For those of you sleeping under a rock on the moon, the Vice Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin happened last night. As usual, various media outlets play the post-debate fact check game.
And, as usual, the piss-poor quality of the traditional corporate media's "fact-checking" stands in stark contrast to that of independent -- and, who'd've thunk it, liberal -- media like ThinkProgress .
In the most stunning example of false equivalence I have seen to date, the AP "fact-checks" Palin alongside Biden, without naming a single misstatement of the truth on Biden's part. Behold the AP's stunning idea of fact-checking a Democrat, below the fold.
Note with stunning ease that none of the AP's "fact-checks" on Biden amount to genuine fact-checks:
BIDEN: Complained about "economic policies of the last eight years" that led to "excessive deregulation."
THE FACTS: Biden voted for 1999 deregulation that liberal groups are blaming for part of the financial crisis today. The law allowed Wall Street investment banks to create the kind of mortgage-related securities at the core of the problem now. The law was widely backed by Republicans as well as by Democratic President Clinton, who argues it has stopped the crisis today from being worse.
Of course, Biden's vote for the Gramm-Leach Act in 1999 has nothing to do with Biden's contention that the economic policies of the last 8 years have led to deregulation -- nor does the fact that Bill Clinton has supported that idiotic bill.
Next:
BIDEN: Warned that Republican presidential candidate John McCain's $5,000 tax credit to help families buy health coverage "will go straight to the insurance company."
THE FACTS: That's not surprising — the money is meant to pay for health insurance. The Obama campaign tried to capitalize on the candidates' health care exchange by issuing an ad Friday contending that the Republicans can't explain "the McCain health tax."
Okay, so the AP agrees with Biden's statement. Again, not a fact-check.
Next:
BIDEN: Said McCain supports tax breaks for oil companies, and "wants to give them another $4 billion tax cut."
THE FACTS: Biden is repeating a favorite saw of the Obama campaign, and it's misleading. McCain supports a cut in income taxes for all corporations, and doesn't single out any one industry for that benefit.
The AP does not refute Biden's claim (as they would have to for this to be a genuine fact-check), nor do they establish why it's misleading to state a factual detail about one of McCain's policy proposals.
Next:
BIDEN: "As a matter of fact, John recently wrote an article in a major magazine saying that he wants to do for the health care industry — deregulate it and let the free market move — like he did for the banking industry."
THE FACTS: Biden and Obama have been perpetuating this distortion of what McCain wrote in an article for the American Academy of Actuaries. McCain, laying out his health plan, only referred to deregulation when saying people should be allowed to buy health insurance across state lines. In that context, he wrote: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
Again, where's the fact-check? Where's the "distortion"? The AP seems to think that the most forgiving (and naive) view of John McCain's statement -- that he only meant rolling back regulations on buying insurance "across state lines" -- is the way we ought to interpret McCain's statement. But even on that interpretation, McCain's advocacy for "opening up the... market to more vigorous nationwide competition" just is advocating greater deregulation. Furthermore, McCain directly states that something like the deregulation of the banking industry is what we ought to be doing in the health insurance industry. Obviously, there have not been rules in place about whether or not you can bank "across state lines."
To the AP's credit, the article does pick up on a number of Palin's very real lies and distortions. But the article leaves out plenty others -- in what I can only assume is a misguided attempt at "equal time." So, not only did the AP unfairly drag Biden into Palin's muck, but they self-censored to avoid reporting the whole truth.
AP, consider yourself fact-checked.
Cross-posted at HERE.am.