Charles Pierce at Esquire: "The Heavy Price of Chuck Todd's Ignorance"

[Triana]

. . .

While the Wurlitzer cranks out these tunes more efficiently these days, it's important to remember that this technique in conservative vandalism has been around for a while. During the Clinton years, the House, under then-Speaker N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer of civilization's rules and Leader (perhaps) of the civilizing forces, took the same kind of whack at the SSI program using a similar combination of bullshit anecdotes and shoddy journalism. I caught the tail end of this con in a story for the magazine.

Indeed, after Porter leaves center stage, the rest of the Post's story is a judicious account of the growth in SSI spending since the Zebley decision. But the story lent to Porter the credibility of an embattled whistle-blower, and the backlash against the SSI program accelerated. On the day it appeared, two Wisconsin Democrats--Senator Herb Kohl and Representative Gerald Kleczka--cited it in a "Dear Colleague" letter that demanded an examination of the SSI program. At a town meeting, Newt Gingrich denounced the phenomenon of "crazy checks." In May, The Boston Globe wrote a story about the program that cited both Porter and the Arkansas State study, a perfect parlay of dubious sources.

On October 13, with the congressional elections approaching fast, ABC's PrimeTime Live aired an examination of the SSI program. Whereas Stein had found Woodward's work disappointing, he found ABC's appalling. The segment was called "Crazy Checks." It featured correspondent Chris Wallace tramping around Arkansas, grilling indigent families about benefits they barely understood. "Act crazy and you can get a check of more than $400 a month from the government," said Wallace. The Arkansas State study was cited, its data once again dramatized well beyond any claim its authors had ever made for it. (Neither Wallace nor PrimeTime Live anchor Diane Sawyer nor any ABC News spokesperson replied to phone messages or to registered letters asking for comment on this story.) ...And up arose Nora Cooke Porter again, to claim--without offering any support -- that fewer than 30 percent of the children receiving SSI benefits really deserved them, which meant that more than six hundred thousand children were cheating, a wildly improbable estimate that Wallace did not see fit to challenge. Instead, he told his audience, "If Porter's estimates are anywhere near accurate, then SSI ... has become a massive, taxpayer-funded scam." Jonathan Stein looked deeply into this "if"--a weaselly word beginning a duplicitous sentence that was already on its way to becoming a dishonest paragraph. He saw the future in that single word. He saw it almost as an active player, hazy and indistinct, an accessory before the fact.

And this is what is really goddamn dangerous about what my man Chuck Todd said the other day. (Chuck's feeling a bit put upon these days. Tough.) According to Chuck's notion of what his job is, when conservative politicians latch onto a phony Fox News story in order to make policy, it is the job of the Democrats -- or, perhaps, of the SNAP recipients themselves, who have, as we know, virtually unlimited access to the airwaves -- to correct the arrant bullshit. Or, when politicians of both parties latch onto a phony "scandal" in the SSI program, it is the job of the embattled people running the program -- or, perhaps, of Marcus Stephens's parents, both of whom were, of course, important newspaper columnists of the day -- to get out the truth. Chuck's just the messenger. Thus does the oligarchy tell stories to itself.

THE REST:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/How_The_Manure_Gets_Spread

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Pierce wields his pen in a most awesome manner!

K & R

[Change has come]

2. K&R

[Rain Mcloud]

3. I was in mind of Liberty University's partial solution to bankruptcy #3

a video titled The Clinton Chronicles:An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton. which sold over 150,000 copies at $39.99 a pop.
In the new MSM bizzaro universe and Chuck Todd's logic then it would not be the job of the press to debunk the lies in the video or the RW attempts to impeach a sitting president over numerous slanderous and libelous false accusations and on the tax payer nickel.
Estimates of $70M of taxpayer dollars were spent on the prosecution of President Clinton.

The RW has a long past when it comes to silencing the press especially when it tries to uncover illegal activities of Republican Administrations post Iran-Contra.
Clinton gave them a pass and they nailed him up in the town square out of gratitude,as a result he left the WH deeply in debt and virtually penniless.
You would think that another young idealist President would take the hint,but we are on the cusp of another grand bargain where the population of the US is being held hostage purely to save political face in a time of populist blowback.

How is it not the job of the press to counter bald face lies which threaten the health and well-being of an entire nation?,unless.........
they are being manipulated by the same interests into redefining their role to what serving the public good is.
Do CEO's now make the laws? In the light of the exposure of ALEC and SCOTUS's decision on Citizens United,the answer can only be,Yes.

[Cha]

4. Todd's been getting away with this crap for a long time! He was all for standing

up for Romney when Obama was being mean and making ads about Bain. EnoughChuck said on the tv that Obama was "swiftboating mitt".



ForUS50 @FORUS50

There's a reason the petition to get @chucktodd fired has 75,000 signatures. People are FED UP with GOP LIES reported as FACTS on #ACA.1:35 PM - 22 Sep 2013

59 Retweets 14 favorites Reply

Crooks and Liars: Jonathan Alter Corrects Media’s Constant Harping on ACA Polls

…. Are you watching, Chuck Todd? That’s journalism. Try it sometime

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/jonathan-alter-corrects-medias-consta

http://theobamadiary.com/2013/09/23/rise-and-shine-621/

Thank you for Charles Pierce's piercing of Chuck, Triana~

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

6. Good ole Jonathan Alter! One R lie down, about a million to go.

[Cha]

7. Yeah, I hear ya, DnSK.. last I heard hours ago.. there were 88,000 sigs for

Todd to be fired, though. So there's that!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

8. In case it wasn't clear, I wasn't being sarcastic about Jonathan Alter. I'm just

pessimistic that anything will change. Even DUers are defending liars and their lies: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014601163

Americans worship wealthy people, and, mostly don't care how many lies they told to get that wealth. If you're not a deceiver, it seems you're at a distinct disadvantage.

I was once told by my boss who was trying to help me that I was too honest. Well, compared to her duplicitousness yeah, but that's not saying much. I despised her, but she lied her way into a salary that was about five times mine.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Triana.