AP’s Romney ‘Fact Check,’ Part 1: Candidate’s ‘Economy Is Worse’ Claim Is Supported by Mountain of Facts
First let's get the obvious out of the way. It's not a secret to many readers here that yours truly's opinion (and not that of NewsBusters or MRC) is that GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney would be a completely unacceptable candidate. For those who didn't know that, now you do. Nonetheless, when Romney says things which are either definitely or arguably true and Associated Press “fact checkers” Calvin Woodward and Jim Kuhnhenn make a point of asserting otherwise as if they get the final word, a defense is necessary. In their “fact check” piece , the AP pair, with the help of two other contributors, disputed four statements Romney made in his campaign kickoff speech. By my count, Romney is definitely right on two, one item is a split decision, and the wire service should be considered correct in just one instance. The most important of AP's “fact check” errors is its headlined determination (“Romney miscasts economy in GOP debut”) that Romney was wrong when he said the following: “When he (Barack Obama) took office, the economy was in recession. He made it worse. And he made it last longer.” The AP pair's counterargument is truly pathetic: The gross domestic product, the prime measure of economic strength, shrank by a severe 6.8 percent annual rate before Obama became president. The declines eased after he took office and economic growth, however modest, resumed.
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on June 5, 2011. Filed under