"the epic dishonesty of Romney’s campaign is finally prompting something of a debate..."

[babylonsister]

Call out the lies right in your headlines
By Greg Sargent


This doesn’t happen every day, but good for the Los Angeles Times for calling out the ubiquitous falsehood about Obama supposedly waiving welfare reform’s work requirement right in its headline:

Rick Santorum repeats inaccurate welfare attack on Obama

As Kevin Drum says: “it’s about time reporters and copy editors started putting this stuff front and center.” And, indeed, the LA Times does this, in its headline and with this highly placed sentence: “In fact, Obama did not waive the work requirement.”

The lie debunked here, of course, is central to Mitt Romney’s campaign; it is airing in ads in multiple swing states that are reportedly backed by heavy buys, and Romney and his surrogates have been repeating it in one forum after another for weeks on end.

I didn’t expect this, but the epic dishonesty of Romney’s campaign is finally prompting something of a debate among media types about whether what we’re seeing here is unprecedented — and how to appropriately respond to it. This debate is focused partly on whether there’s a racial dimension to this attack. But it’s also about (as I noted here yesterday) what the media should do when one campaign has decided that there is literally no set of boundaries or standards it needs to follow when it comes to the veracity of the core assertions at the heart of its entire argument.

snip//

As Steve Benen and James Fallows keep arguing, this poses a test for the news media. What would happen if a nontrivial number of articles and broadcasts about the welfare lie and other Romney falsehoods called out his dishonesty right in their headlines, prominently featuring unequivocal declarations (not mealy-mouthed he-said-she-said nonsense) that Romney is misleading people and has done so again and again and again, despite knowing the truth?

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/call-out-the-lies-right-in-your-headlines/2012/08/29/6e263346-f1fe-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_blog.html

[progressivebydesign]

1. Romney's past opponents say that he is RUTHLESS with his lies... scorched Earth campaign.

His own campaign people said the other day that 'fact checkers' are NOT going to drive the campaign. In other words, we are going to lie, and we have hundreds of millions of dollars from the sacks of shit like Koch Brothers, to repeat that lie over and over again, like the "Big Lie" tactic. They simply don't give a fuck, and no one has been calling them on it.

And now they're starting to call them on it. Like the bullshit "you didn't build that" which was a Cut and Paste job from a speech. Wasn't even a fucking gaffe. It was edited into a LIE. The Media may be getting fed up with their shit. But the Romney camp remains undeterred in their bald faced lies. They just don't care about the truth.

And today with Ann Romney talking about how "hispanics need to get over their biases" and vote for Romney... it's like they have this bizarro universe and they figure that they have enough money to win, even if it means lying and being disingenuous assholes to do it. The MSM is the only hope of stopping them. We simply will never have enough money or air time to counter their lies, and the Fox news PR arm of the RNC.

[Jamaal510]

14. "Hispanics need to get over their biases"

Damn...did she really say that?? How idiotic...she must not want her husband to win. Many people understand that she and her husband are elitist buttholes, but they're not supposed to be that direct about it!

[silvershadow]

15. Well, those fact checkers are a scorched-earth truth squad.

Besides we have weeks to go.

[Berlum]

16. A sure sign of occult Republican machinations

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

2. That is what newspapers used to do.

Report the facts and let the reader decide what was going on...........

[Cali_Democrat]

5. What we're seeing from the Romney Campaign is unprecedented

A candidate lying again and again...saying things that have been completely debunked by every fact-checking organization. The Romney Campaign then sticks their finger in the eye of the media and says they don't need no stinkin' fact checkers.

Romney is essentially telling the entire media to fuck off...that ads are working and he doesn't give a rats ass if they're truthful or not.

I don't think it's anything we've seen before. It's very new. The media doesn't know how to respond.

[silvershadow]

13. Finally? They are doing their job?

Let's hope it continues!

[Cha]

3. Yeah, what would happen? It

wouldn't be a Horse Race anymore..that's for sure. And, we know they want one.

Thanks for this, babylonsistah~

[BelieveMe3]

4. Headline Circa 1974

I think in times past they would have humiliated Romney:

"Romney continues to mislead with Welfare Ads. Says Facts Don't Matter".

Where are Woodward and Bernstein when you need them??

[babylonsister]

6. NYT weighs in also...

http://egbertowillies.com/2012/08/29/how-the-republicans-built-it-on-liesconvention-puts-3rd-world-propaganda-to-shame/
How the Republicans Built It? On Lies–Convention Puts 3rd World Propaganda To Shame

[Blue Idaho]

7. How can America trust anyone with such a careless disregard for the truth to hold elected office?

Why do we think a pathological liar will suddenly change his stripes after they take the oath of office?

They won't.

[babylonsister]

8. He won't change, but Americans by and large

don't pay much attention; maybe that will change, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Blue Idaho]

9. Isn't that the problem with a democracy?

We tend to get the government we deserve?

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

10. Different times, different lies, same old fascism.

[stopbush]

11. Romney's lies are THE story. Why doesn't the media get that?

[Jeff Murdoch]

12. Oh, they get it.

It's just that they have a vested financial interest to keep it close.

After all, more people will watch/read about a close race down to the wire, as opposed to a blowout.

[andym]

17. Things have changed from the 60's and 70's-- blatant lies would be called out

Lying often had to be more subtle back then-- like Nixon's secret nonexistent plan to end the war. But misleading attacks became the norm in the 80s. Witness Lee Atwater's campaign against Mike Dukakis. Of course unsubstantiated rumor does have a long history. Jefferson was accused of being an atheistic Jacobin agent of the French Revolution. Still, Romney shows particularly bad tendencies when it comes to distortion-- taking Obama's repetition of McCain's statement that the economy was fine and then attributing it to Obama, or the Welfare attack above.

[Dustlawyer]

18. In answer to the question at the end above, it would give the rest of us the ability to shove these

lies down the throats of the most rabid Repugs and ask them if this is the kind of Presidential election they want to run in the future. A future where both sides just engage in a tall tale contest every 4 years and none of us knows anything about our candidates except they can lie better than the other, because believe me, Dems would be forced to do the same thing or lose. We would be an even bigger laughing stock in the World and our downward spiral would be terminal. It is about time the media do their jobs, but it would only be because the sheer magnitude of the lies exposé their being bought off by the other corporate titans and the 1%!

[Waiting For Everyman]

19. A great piece on the same thing by Charles Pierce in Esquire...

On RNC Opening Night, Republicans Dare to Build a Lie

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021224273

He goes into how the entire convention message of all the various speakers is constructed of intentional lies. One phrase from it... he calls the Repubs "in search of the Event Horizon on utter bullshit".