Hillary Clinton Isn’t Lying, The Fact-Checkers Are

[DonViejo]

by Tommy Christopher | 2:09 pm, August 5th, 2016

As Donald Trump‘s terrible week winds to a close, the mainstream media has picked up a counter-narrative that says Trump did Hillary Clinton a yuge favor by overshadowing the “gaffe” she committed last weekend when she told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that FBI Director James Comey backed up her version of the “Emailgate” story. Armed with a quartet of fictional marionette heads, Republicans fashioned the narrative into a talking point that even pro-Hillary media yappers didn’t bother to refute. The “fact-checkers” have spoken.

Except they’re wrong, every one of them, and they’re all, to some degree, lying in order to support their wrong conclusion. Mostly, they are committing a lie of omission, and so, for our more impatient readers, I will cut to the chase, on the condition that anyone who wants to argue the point with me on Twitter must read the whole thing first. The thing they are all leaving out of their various and sundry fact-checking exercises is this key exchange from FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before Congress:

“That would be a reasonable inference.”

All of the “Big Three” fact-checkers acknowledged the substance of the exchange to some degree, but either downplayed or outright lid about it. Politifact said Comey called the markings “insufficient,” when what he actually did was reply “no” when asked if any of the emails were “properly marked” as classified.

FactCheckDotOrg said Comey told that hearing that those emails “could have been missed by Clinton” when what he actually said was that a person who’s an “expert at what’s classified and what’s not classified” would reasonably infer “that those three documents were not classified.”

-snip-

http://www.mediaite.com/online/hillary-clinton-isnt-lying-the-fact-checkers-are/

[DonViejo]

2. So, did you read the entire story and follow the assorted links within it? eom

[apcalc]

3. I don't .

They quite often misrepresent. Watch Elijah Cummings question Comey...you'll see a different story than what the media clings to.

[lapucelle]

5. What lies?

In real time you assumed that Hillary was lying, but after looking at the facts/transcripts you realized that she wasn't?

And how exactly do you expect her to move on when the press won't?

Mission accomplished, Mr. Comey.

[BlueStateLib]

9. Rep Cummings and Director Comey

[lapucelle]

13. The best thing to do is to go to the primary sources

the transcript of Comey's statement and the transcript of the hearings.

The Daily Howler (liberal watchdog of the liberal press Bob Somerby) took his time unraveling the mess that Comey wrought. There are at least a half a dozen columns outlining the problems in the press coverage of this story. Just go to the website and search Comey

Reading the primary sources takes a bit more effort than simply accepting a narrative, but it's worth it.

http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/

[BlueStateLib]

7. Mission accomplished, Mr. Gowdy and his 30 second sound bite

Last edited Fri Aug 5, 2016, 06:35 PM - Edit history (1)

[uponit7771]

15. +1, Fuck Rodd ONLY plays Gowdy's questions and not Cartwrights or Cummings !!!!

[uponit7771]

14. No, its group think ... just like the WMD thing. They REFUSE to play Matt Cartwrights questioning

... of James Comey !!!

[skylucy]

17. You need to watch the ENTIRE congressional Comey hearing. Then you need to watch and listen

carefully to what Hillary said earlier and what she clarified today. You need to do this with an open mind and stop buying into the ongoing lazy journalism that continues to help the GOP promote their decades old talking point that Hillary lies. It is bunk.Seem like today CNN and MSNBC have decided to try to even up the score because Trump is tanking so badly that this election could be a landslide for Hillary and it may be obvious way before November. Bad for ratings, you know. Again, you need to watch the ENTIRE Comey hearing before congress.

[lapucelle]

4. The press don't care when facts get disappeared 'cause they're working from a script

that was written years ago.

The Daily Howler has had several excellent columns on what Comey hath wrought and how the press has enabled it.

Jake Tapper told his audience today that "Hillary continues to lie".

[skylucy]

19. Thank you! I agree. I know that the press loves a good controversy and that it is their job

to hold politicians feet to the fire.But what has been going on today has been an eye opener for me. They ARE working from a script that does not work anymore after the congressional hearing of Comey and Hillary's statements (as well as her clarification today). It is upsetting. Jennifer Granholm did a great job calling out Jake Tapper today. More Dems need to go back after the press on this one because it is obvious that they are misleading their viewers! Do they not know that some people watched the entire Comey hearing?

[DURHAM D]

8. They are currently lying on MSNBC.

I don't think they are just trying to keep the story going with bogus reporting, I don't think they are smart enough to sort out the facts.

