Republicans Lie Three Times as Often as Democrats

nice to have a number (4.00 / 3)

I have been convinced that they are a bunch of liars for a long time, but it's nice to have that opinion confirmed!

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. -Churchill

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by: julie @ Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 16:49:18 PM UTC

I think the empirical evidence is in: (4.00 / 4)

both sides are not equal liars, and their lies are not equal.

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by: Osborne Ink @ Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 17:01:28 PM UTC

Exactly. But the lazy media does this false equivalence by simply presenting both sides (4.00 / 2)

From the original article, quoting Politifact Editor Bill Adair.

"The media in general has shied away from fact checking to a large extent because of fears that we'd be called biased, and also because I think it's hard journalism. It's a lot easier to give the on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand kind of journalism and leave it to readers to sort it out. But that isn't good enough these days. The information age has made things so chaotic, I think it's our obligation in the mainstream media to help people sort out what's true and what's not."

It isn't bad journalism to present both sides of an argument, but it is bad journalism to only present the competing arguments and leave out the objective facts.  We have seen too much of that in recent times.

Probably the worst offense of this type has occured in media coverage of the climate change issue where the conclusions of literally hundreds of scientists in peer reviewed publications are presented as the no more credible than the assertions of a handful of naysayers whose conclusions are funded by Big Energy.

Work harder and work smarter!

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by: mooncat @ Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 17:22:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

FOX NEWS INSIDER: "Stuff Is Just Made Up" (4.00 / 3)

Add to this a Eric Boehlert's Media Matters piece today from a FOX insider:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102100007 

 

"This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. This is about the whole system being against us." - an Occupy protester at Obama's Des Moines office.

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by: Dardango @ Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 18:15:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Fox News is an oxymoron (4.00 / 2)

They are the most prolific purveyor of misinformation -- made up stuff -- on television and have been for 15+ years.  On radio Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity get the honor, pretty much in that order.

Think about how easy it would be to win arguments if you got to make up your own facts and no one challenged them.  That's what Republicans, with a big assist from Fox and the rest of the Right Wing Media, have done for years and years.  They don't fight fair and the referees are asleep under the bleachers.

Work harder and work smarter!

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by: mooncat @ Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 18:57:01 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The sad state of the media (4.00 / 1)

The people in charge of newsrooms these days might have come straight from managment training at McDonald's.

I'm seeking advice today about an ethical dilemma being posed this week to me and to thousands of others who work for America's largest newspaper chain.

We're being asked to "track our time" minute-by-minute.

...

The tens of thousands of employees in the nation's largest newspaper chain, it is assumed, will appreciate that they are now competitors in a game of musical chairs. "Track your time," means be prepared to shoulder others aside to claim for yourself one of the remaining seats when the music stops. It means that one must no longer view one's co-workers as co-workers. One must no longer view them as members of one's own team, but as competitors -- as the enemy. "Track your time" means you are no longer working with a team of co-workers to perform a shared task, but that you are now working against those former teammates for the sole task of keeping your job.

I do not believe that the task of producing a newspaper can be accomplished by a group of people set against each other in that way. I do not believe that any workplace can function like that. Glengarry Glen Ross wasn't intended to be a management guidebook either.

 

Work harder and work smarter!

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by: mooncat @ Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 19:58:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well said (4.00 / 2)

"This is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. This is about the whole system being against us." - an Occupy protester at Obama's Des Moines office.

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by: Dardango @ Thu Feb 10, 2011 at 23:43:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Politics needs a "Watson" (4.00 / 2)

 It should be mandatory that every time a politician speaks, his/her words are ran through a "Watson" computer (The Jeopardy playing computer) and the results displayed immediately. Not only would it clean up politics, debates would become top-notch entertainment.

 I wish Watson would have been invented sooner. Just imagine:

 Bush: Iraq has WMDs.

 Watson: Impossible. The only WMDs they had were used in the 80s with the leftovers destroyed in the 90s. Invading Iraq is a very stupid idea. Watson recommends Bush step down as president. :-D

October 2012 was the 332nd consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last month with below-average temperature was February 1985. - N.O.A.A.

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by: Dragontide @ Fri Feb 11, 2011 at 00:02:46 AM UTC