Stenography and accountability
A laudable attempt to fact-check the politicians on TV
Stenography and accountability
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
Kudos to ABC News for a great idea. Its Sunday morning chat show has hired some astute fact-checkers who will determine, week by week, whether the guest politicians are telling the truth or lying like Pinocchio.
The Washington press corps has long been restrained by its own "objectivity" standards, which too often allow politicians to dissemble without fear of being corrected. Under these traditional rules, journalists are simply supposed to report what is said, and leave it up to the readers and viewers to determine truth or falsity. Politicians have long appreciated this tradition, which has often reduced journalists to the status of stenographers - switching off their brains, out of concern that truth-squadding might be criticized as "bias."
Fortunately, the people at ABC's This Week have decided that the old rules are not sufficient, that true "objectivity" requires holding the politicians accountable by proactively comparing their words to the empirical record. Which is why they've tapped PolitiFact.com, a Pulitzer Prizewinning website based at The St. Peterburg Times, to scour the Sunday remarks for evidence of BS.
Seven hours after the show this past Sunday, the website concluded that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had uttered a half-truth about nuclear policy under George W. Bush, and that GOP Senator John Kyl had told the truth when he said that then-Senator Barack Obama once tried to filibuster a Bush high court nominee. All told, it was a quiet debut for the online watchdogs, who will undoubtedly have meatier fare in the months ahead.
This development is long overdue, given the plethora of unchallenged verbal bamboozlement, especially on the Sunday shows. To cite just one recent example: South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, the Republican who famously said last year that breaking Obama on health care would be his "Waterloo," appeared on the ABC show this past January and insisted, "I did not want this to be the president's Waterloo" - and the host, Terry Moran, didn't challenge him.
On occasions too numerous to mention, back when the Bush administration was selling the Iraq war, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld would show up on Meet the Press and spin like tops, and not even Tim Russert could slow them down. And the print reporters were typically no better. During the summer of '06, Rumsfeld told a Senate commitee that, with respect to Iraq, "I've never painted a rosy picture...and you'd have a dickens of a time trying to find instances when I've been excessively optimistic" - yet even though this assertion was a lie easily refutable via 30 seconds on Google (among many examples, here's Rumsfeld, April 2003: "It could last six days, six weeks, I doubt six months"), The New York Times and Washington Post didn't even report his false assertion, much less challenge it. AP and the NBC Nightly News reported the assertion, but didn't challenge it.
We're not just talking about Republicans, of course. Bamboozlement has always been a bipartisan practice. I well remember an episode in September 2007, when Hillary Clinton was running for president. She was trying to fend off the embarrassing news that one of her major fundraising guys, businessman Norman Hsu, had been jailed as a felon. She had been forced to refund $850,000 to 260 donors - the largest chunk of money ever returned by a candidate - and she was asked on Meet the Press whether this scandal had undercut her bid to be the candidate of change.
She told Russert: "Well, I’m very much in favor of public financing, which is the only way to really change a lot of the problems that we have in our campaign finance system. You know, as soon as my campaign found out what I and dozens of other campaigns did not know, that he was a fugitive from justice, we took action. And out of an abundance of caution, we did return any contribution that we could in any way, no matter how indirect, link to him. And I believe that we’ve done what we needed to do based on the information as soon as it came to our attention....We have got to solve this (problem of big money in politics). It is not good for our political system. It is certainly not the way that most people I know who run for office and want to try to do something good for their constituents and their country want to be spending all of their time. And we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to address it, and there has to be a way that public financing becomes the law of the land."
Russert, who was famously tough on his guests, failed on this occasion to challenge the Clinton assertions that contradicted empirical fact. She had actually responded to the Hsu scandal with all the speed of a turtle trundling through molasses, and she was slow to return the Hsu money (if you're really interested, I said so at the time); more importantly, contrary to her claim on the show that she was "very much in favor of public financing," the truth was that as senator she had never expended time or energy on that issue, and that, indeed, she was the first-ever Democratic presidential candidate to skip the public financing rules and privatize her primary campaign. Yet Russert didn't bring up any of that.