[lapucelle]

18. They don't really fact check.

One of WaPo's 3 Pinocchio Factchecker columns only looks at the Comey statement and completely ignores the testimony from the Congressional hearing.

[Hortensis]

49. They've moved from questioning the actual

actions -- which the FBI's investigation cleared of criminal wrongdoing -- to microanalyzing every Hillary statement for a word or phrase that can be argued with. A media version of the GOP tying Bill up for years in a constant series of phony scandals, one after the other, until they accidentally nailed him on something irrelevant.

The question is, why are they doing this? Yes, known hostile media keep the subject raised, but even PBS had a segment last night on what intelligent people know is and always was an opportunistic witch hunt. Is Hillary flying too high after the convention?

[duncang]

10. For some reason this reminds me of

You can't beat Muslim jihadist terrorist unless you say exactly Muslim jihadist terrorist. If you don't Muslim jihadist terrorists will take over the world. Media keeps saying the same thing over and over that she has to say exactly what they say. Nothing other then that will do.

[uponit7771]

11. THANK YOU THANK YOU !!! They STILL haven't gotten Comey on to explain his contradiction !!!

[bullimiami]

12. If she lied she would have been charged with "lying"

She did not. She did the opposite which is tell the truth.

[TeddyR]

16. To be clear, Hillary herself said today she misspoke

And people are still defending her mistatement?

And here's the link - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/08/05/clinton-acknowledges-misspeaking-about-fbi-directors-testimony/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_clintonfbi-325pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

[lapucelle]

20. "Insisted" is not the word an objective reporter would choose.

"She explained that Comey was referring only to her interviews with the FBI — but she also insisted that all of her other public statements on the matter have been consistent with those interviews."


And now today are complaining that Hillary is giving "tortured explanations." What do they expect at this point? They're the ones making her jump through hoops.

[uponit7771]

21. +1, but Benedict Donald can lie about what day it is and gets 23 seconds of coverage !!

[TeddyR]

22. We aren't talking about Trump!

And I'm not defending Trump, and never would. Hillary admitted she misspoke, so why are people trying to argue she didn't? Shouldn't this now be a dead issue?

[uponit7771]

23. Its not because people are still going to bring up the issue as if she has something to explain....

... relative to what she said.

The email thing is a huge nothing burger, the only reason it has weight is people think she should explain anything...

[lapucelle]

24. We're talking about double standards and a press that is working from a script.

One thing I always found interesting is that the press never questioned the very special (and possibly gendered) treatment that Hillary got at Mr. Comey's hands. He couldn't recommend that Clinton be charged, but he was going to put her in her place anyway.

How remarkable that what should have been a one sentence recommendation statement became a twelve minute televised excoriation of someone who the FBI had essentially exonerated. Has this ever been done before? No, this very special treatment was reserved for that very troublesome woman.

Comey couldn't recommend charges, so he very creatively found a way to damage. He would break with standard procedure in order to vilify Hillary for...wait for it... breaking with standard procedure.

And the press never questioned his motive or breach of ethics. They breathlessly reported his every word, and never questioned why it was being done now and why it was being done to this woman.

Had the ridiculous Republicans not overplayed their hand by called Comey to testify in front of Congress, we never would have known the extent of Comey's abuse of power and the extent of his deception.

That's why people are angry when the full testimony isn't referenced in "fact checks".

[TeddyR]

27. The OP was about whether Hillary lied a few days ago

And now it has morphed to a completely different issue after Hillary said she misspoke.

[Peacetrain]

30. Exactly what did Hillary say when she made the mispoke statement??

[fleabiscuit]

42. You have also used and equated "misspoke," with "misstatement." They are not the same.

I tend to assume that is generally caused by bias, and bias can lead to belief in lies. HRC has a superior grasp of english.

[BlueStateLib]

32. Sometimes its best to throw in the towel even when youre right, its was becoming no win situation

[sheshe2]

31. Misspoke and lying are two separate things.

Here...

TeddyR (2,491 posts)

6. No, in real time I thought that she was lying about what Comey said
And I've seen nothing to change my mind on that issue. Every single story from a reputable news agency says the same.

You call her a liar. Your comments are not acceptable here.

PS, since when do we have reputable news agencies?

[fleabiscuit]

39. +1 "thought" + "memory of", equally unreliable. Facts = good.

[sheshe2]

40. I love you flea!

[fleabiscuit]

43. Back at you she...

[sheshe2]

45. sssh

softly into the night

[zenabby]

25. I am so confused where the lie is

James Comey did a good job of using words that hurt while not really being complete or fully true (but not false) in any given statement.

