Disco:
What do you want him to do? Put out an ad that Mitt is from Mars and is actually the front man for a massive alien invasion in 2013?
Take a deep breath.
The way to combat falsehood is to tell the truth. Will it convince everyone? No. But grow the fuck up.
This is all side show anyway.
Voter turnout and voter suppression are the only things that matter at this point.
Nothing. Else.
hep kitty
You see, it’s the quantity of the lies, not the quality.
Tonal Crow
@jrg:
Ding ding ding ding! The media have lied to us that “both sides do it” so often — and for so long — that they’ve lost most of their credibility. I think much of the public (other than the 27%-ers) longs for journalism that calls a spade a spade. There’s a business opportunity there. Is our media learning yet?
Chris
@Tonal Crow:
I think most of the public still buys the line that the media is “liberal.” Or at least, more people buy that than the reverse.
Applejinx
So here’s the game plan, folks.
First, throw Fox to the wolves. They are ‘Pravda’, and they are slipping and easily mocked.
Secondly, when other parts of the media begin to break ranks and try out the ‘breaking news- Republicans have mysteriously turned evil!’ meme, DO NOT rage at them for not noticing sooner. Knob slobber them, give them treats when they do what you want!
The message is not ‘All big media are whores, they’re reaping the whirlwind they themselves have been sowing for years, fuck ’em’.
The message is, ‘SHOCKING REVELATION: Heroic journalists expose collapse of political system, in gripping must-see television!’
It’s that simple. This is the biggest of big stories, it is happening, you only need to hold your nose and let the media play the hero. It will bring them good ratings, it’s just the sort of drama they long to have since the overall election will not look like a nail-biter.
Co-opt the media by giving them what they want: attention and some ‘adulation’. They are not getting what they want from the Romney people. Romney is treating them like hired help, but he is not their sole owner.
Brachiator
Let’s see. Romney has stubbornly reset the boundaries with respect to non-disclosure of his tax returns. He has kept his big money bundlers anonymous. He has not simply flip flopped, but shamelessly lied and denied his own freakin record.
And he has calmly walked in and not simply repeated, but embraced all the wingnut lies about Obama. He has also, with his hearty Romnoid Semi Human Laugh(tm), embraced the blatant racism about welfare that was first trotted out by Newt and Santorum in this campaign cycle.
The only thing that is surprising is the degree to which Romney has so easily and coldly slipped on the coat of many racist colors. McCain at times seemed distinctly uncomfortable about having to jettison some of his values in grasping for the GOP nomination.
Romney doesn’t give a shit. His heart is colder than Cheney’s.
He’s also betting that a chunk of American voters don’t give a shit either, about anything other than getting Obama out of the White Folks House.
Romney also understands that much of the whining about the media is beside the point. He understands that even if journalists stand on a mountaintop and shout all day long about GOP lies, true believers will simply hightail it to Fox News to be gently comforted and reassured that Romney will take care of them.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
In commie Canuckistan would this not comprise a felony?
ericblair
@Applejinx:
To summarize: the best way to make someone stop sucking your cock is to call her a cocksucker. Romney just did that. Way to go, Your Entitledness.
JPL
@EconWatcher: Well praise the Lord!
Elizabelle
@trollhattan:
It’s a story out of Florida; local FOX TV affiliate. Original case from maybe 2003 or so.
I am curious who was on the Third Circuit that overturned for FOX on appeal. Got to be a lot more to this story.
Hoping BettyCracker or someone else takes interest in digging further.
And yes, Canada — and the UK? — might have stricter press standards.
JPL
@Elizabelle: They are not a news channel. They are an entertainment channel, go figure. The Fox News logo is just a ruse.
trollhattan
@Joseph Nobles:
Wow, mind-numbing rationalization.
“I am a devout Hindu. Now pass me some more of that delicious standing rib.”
Shawn in ShowMe
@joes527:
It’s the only thing that matters in the short term because their candidate really is that bad. But if the GOP ever finds someone who can fake being human, Citizens United puts them in the catbird seat.
I never forsaw the possibility that some MSM outlets would push back against the GOP under any circumstances. But even prostitutes have rules for what they will and won’t do. If the Pubs want the full Orwell treatment they’re going to have to pay extra. Apparently, the Pubs lowballed them in negotiations and the MSM has responded by trolling.
Redshift
An essential feature of modern conservatism is that there are no facts, just different opinions. No matter how much you know, how many years you’ve devoted to understanding something, your statement is just another opinion, no better than mine.
This statement is speaking to people who believe that. It’s not saying “we don’t care about facts, we’ll lie as much as we want” (though that is what they’re doing), it’s saying “if someone is claiming to have facts that show we’re lying, that’s just their opinion, and it’s biased.”
Frankensteinbeck
The fact checkers are screwed. They’ve fallen into the same trap as the rest of journalism. Liberals want them to tell the truth. Conservatives want them to back up conservative spin. Both sides get angry fast when the fact checkers don’t do what they want. Now they’re just another fake journalist.
@Josh G.:
This is why they want Reagan so bad. They’ve been running on his lies for thirty years. Without Reagan to sell them, those lies are dying now.
Dennis G.
@ericblair: Well said.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
You’ll get a bit of a tingle from this.
http://yourlaws.ca/criminal-code-canada/181-spreading-false-news
Of course, Canada isn’t immune from wingnut contamination, dfifting northward.
http://www.article19.org/pages/en/false-news.html
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: I thought so when I read about this way back when. Worse yet, it’s been precedent since 2003 with no successful legal challenges.
