As I was writing last night’s critique of Politifraud’s sorry ruling on whether the U.S. tax codes contains incentives for businesses to move jobs overseas I noted that there were a few people who were listed as having been interviewed in right hand column that were nevertheless not quoted in Politifraud’s main analysis. The very […]
Pulitzer Prize-winning embarrassment Politifact decided to wade into the deep water by analyzing President Obama’s claim that the federal tax code has “loopholes that are giving incentives for companies that are shipping jobs overseas.” It’s another classic bit of analysis where Politifraud reaches far and wide to expand the claim in question so that they […]
Doing his best Kevin Bacon impression while the Middle East burned wasn’t enough to earn President Barack Obama the Washington Post’s “Worst Week in Washington Award.” But doing his best impression of an empty chair at Wednesday night’s debate was. The Post’s ostensibly unbiased reporter who gives the award each week (usually to a Republican) […]
Several years ago, the blogfather, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, suggested that I be hired at The New York Times to replace outgoing Public Editor Byron Calame. Fellow newsman Don Surber opined that I would be too tough a grader. He was undoubtedly right. It’s now been three years since I left (or was invited to […]
Last week I mentioned briefly that The New York Times apparently wasn’t feeling the need to correct a reference in an obituary that referred to the famous “Napalm girl” photo that won a Pulitzer Prize during the Vietnam War. The village had been mistakenly napalmed by a American-built plane flown by the South Vietnamese Air […]
The first night of broadcasting from the Republican National Convention provided an unexpected bounty of outrageous media bias. About a year ago, I filled out all the forms to be put in Cal Poly’s part time teaching pool. One of the classes I thought that I could teach was “Media Ethics.” (How can you teach […]
National Review in an unsigned editorial posted today lays out yet more reasons why the self-appointed watchdogs at Politifact can’t be trusted. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but there’s one part I want to highlight and then elaborate on. PolitiFact’s other arguments are that Medicare spending will continue to rise and that […]
Sadly, the longer I’ve been out of journalism, the more my respect for journalists wanes. When I was sitting in a newsroom 5 days a week, I saw the work they produced was not always fair; it was not always complete; it was not always accurate. But at the same time, I interacted with those […]
Politifraud did it again this week. Americans for Tax Reform came out with a press release linked to the Olympic fever pointing out that for those athletes that find themselves in to top tax bracket this year, each gold medal will cost them up to $9,000 in taxes. Note the “up to” and “top tax […]
The hits just keep on coming. First, somebody at Politifact just learned a new word after reading Mark Twain’s autobiography. In his 1906 autobiography Mark Twain wrote "figures often beguile me" in describing their persuasive ability to mislead. John Robitaille, a 2010 Republican candidate for governor in Rhode Island, cited a beguiling statistic when he […]