The Media and Bain

[ProSense]

The Media and Bain

by Armando

Despite concerted attempts by the Media and its "factcheckers" to dismiss the Bain story, Mitt Romney has blown it so badly that it is now the Media issue of the campaign. While Romney is clearly suffering badly under the Obama onslaught on Bain (mostly I submit, due to his own political incompetence -- how in blazes does he expect to distance himself from Bain - the company he founded, owned and ran for 25 years? The very company that is basically his "economic" credential? Incredible political incompetence), so too are the "factcheckers", who have become subjects of ridicule and lampooning at this point.

The tipping point was the Boston Globe story on Bain's SEC's filings from 1999 to 2002, which listed Romney as the CEO, Chairman of the Board and sole stockholder of the company while earning at minimum, $100,000 a year for serving as Bain CEO. Since then other articles and information have come out that pretty much point to Romney having a continuing involvement with Bain during that period. Let me say that that is as it should be given Romney's retention of the titles mentioned above. If he wasn't involved, one would have to question Romney's basic competence. But for whatever reason, Romney has chosen to lie about his role in Bain from the 1999 to 2002 period, making the story much bigger than it would have been -- it now becomes about Romney's character as well as his policies (See Krugman for why discussion of Bain by the Obama campaign makes sense in the larger political narrative regarding the GOP-Romney policy of taking from the poor and the middle class to give more to the rich.)

A somewhat surprising casualty of the Bain story is the "factcheckers", who look like complete fools (or worse.) In particular, Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post, who has been bombarded with ridicule for his assertion that the Bain SEC filings describing Romney as CEO, Chairman of the Board and sole stockholder as not being relevant to whether Romney was involved with Bain. It's gotten so bad that Kessler wrote a personal defense of his writings on the subject:

It’s not often that one of my columns gets more than 5,000 comments, many of them angry. I tried responding via Twitter and various e-mail exchanges but eventually gave up because I was overwhelmed. My analysis was also roasted on the web by various people I often admire, and the Huffington Post rewrote my column to highlight exclusive material that they thought I had played down. My best friend from third grade even sent me a message on Facebook saying I “was carrying the Republicans’ water.”

It was that kind of day!

I always value informed critiques. Given the many comments, I will try to make a general response.

The most amusing part of his "general response" is this:

For some readers, this may not be important. He is listed as chief executive in SEC documents, he hired the people at Bain, and so they might believe he bears responsibility for these deals. End of story. But that’s really an opinion, not a fact. (Emphasis supplied.)

Actually, that's a fact, not an opinion, as a legal matter. Kessler's actual argument is HIS OPINION that even though Romney was legally responsible for Bain decisions from 1999 to 2002, there is no evidence that Romney actually made any Bain decisions in that period.

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/15/1110139/-The-Media-and-Bain

They're not factcheckers. They offer up opinions. They do no research. Kessler even implied that additional research on the topic was an inconvenience: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002940773

[Spazito]

1. Kessler lost whatever credibility he might have had when...

he doubled down on this. "End of story", Mr. Kessler? I don't think so, I don't think so at all. Unlike Mr. Kessler, I understand this is my OPINION which does NOT qualify as fact.

[rufus dog]

2. The best thing about Baingate

Is that Team Obama backed the media into a corner, they tried to gloss over it quickly but failed. So now they are forced to ask Republicans tough questions.

[DCKit]

3. Isn't this really all about the outsourcing and closing down factories by Bain post 1999?

Seems to me he chose to lie about it, rather than let it become an issue, and that made it the issue.

[ProSense]

5. Yeah,

"Isn't this really all about the outsourcing and closing down factories by Bain post 1999?"

...he chose to lie about outsourcing and it became the issue. The lies escalated and the SEC filings surfaced (quirk) and now outsourcing isn't the only issue.

Tangled web and all that!

[BumRushDaShow]

4. The dumbass from the Washington Post

needs to not be referenced as a "fact checker" but as a corporate shiller.

Retract it.

I am glad he has been called on it because Rmoney continues to go around citing this idiot as "proof".

[chieftain]

6. I've written the Post Ombundsman asking that Kessler be removed from the column.

I thought before the Bain explosion his column had become silly and worthless. But his attack on Obama goes way to far. His continued clinging to a view that is belied not only by the Globe, Mother Jones and Talking Points Memo but by reporting of his own paper is stunningly stubborn and wrong-headed.
The damage done to the "fact-checking" function is immeasurable. The fact that he has put the Post in the position of being quoted in an ad calling the President of the United States a liar marks the low point that a formerly great paper has sunk.