Checking the fact-checkers: FAIL

There was a time when the Associated Press was a respected news organization. You could rely on them to report, accurately and impartially, what was going on and leave opinion to the editorial pages. Obviously, the current, insidious rightward tilt of the AP proves that those days are gone.

Calvin Woodward of the AP steps to the plate and lines one sharply to deep right field today with his so-called "fact check" of the president's news conference last night. The thing is, Woodward's "claims" and "facts" have, well, no fucking connection whatsoever.

I don't want to reproduce the entire article here (of course you get linky goodness instead), but I'll try to summarize the salient points. That is, I would, if the points Woodward tries to make pertained in any substantive way to what the president actually said. But I'll give it a shot anyway ...

First, the president's quote:

"We will recover from this recession. But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other, that's when we succeed."

Now an excerpt of Woodward's allegedly responsive "facts:"

No one really knows when the recession will end. But Obama's own budget forecasts the recession will continue through this year but with a relatively shallow 1.2 percent decline in the gross domestic product.

Then, the budget predicts solid 3.2 percent growth for 2010, followed by three years of more than 4 percent growth each year.

Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said this week she was "incredibly confident" the U.S. economy will recover within a year.

Congressional Republicans and some Democratic budget hawks have suggested the Obama budget projections are unduly optimistic to make the math to pay for the president's programs work.

Did you catch that first sentence? "No one really knows when the recession will end." What did the president say? "We will recover ... but it will take time ..." Woodward clearly wants the reader to think that President Obama was misleading people, but of course the actual facts don't bear that out in any way. (And who are "some Democratic budget hawks" and how many are there? Per standard MSM procedure, Woodward doesn't say.)

Hold on ... it gets worse. Try this one on for size:

President Obama: "In this budget, we have made the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term even under the most pessimistic estimates."

Woodward's "facts:" Not all credible estimates foresee a deficit halved in that time.

Obama's budget forecast a deficit of $530 billion by the end of 2013. That would cut by half the deficit he inherited at the start of his term. To succeed, Obama is counting on a recovered economy, a tax boost for the rich and success in easing foreign entanglements. But his assertion that he can accomplish that "even under the most pessimistic estimates" flies in the face of an answer he gave moments later.

Um, Cal, the president never said "all credible estimates," nor did he say the budget certainly would be halved. What he actually said (if you care) was that his administration had "made the tough choices necessary" to do so. Very different. But I'd expect that kind of half-assed reporting from the modern AP.

Oh, and that "answer he gave moments later" to which Woodward refers? Don't expect to find it in the article; Woodward never tells us what that is. Typical shoddy journalism ...

Here comes another head fake from Woodward:

Says Woodward: Obama repeated his assertion that his housing bailout will help "stabilize the housing market and help responsible homeowners stay in their homes."

Then "The Facts:" Even officials in his administration, many supporters of the plan in Congress and the Federal Reserve chairman have said some of the bailout money is bound to go to those who acted irresponsibly.

Cal, buddy ... that doesn't negate what the president said!! Indeed, your point is completely irrelevant to his quote! The bailout will, according to Obama, help responsible homeowners stay in their homes. The fact that some bailout money allegedly will "go to those who acted irresponsibly" isn't mutually exclusive to that! Money can go both to help responsible homeowners and (unfortunately) to those to acted irresponsibly! It's called "logic," Cal -- you might look into it sometime.

Finally, the coup de grâce:

THE CLAIM: Responding to Republican critics in Congress who say his proposed budget carries an irresponsible deficit, Obama said, "I suspect that some of those Republican critics have a short memory, because, as I recall, I'm inheriting a $1.3 trillion deficit, annual deficit, from them."

FACT: Obama inherited a whopper of a deficit, much of it due to policies and spending led by Republican President George W. Bush. But the Congress, which authorizes spending and is not blameless in driving up deficits, was controlled by Democrats in the last two years of Bush's presidency.

This is so idiotic, I'm tempted not to address it at all. Two years versus six years ... okay, sure, Congress isn't blameless. But let's not forget that congressional Democrats, "led" by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, regularly and almost enthusiastically bent over and let the GOP have their way with them for the two years they were in charge under the Bush crime syndicate.

It would be nice if a "fact check" used, you know, actual facts. But this is, after all, the Associated Press we're talking about: "Proudly and Shamelessly Kissing Republican Ass Since 2000."