Sorry to rain on your day, but there’s a ton of non-Juice reading citizens and some commentors on this thread who think that there’s some kind of legal recourse to the CU-funded maelstrom of lies. There really is not.
Violet
@Applejinx:
Been saying this for awhile now. “Republicans in disarray” is a much better story than the tired old horse race narrative. “Republicans in such disarray that they thumb their noses at the truth” is a nice entry point to the “disarray” story.
Yep. They’re the first ones. If a major media figure–say, a Matt Lauer or Diane Sawyer–starts down this path the dam will have broken. Keep an eye out for it.
Tonal Crow
How can we get Romney into an interview with Terry Gross?
moops
Obama can just buy ads where he tells the truth.
Then the media, in it’s dumb effort of Fair and Balanced will have to report on these ads as a horse-race. Romney says this, Obama says that. Opinions differ. How are things polling ?
Elizabelle
@trollhattan:
Wow.
And Canada enforces that?
(sob)
Sir Nose'D
It is just a matter of time until Abdala Bucaram runs for the presidency on the GOP ticket. Known as “El Loco” in Ecuador, he ran for president in 1996 promising free TVs, free medicine, and free school breakfasts (among other freebies, such as free housing and lower prices generally). Hey, he won. And yet, yet…
The goods never materialized, according to the fact checkers.
Felinious Wench
New tagline.
...now I try to be amused
@Applejinx:
Ashley O’Connor was unprofessional there. Perhaps the Romney campaign will belatedly discover that she’s gay and fire her.
The Romney campaign’s lack of professionalism might prove to be our salvation.
piratedan
so boiled down, the Romney campaign is that eight year old kid in the neighborhood who never got hit by anybody else while playing Army?
Elie
@pseudonymous in nc:
Yes — some of that is good. Too much of it, however, and you end up with two folks just screaming labels at each other. I just dont see that word coming out of Obama’s mouth and I don’t think that it needs to. IMHO it is way more effective to set up the shot and let it be obvious that he is a liar. Romney can barely keep two ideas in his mind at the same time, so he would be truly easy to trip up and make himself look the fool and liar. Obama has already done it to him multiple times. He is just waiting to start up again once their convention is over.
Obama will never have to say the word “LIAR”
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Brokaw, the old doofus, also corrected Jonathan Capehart’s mention of the infamous Pat Buchanan speech. Capehart said it was ’92, Brokaw harrumphed that it was ’96. It was ’92. Condescending is one thing. Condescending and wrong is quite another.
J.D. Rhoades
They know that the vast majority of Americans literally do not know the difference between a fact and an opinion. Prove a wingnut wrong on something, show them that it is objectively not true, and what you’ll get back is a pissy statement that “I’m entitled to my opinion.”
J.D. Rhoades
They know that the vast majority of Americans literally do not know the difference between a fact and an opinion. Prove a wingnut wrong on something, show them that it is objectively not true, and what you’ll get back is a pissy statement that “I’m entitled to my opinion.”
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
I’ve seen it used as an explaination as to, “Why can can never have a Fox News Canada.” Should they repeal the law, I’m sure Rupert can find himself a Roger Ehles.
Violet
@piratedan: I think the Romney campaign is the eight year old kid whose dad ran the company that everyone else’s dad worked for. So the other kids couldn’t be mean to him because he’d tell Daddy, and Daddy would go talk to the other dads who would tell their kids to back off because they were afraid of losing their jobs.
And now Daddy is no longer available to run interference, but Romney campaign keeps treating all the other kids like he is.
japa21
I fully expect the old Truman quote, “We’ll stop telling the truth about you when you stop lying about us” to be repeated several times in Charlotte.
J.D. Rhoades
I want Obama’s response to every single assertion Romney makes in every debate to be prefaced with some version of “first you have to remember this is a person whose campaign admits they’re not going to be constrained by fact checkers.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshift:
OK, who is being the deconstructionist moral relativist now?
Catsy
Mitt Romney will stop enhancing the truth in 3, 2…
Kenneth Almquist
On the one hand, I’m pleased that the Romney campaign is implicitly acknowledging that it can’t win the election by running against Obama’s record.
On the other, I’m frightened that Romney has a chance of winning the election by lying about Obama’s record.
Catsy
@Josh G.: “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”
The Other Chuck
@Villago Delenda Est: It’s always projection with these guys. ALWAYS.
LanceThruster
@japa21:
My sources tell me it was Adlai Stevenson.
LanceThruster
@J.D. Rhoades:
So very true.
My Faux Noise sis would incessantly whimper defensively, “Quit trying to tell me I’m not entitled to my own opinion” when cornered about some BS she’s embraced as fact.
LanceThruster
@Felinious Wench:
Our pants (should we be wearing any…magic or otherwise) may or may not be on fire, but that doesn’t mean that their ignition (or non-ignition), was or wasn’t caused by some fact not in evidence, or evidence that was…not in fact.
We hope this clears up any confusion you may have about our campaign strategy.
priscianusjr
LanceThruster
Though the online anagram builder has over 71,000 hits for “Mitt Romney fvcking liar,” the very first one has a certain je ne sais quoi.
A Flickering Minty Tumor
see: http://wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=mitt+romney+fucking+liar&t=1000&a=n
hep kitty
Whew! That clears that one up. All this time I thought they weren’t going to let their campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.
SiubhanDuinne
@Shawn in ShowMe:
“For want of a tire swing . . . . “
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
I saw what you did there. And I laughed.
CardinalRed
@Disco: and the billion dollars
CardinalRed
@LABiker: that was beautiful
M. Nilsen
Once again, the Republicans reveal themselves to be our time’s most ardent supporters of Postmodernism.