even Cruz’s response and phony apology sounds insincere. He was basically justifying the idea they spread the lie, but just that they should have followed up with a retraction. That’s the same exact thing as when the New York Times falsifies a story and then prints a retraction 4 days later on the back of the comics section. The damage is already done and it was an attempt to smear or decive which is another word for lie.
Okay, first of all, it wasn't a lie. CNN reported it. If anyone lied about it, it was CNN. The Cruz staff was overzealous and ran with it without checking it. Again, not a lie, and yes it is CNN's fault for getting that rumor started.
Cruz's staff should have contacted Carson's staff for verification, but as I said, overzealous and probably not too concerned with being accurate if they thought it would help their cause. There is a term used by a lot of bloggers to describe such a story. "Too good to check."
But it is not a "lie" by Cruz.
The damage is already done and it was an attempt to smear or decive which is another word for lie.
The people attempting to smear and deceive were the ones who insisted on calling it a "lie" even though it clearly was not a lie.
As a matter of fact, they are doing virtually the exact same thing that they are accusing Cruz of doing. They are lying and misleading people because they see it as damaging their opponent.
If they were being honest, they would admit that this bollixed up incident does not rise to the level of a lie, but that recognition does not suit *THEIR* agenda.