Comey
was she truthful to fbi: yes
is it true she did not send classified info: it is not true..she sent classified info
was it retroactively classified: no, 3 emails were classified at the time of receiving (out of xxxx,000)
was it marked classified: yes, it was marked classified but only inside the email, not outside
could Hillary have known it was classified unless she opened it?: No, she could not have known it was classified unless she opened it.
should they have been classified: the classification system is quite weird, so it's a hit or miss.

And the press cherrypicks the words they want to hear. She's already said it was a mistake, and he said she was careless. that's all there is to it.

[TeddyR]

29. No need for confusion

Just look at Hillarys statement today admitting she made a mistatement. Is that part confusing?

[BlueStateLib]

33. the absence of a header would tell her immediately that those three documents were not classified.

CARTWRIGHT: So if Secretary Clinton really were an expert at what's classified and what's not classified and were following the manual, the absence of a header would tell her immediately that those three documents were not classified. Am I correct in that?

COMEY: That would be a reasonable inference.

[zenabby]

37. She did not say that

She said "I may have short circuited and for that she would clarify" since they were speaking over each other, and said she was clarifying. Show me where she admitted she made a mistatement? I would really like to see.

[lapucelle]

35. There is no lie.

Last Sunday Hillary didn't connect all the dots for people, probably thinking that they were clever enough to connect the dots themselves.

Today Hillary very kindly equated her forgetting to connect the dots for the people who have difficulty with higher order thinking as "misspeaking".

It's like when you have to tediously spell every little thing out for someone because they just can't get it. You and I can walk away rather than engage with those who are never going to get it.

Hillary doesn't have that luxury.
And, unfortuneately, she doesn't have the option to press "ignore".

[glennward]

26. And even worse, they allow the hacking of the campaign server by Russia to be conflated with her

private home server which even Comey said there is no evidence that her home server was ever hacked. So the media allows the Trump pundits to say that her server was hacked by Russia.

No one calls them on it. These so called "journalists" on CNN MSNBC FOX are purposely lazy and biased.

[Peacetrain]

28. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Mike Nelson]

34. I watched the entire hearing...

...she should not have had the private server, but she did not lie. If she had lied, she would have been prosecuted. You do not lie to the FBI. Hillary cites what makes her look best. The media cites what makes her look guilty. Trey Gowdy and others framed questions to make it look like she lied - he is a slick and unfair prosecutor.

[Whimsey]

46. Why should she have not had a private server?

US govt e-mail is not intrinsically more secure than private. Actually, the biggest concern is insiders leaking items on a "secured" server. We just had a CIA employee feeding things to China, Manning did to WikiLeaks and so did Snowden.

If Hillary was using a private server, than her e-mail did not end .gov so everyone she was corresponding with, including all the Republican elected officials with gmail.com, knew she was not using a government server. And private e-mails, even on a government server, are not subject to the FOIA.

This has always been a tempest in a teapot. It was not an issue while she was SOS, and only was raised two years after she resigned when the Republican hearings on Benghazi reared its partisan ugly head. If the American public had an attention span longer than a gnat, this would not even be an issue.

And I watched Comey's testimony before Congress. And he did exonerate her. Unfortunately he had already mired hmself in the mud, not being a political person, and was not as clear as he should be.

That is the problem with lawyer speak. We understand what each other is saying, but non-lawyers do not always understand the double speak.

[Mike Nelson]

52. Yes...

...if I were HRC, I would have wanted some statement, in writing, about the server being kosher. In the end, it may turn out the Clinton server was more secure than any. This is a phony story - elevated far above its worth.

[Whimsey]

57. But that is in retrospect.

We are talking 2008. The iPhone was not even around yet. (I keep reminding people of that). Blackberry was the cutting edge of mobile technology.

Too many people think today's technology was available in 2008. It was nowhere close. Email was nowhere close. It was a different world. And I barely keep up with it!

[unitedwethrive]

36. This is a perfect example of a lazy press.

Since the day of the Comey congressional hearing, I have been waiting for a journalist to write an accurate and succinct version of what happened that day. I have yet to see one. I watched the entire hearing and at the end was feeling good that all of Hillary's previous statements had been shown to be truthful. I have been so disappointed in the media at their coverage of this.

And it's amazing that it was brought up again (by the media!) when Hillary is surging in the polls, apparently in an attempt to create more of a horse race. I'm actually glad they did bring it up, because hopefully any smart person who cares to take the time can see what really transpired.