Not to rattle on about ancient history, but this is why more fact-checking is essential, and why the ABC News experiment is so worthy. In defense of journalists, it's often difficult to challenge a whopper in real time, if only because it's nearly impossible to prepare in advance for every conceivable whopper. Still, when I think of the traditional objectivity standard, I harken back to the time when it was most egregiously abused, during the '50s heyday of red-baiting Senator Joe McCarthy.
On slow news days, reporters would bug McCarthy for news, and he would happily oblige, by claiming that he had just uncovered 60 or 80 or 100 or whatever number of communists in the State Department or in the Army or wherever. The reporters would write up the latest charge as objective news, simply because a prominent senator had said it. Finally, as a lot of innocents' careers were bring wrecked, and some were being driven to suicide, a New York Times editorial sought to defend the traditional objectivity standard: "It is difficult, if not impossible, to ignore charges by Senator McCarthy...The remedy lies with the reader."
Actually, no. As the ABC News' hiring decision rightly demonstrates, the remedy lies with the journalists.
Hey, maybe a record, but this is the 2d day in a row I'm in synch with DP. Nice column.— pj katauskas- Man there are some seriously dopey liberals on here.— tjm333126
- Go Chris Christie go:) ***Christie added that $820 million in state aid cuts, primarily for school lunches, art teachers and language classes, among other programs, wouldn't have to go if the teachers union would agree to a one-year pay freeze and to pay 1.5 percent of their salary toward their medical, dental and vision benefits. "That would save $800 million and wipe out all but $20 million of our cuts, and there'd be no layoffs, there'd be no program cuts, and all of the stuff is about the union's greed rather than putting the kids first," Christie said. He said 11 local unions agreed to the deal, but the central leadership won't approve the freeze and contributions. "This is a union boss problem ... clear and simple and here's the proof of it: If they are so concerned about the $750 a year that teachers have to pay, you know, their dues that they make every teacher pay are $730 a year. Just about the same amount. It raises $130 million a year for the teachers union. How about they just try and get by on the $130 million they got last year, waive the dues for this year and then their teachers would be held harmless?" he asked.*** http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/13/christie-undeterred-teachers-union-refusal-local-leader-prayed-death/— NEPhilly
- NEPhilly : first of all, kudos to Governor Christie. I wish there was a way to force/speed up school distric and municipality consolidation in this state. But upon reading this, and doing some simple math, it seems like there's 178,000 members of the teachers union. Doesn't that seem like waaaay to many for a state NJ's size? There were (projected) to be 1,370,000 students in NJ public schools for this year. That ratio seems way off (are private school teachers part of the same union?) . From the DOE website - NJ had 2500 schools spread among 591 school districts. 591! That's the crux of the problem. Too many schools. Too many school districts. The median teacher's salary was $57,465. The median "Educational Support Services" (whatever that is) salary was $70,296. Median "Administrators and Supervisors", $112,565. "Principals" - $113,769. And "District Superintendents" - $158,400. Need to get rid of some of these school districts ! .... http://www.state.nj.us/education/data/fact.htm— still_independent
- still, I agree with you, but he can't even get the union leadership to agree to freeze their salaries for a year (mine has been frozen for 2 years already:( & pay a very small part of their healthcare costs, let alone close some schools & consolidate some districts as that would cost the union jobs. Here is what Christie had to say at the end of the article, ***Christie responded that the union's solution is to impose a 1.75 percent increase on taxpayers earning more than $400,000 to make their state taxes 10.75 percent. He noted that of the 63,000 filers who have incomes over $400,000, more than half are small businesses. He added that the state's system is unsustainable because teachers who contribute $124,000 during their lifetime for their pensions get $3.3 million in pension payments and $500,000 in health care benefits in return. "That's why we're broke," he said. "These are small things that will mean a lot in terms of helping the budget deficit and we have gotten absolute refusal from the state teachers union."***— NEPhilly
- Still Independent- My taxes will go up $ 1500 per year if not more thanks to our new school budget. As if $ 12500 per year in property taxes isn't enough my local municipality is taking it upon itself to whack us with even higher taxes. We have a school just for kindergarten, one for just 1st and 2nd, another school for 3rd, 4th, and 5th, and a separate school for just 6 th graders. Utter madness is what it is. I believe Christie will have a ballot initiative that says taxes can only be raised 2.5% per year so the schools are going to get what they can while they can. What amuses me is that they never can think of anything to cut or sell so that taxes are not raised. And our teachers just got a 4% pay increase retroactive to last year. Rather amusing considering the private sector is taking the salaries in the opposite direction. Add to this the fact that I'll get walloped again at the federal level thanks to Obama's policies.
