Newest smear campaign by Issa - misquoting Eleanor Holmes-Norton
"In today’s example, Issa’s henchmen released an 18 second clip of Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) apparently claiming that the people don’t have a right to know about what goes on in the government. Dutifully, the right wing Washington Examiner – in its most recent partisan incarnation after failing even as a free handout newspaper – wrote up Issa’s video and writes that Norton “angrily sputtered” during the hearing (conservative media loves to characterize statements from female politicians like this).
An eagle-eyed viewer sent me the longer, 5-minute plus version of events and as usual, the Issa/Examiner characterization falls apart. First, even though Del. Norton expressly notes in the video that the committee is overstepping its boundaries in a “separation of powers” situation, the Examiner headline makes it appear as if Norton is referring to all government oversight.
In fact, Del. Norton was saying that separation of powers does not allow the House to willy-nilly investigate immediate presidential advisers, and pointed out that the White House is not a Department/agency with which the House has much greater oversight latitude towards, absolutely not what the desperate and directionless Issa claimed she was saying. Norton went on to point out that Issa and company are engaged in a “fishing expedition,” a claim that somehow didn’t make the 18 second cut.
This is how it often operates within the right wing bubble. They ran an entire presidential campaign based on this technique, again and again taking excerpts of Democrats like President Obama and Vice President Biden out of context, characterizing what they said, when often the words expressed were the opposite sentiment. They play these videos in rotation on Fox News and pass them around online on social media and blogs, trying to create an alternate reality. They are very good at it.
http://thedailybanter.com/2014/07/watch-darrell-issa-washington-examiner-team-lie-democrat/
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