Over the weekend, when I posted on how AP sicced a team of “journalists” to fact-check Sarah Palin’s new autobiography—only to find six “lies” in 432 pages. I then noted that neither they nor the mainstream media bothered to fact-check Bill and Hillary Clinton’s memoirs, and certainly didn’t fact-check Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth.
Well, lo and behold - On Monday’s show, Rush says:
Hey, AP, I got an idea for you. Assign those same 11 reporters to Algore’s book and see how many facts you can find, not errors. What is his stupid book, Earth in the Balance? No, no, that was the preview. What’s the book or slide show out there? … Don’t look it up. I don’t care. But whatever the current book is on global warming, they made the slide show out of and so forth and that little movie that the kids in school were required to watch, assign the same 11 reporters to that book and find out how many facts you can find!
OK, OK, I’ll give Rush a pass for following me on this story. My post was from Saturday and his next show wasn’t until Monday.
In any case, it cracked me up that he couldn’t recall the title An Inconvenient Truth. But then I thought, Rush is a smart guy; he has to remember the name. He was just irking the Goracle and his worshippers, I think.
And then yesterday, Fox News.com had this:
November 17, 2009
AP Turns Heads for Devoting 11 Reporters to Palin Book ‘Fact Check’
by Robert Shaffer, FOXNews.comReviewing books and holding public figures accountable is at the core of good journalism, but the Associated Press' treatment of Palin's book seems an unprecedented move at the wire service …
When the former Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor wrote her autobiography, the AP found a copy before its release date and assigned 11 people to fact check all 432 pages.
The AP claims Palin misstated her record with regard to travel expenses and taxpayer-funded bailouts, using statements widely reported elsewhere. But it also speculated into Palin's motives for writing "Going Rogue: An American Life," stating as fact that the book "has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto."
Palin quickly hit back on a Facebook post titled "Really? Still Making Things Up?"
“Imagine that,” the post read. “11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to 'fact check' what's going on with Sheik Mohammed's trial, Pelosi's health care takeover costs, Hasan's associations, etc. Amazing.”
The AP, an organization with over 4,000 employees and 49 Pulitzer Prizes earned for asking the hard questions, wouldn't comment on their own reporting for this story.
Reviewing books and holding public figures accountable is at the core of good journalism, but the treatment Palin's book received appears to be something new for the AP. The organization did not review for accuracy recent books by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, then-Sen. Joe Biden, either book by Barack Obama released before he was president or autobiographies by Bill or Hillary Clinton. The AP did more traditional news stories on those books.
Hey, that’s what I wrote! Yeah, I know. It’s a big responsibility being the trend setter. Thanks for reading my blog though, guys. I’ll keep workin’ hard! :)
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