Bozell & Graham Column: 'Fact Checkers' vs. The Benghazi Mom

MRC Newsbusters ^ | July 19, 2016 | By Brent Bozell and Tim Graham

[Cheerio]

When FBI director James Comey came before the press to deliver his bizarre proclamation that Hillary Clinton had lied relentlessly about her private e-mail server, but shouldn't be prosecuted because no prosecutor would ever dare take her to court, except prosecutors all over the country rose to say they'd do so immediately, many were shocked and angered. One industry was thoroughly embarrassed: the media-elite "fact checker" websites and projects, from PolitiFact.com to FactCheck.org to the "Fact Checker" column at The Washington Post.

These so-called guardians of truth felt forced to revise and upgrade their "Pinocchio" counts to reflect the fact that so many pivotal things Mrs. Clinton had claimed about her emails turned out to be falsehoods. It's all well and good that they had to change their rulings, but how effective were these watchdogs in the first place?

[Cheerio]

James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal describes the problem well: "Frequently they accuse politicians of dishonesty because the journalists favor a different interpretation of facts that are not in dispute. Sometimes their 'rulings' are mere opinions on matters about which they do not know the facts, or that are not factual questions at all."

This was seriously underlined on the first night of the Republican convention. Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, who died in the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, gave an impassioned speech on the convention's first night tearing into Hillary Clinton for lying. "For all of this loss, for all of this grief, for all of the cynicism the tragedy in Benghazi has wrought upon America, I blame Hillary Clinton. I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son."

[lee martell]

Isn’t Brent Bozell a NeverTrumper?
I was disappointed to hear him echoing Lindsay Graham a few weeks ago.

[jazminerose]

Anyone whos heart doesn’t ache listening to Mrs Smith is not human. How dare Hillary’s minions challenge this grieving woman. I suspect Mrs Smith doesn’t have a dishonest bone in her body.

[stocksthatgoup]

Was it a video or not? The whole administration lied for a very long time. Did Hillary take the phone off the hook before 3AM?

[Honorary Serb]

The entire media/celebrity apparatus of the U.S. bashes the grieving mother Patricia Smith, as if she were the wrongdoer!!!!

I’ve also seen videos of the horrible way the Coptic Christian man who made the preview “Innocence of muslims” is being treated.

BOTH of these people deserve to have relief from their persecutors—even the videographer who is not entirely innocent. President Trump should pardon him, and Crooked Hillary and her associates should go to prison!!!

[Intolerant in NJ]

...shouldn't be prosecuted because no prosecutor would ever dare take her to court...but of course since it was Comey's job to investigate and not to prosecute, he could say whatever silly thing he wanted and not face any particular censure - it was Lynch's task to pick up on the investigation and decide on prosecution or not - but since she said she'd rely on Comey's recommendation, problem solved - a clear dereliction of duty on her part.....

[Twinkie]

Lynch wasn’t going to cross a Clinton. She’d just had a
private meeting with Bill.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Exactly - so they pulled the dipsey-doodle - have Comey whose job it isn’t make the non-decision on prosecution and have Lynch whose job it is rely magnanimously on the non-decision of Comey to arrive at the outcome the law wouldn’t have supported in the face of Comey’s investigation......

[samtheman]

The fact checkers are all on the DNC propaganda team.

[Cheerio]

IF we had an opposition party running the Congress they should immediately start IMPEACHMENT proceedings on Lynch, if for no other reason than to show the GOPee base they actually have a pair. BESIDES, if Shrillary is elected and the GOPee loses the Senate this will be their last chance of removing this corrupt AG.

[Spok]

“Fact checker” is another way of saying lying, political hack. It’s just another way of spinning the truth.

[r_barton]

Wikileaks proves that the MSM is the propaganda arm of the democrat party.

[hearthwench]

Not on topic exactly... I recently watched a You Tube showing the same exactly topic, word-for-word, being shown to those glued to the MSM stations across the U.S. on the same day. No matter how big or small or which of the local news channels they were, the same bloody script. It focused on “...we all know how much children love their birthdays...”. It was not a serious news item, it was the feel-good fill. It was the creepiest thing I have ever watched.

Of course, it was one of many videos about how much the government and their media puppets control how we are supposed to think (little) and feel (what they want). I was already figured out when I was a teen that was going on. Still, it is creepy to watch how easily they are ramming the population along their agenda of group mind-think.

[r_barton]

I’ve seen that before also. A minor story, repeated word for word across many local stations. All of the broadcast stations in the U.S. have been bought up from any local ownership and are all owned by a few big corporations. Look at IHeartRadio for instance.

[maine-iac7]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCYI7rppBOE

[maine-iac7]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCYI7rppBOE