[Cryptoad]

38. Ohhhh NO,,, EMAILS,,,again,, Oh the horror of it all!,,Drink!

[betsuni]

41. K&R

[Chathamization]

44. "Fact Checkers" can be pretty terrible

Politifact: "A reasonable person would interpret Clinton’s statement to mean..."

That's the problem right there. They rely on a lot of, "What they really meant is..." garbage. I remember when the Washington Post fact checker said that Obama was wrong when he said he called the Benghazi attacks an act of terror, because when Romney said Obama didn't call it an act of terror he actually meant that Obama didn't call it a terrorist act and Obama didn't call it a terrorist act. Therefore, it was wrong for Obama to say he called it an act of terror when he called it an act of terror. Wait, what?

[wishstar]

47. Reuters headline "FBI director says Clinton did not lie, break law in email handling"

This Reuters article dated July 7 summarizes what I heard come out of Comey's testimony but Republicans haven't been satisfied to let the matter rest, hence the Chris Wallace Fox interview and subsequent piling on by the other news networks and cable TV channels.

I expect Benhazi to also be sensationalized again to sustain negativity toward Hillary. These 2 issues are all they have to tarnish her.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-fbi-idUSKCN0ZN1LS

"FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers on Thursday that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton did not lie to the FBI about her handling of emails as secretary of state and did not break the law.

Comey told a Republican-led oversight panel in the U.S. House of Representatives that no reasonable prosecutor would charge Clinton with a crime over her use of private email servers while she was secretary of state, some of which were used to transmit classified information."

Surely most voters recognize the false equivalence of parsing and nitpicking Hillary's statements about her email server (that was never hacked and no shocking emails discovered) with the preponderance of hundreds of Trump's blatant lies.

[ucrdem]

48. To his credit I suppose Comey put the thing to rest that day.

Repeatedly. But only when he was asked point blank yes-no questions that he could no longer evade, and only because he had no choice. It was that or flat-out perjury. I don't know what HRC said to him in their tête-à-tête but it did the job. But you wouldn't know it from the punditocracy which is doing their usual prop-up-the-RW-propaganda thing.

[lapucelle]

54. Comey broke with normal practice when he made his statement.

Comey's job was to release a brief statement on whether or not charges would be recommended.

The press never questioned his breach of ethics in giving the woman who was running for president such unusual treatment.

Comey's grandstanding statement actually painted a much worse picture than his detailed answers revealed the next day.

Comey is supposed to be objective. He was far from totally honest in his statement, and the press never called them on it.

[ucrdem]

55. Yep. But if he'd stuck to the facts it would have been over a year ago.

It was pretty clear that he had every intention of keeping up the charade until November and that it pained him to publicly admit what most of us have known from the start, namely that there's no there there, and never was. He was helping out his RW friends, and he let them down at the hearing, and they let him know it LOL. Chaffey for example really took him to the woodshed. That's why I'd love to know what HRC said to him in her interview because it had a remarkably tonic effect.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-director-set-to-appear-before-congressional-committee-to-answer-questions-on-clinton-investigation/2016/07/07/eb43ec7e-43c1-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html

[glennward]

50. E-mail and Twitter bomb Trey Gowdy with the links of Reuters and the Cummings segment.

You can get their attention when their in-box is full and the Twitter goes viral.

I let him know that I was going help EXPOSE HIM as a liar and it is all on video. If you live in his district. Get the links out there in the community. The more we can paint these bastards for who they are and what they do if may impact their political presence.

I have Twittered all the talking heads with the same information. I think Joy may bring it up at some point. The conflation of the campaign server with HC/s private home server is HUGEEEEE because it goes directly to national security and safety.

[loveoften]

51. Not until she falls on her sword

will the media be happy. It was a bit clumsy but to hang on to this small difference is all they have to appear as balanced journalist with the windfall from the Trump side.

[LynnTTT]

53. She needs to get five correct sentences

and repeat them over and over. Yes, she regrets using a private server. But no evidence was hacked. Yes, she deleted private emails. Yes, she was wrong when she said she never sent or received classified emails. But those three, yes only three , emails were not marked on the front or beginning but instead had small (c) marks within the text.

If these are the facts, set it out and never change the wording.

[lapucelle]

56. The press and the Republican witch hunt are hanging their hats

on Comey's statement that there was no evidence that the server wasn't hacked. Comey's a lawyer. He knows what a dirty trick it is to put somebody in a position where he/she has to prove a negative.

The press should have called Comey out on that.