Tag: fact-checking

Since the Republican establishment has spent the last 20 years building a media infrastructure that supports lying, making the mainstream press cower against calling lies what they are. But the press is sick of being relegated to a press release transcription service, and is getting tired of being pushed around. “Fact checking” – especially in light of the brazen lying of the Romney-Ryan campaign – has become quite a thing, and the conservatives and Republicans are getting upset about it. They’re trying to label “fact checking” as somehow partisan. As Oliver Willis writes, 

For the media to note without equivocation that “water is wet” is a clear violation of the conservative-generated rules. The press must couch such assertions as “many Democrats and liberals say that ‘water is wet’” is the preferred construction. That way, Republican and conservative news consumers can simply dismiss what used to be objective fact as “Democrat talking points,” then turn to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to fill their thinkholes with ignorance juice.

All this sets up a great video of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria taking on conservative hostage-taker Grover Norquist, one of the most detestable ideologues in the country. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9RYRFoRit8]