Most people know by now that relying on their morning left-of-center news rag will leave them three steps behind what’s actually happening. There was a good example in this morning’s News & Observer. Here’s what was in “Under the Dome” on page 3B (can’t link online):
Note the last paragraph, in which the contents of an Obama ad are characterized as centering on Mitt Romney’s taxes and fee hikes as governor, and his outsourcing of jobs when working in the private sector. Note also that the Dome says Obama is “hitting” Romney on these issues, not that he is accusing or alleging him of doing these things. The assumption of the reader, from this wording, naturally would be that the facts in the ad are correct. Big mistake.
Here’s what The Washington Post had to say about that ad in this morning’s edition:
The Obama campaign fails to make its case. On just about every level, this ad is misleading, unfair and untrue, from the use of “corporate raider” to its examples of alleged outsourcing. Simply repeating the same debunked claims won’t make them any more correct.
That’s pretty strong language. It’s especially strong language from a newspaper that has been in Obama’s lap since 2008. The ad is so bad it won four Pinocchios:
The N&O has changed the item online to reflect that The Washington Post “found problems” with the ad. Better late than never, I guess. But if you read only the print version of the N&O, and don’t supplement it with other content easily found on the Internet, you came away from the Dome this morning thinking the ad was the gospel truth.
