CNN Priorities USA Fact Check (Steelworker's wife 'killed' by Romney quit job w/ health insurance)

CNN via YouTube ^ | Tuesday, August 7, 2012

[kristinn]

No description at YouTube, so my write up:

CNN's Brianna Kielar spoke with Joe Soptic, a former steelworker featured in a new pro-Obama super PAC ad who was laid off in 2001 when Bain Capital closed the company he had worked at for a reported 30 years. Without directly accusing Soptic and Priorities USA of being despicable liars, CNN lets its reporting call them out as despicable liars.

Soptic told CNN his wife had her own health insurance at her own job when he was laid off. Soptic said his wife quit her job a year or two later due to an unspecified injury, thereby losing her own health insurance. But Soptic still blames her death in 2006 from a brief bout with cancer due to his lack of family health insurance because he was laid off in 2001. In the Priorities USA ad, Soptic says it was a "short time later" from when he was laid off to when his wife got sick and died. CNN reports it was actually five years.

[Toespi]

Because Romney has fallen into the trap of thinking if he plays nice, trots to the left, he will get some democrats to vote for him. So it is the same old thing, placate the left and eff your conservative base. I yearn for Newt Gingrich.

[kycountryboy]

Still something fishy about how CNN handled the story. I won’t be surprised if in the next couple days they will claim to have negative information on Romney that follows up on this story. That’s just how they roll.

[D-fendr]

The wardrobe and location for ole Joe looks remarkably similar in this ‘uncoordinated’ ad and the previous Obama ad:

Look for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj70XqOxptU&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yhQlnx1NSUw

[pepsionice]

At some point in the next couple of months....the budget axe is going to fall over the CNN staff, with probably ten percent of their benefits or salary that will be cut in some fashion. You can’t continue the pay scale/benefits unless you have viewers, which they haven’t really had in the last three to five years. My humble guess is that some CNN people see the writing on the wall and absolutely want to probe every story and now give a “fair and balanced” setting. It may be too late to have an impact, but CNN could repair itself.

[Dr. Ursus]

I hope that they don’t lose their healthcare!

[cdcdawg]

I’m willing to bet that Soptic has filed all sorts of pro se lawsuits, alleging all sorts of conspiracies, violations of civil rights, etc... Every town has at least one, and he fits the part perfectly.

[RedMDer]

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[teflon9]

The truly sad part is that if only CBSNBCABCFOXCNN (and radio moguls like Clear Channel) all put their collective feet down and refused to run any negative ads, then calumnies like the Bain attacks and "Romney killed my wife" would evaporate like a puddle on a hot day.