Saturday, June 23, 2012

Fact Checker: Repeat Use of Debunked Claims Sinks Obama Ad (WaPo destroys Romney outsourcing smear)


The Washington Post ^ | Saturday, June 23, 2012 | Glenn Kessler



The Obama campaign apparently loves to ding former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney with the charge of “outsourcing.” On several occasions, we have faulted the campaign for its claims, apparently to little avail.
Now, all of the claims have been combined in one 30-second ad, with the added incendiary charge that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was a “corporate raider.” Let’s look anew at this material.
SNIP
Regarding the other claims, concerning Canadian electronics maker SMTC Manufacturing and customer service firm Modus Media, the Obama campaign tries to take advantage of a gray area in which Romney had stepped down from Bain — to manage the Salt lake City Olympics — but had not sold his shares in the firm. We had previously given the Obama campaign Three Pinocchios for such tactics.
SNIP
As we mentioned, we recounted this ancient Massachusetts history before, giving the campaign Two Pinocchios. So we were very surprised the Obama campaign cited that critical Fact Checker column as a source for the ad in its back-up materials.
The ad also cites as a source a Boston Globe article from last month that merely reports on an earlier ad making similar charges. That’s highly circular reasoning — and is not fair play.
SNIP
The Pinocchio Test
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.
Four Pinocchios
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

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