- To stonemans reply in last thread: To pj katauskas: "Pres. Obama has been in office less than 18 mos. and has already done more positive work than Georgie did in 8 yrs. Re: Nuclear agreements w/ most of the world;" So you think Bush did nothing in his 8 years. Did you ever hear about the 2002 SORT treaty Bush signed with Russia to reduce both countries deployed stockpiles to not more than 2,200 warheads each. This will reduce our nuclear stockpile by over 2/3. Guess you missed that. So far most of what Barry has done is to have agreements to have agreements. We will see what he really accomplishes as Pres some time in the future.— Mike Welbourn
- Liberals caught posing as tea partiers.................http://www.examiner.com/x-35976-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m4d12-Liberals-caught-posing-as-Tea-Partiers
- I predict that Obama will be proven to be a liar when, starting in 2013, many taxpayers earning less than $200K (forget about the $250K lie) will see their medical expense threshold go from 7.5% to 10% of AGI. I predict that Fernando, like the Sixers, will re-define mediocrity in 2010-2011.— A Friend
- NEPhilly, I completely agree with you on this one. Not being willing to help out in a time of crisis is just a very bad attitude -- and not good PR for the teachers' union. Here in Georgia, we're all taking 6 furlough days (a pay cut) and have sustained a 10 percent increase in our contributions to health care insurance. Mind you, nobody was making anything to begin with, so these are very painful. But what are we going to do? I'd rather have a job.— NigeltheMastiff
- Re Obama and the nuclear security summit: Obama is just the kind of leader this country needs. In addition to the issue of nuclear security, he's passed health care reform and is working toward finance reform and has made use safer from terrorism. He wants to tackle immigration and climate change. If Americans were smart, they'd all get behind this guy and work to make America stronger and better. Instead we have the Party of Fools working to undermine him at every turn, rather than working in a bipartisan manner. Contrary to popular, conventional wisdom, I don't think the Repubs are going to do as well in the mid-terms as most thing. The people on the right aren't too bright, but we still have a large reservoir of moderates who can't be reached by Fox News and its lackeys.— Djoko Pritza
- Tax day is fast approaching. Can I just not pay under the grounds that I am pro choice. ergo. I am choosing not to pay my taxes. Is that allowable? How come Obama didn't give his Nobel Peace Prize winnings to the Federal Government instead of a Private Charity? Is Talvenada really writing baseball articles or is he flagelating in his mom's basement with a tin foil hat on his head?— Alvenada
- al, you miss Tal don't you:) djoko, the Party of Fools will see you in November, just don't go in hiding for a couple of months afterwards:) nigel, I almost fell off my chair when you agreed with me, but I can see this subject is right in your wheelhouse:) Gov. Christie must be onto something then:)— NEPhilly
- Djoko - The nuclear security summit will produce the same thing as the climate summit. Nothing. Only people that aren't too bright (Djoko) confuse activity with actions or symbolism over substance.— Mike Welbourn
- Nigel... Wish the world was populated with people like you. I think if the teachers turned out a better product they would have better stead in this arguement. My second wife was a teacher and all I heard was complaining as soon as the school year opened from her friends. They all talked a good game when discussing the plight of blacks, but I did more as a cop on a 4-12tour in North Philly than they did in their entire teaching careers. Maybe you should start counselling the teacher's unions, teach them to really be public servants.— Phil Checchia
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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