Niall Ferguson’s Bad Education
http://www.nationalmemo.com/23853/
Niall Fergusons Bad Education
August 29th, 2012 12:00 am
Gene Lyons
During a presidential campaign, the temptation is always to melodrama. Having spent most of twenty years lamenting the vanishing professional ethics of the news media, I nevertheless
found myself gobsmacked, as the Brits say, by Newsweeks cover story by Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson entitled Obamas Gotta Go.
Fergusons surely entitled to his opinions (although not his vote, as hes a British subject, not an American citizen) but to paraphrase the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, hes not entitled to his own facts.
Riddled with ludicrous errors and manifest deceptions, the articles publication on the cover of a major news magazine at first struck me as ominous.
snip//
In fact, as New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman pointed out,
the Congressional Budget Office concluded that Obamacare will actually reduce the yearly budget deficit by an estimated $210 billion over the decade. Theres a chart documenting that non-obscure fact on page two of the CBO report.
Krugman demanded a correction by Newsweek.
Instead, editor Tina Browns latest plaything allowed Ferguson to double-down. Rather than apologize, he posted an online rejoinder calling Krugmans objection truly feeble, and boasting that hed very deliberately written the insurance coverage provisions of the ACA, not the ACA.
In short, Ferguson very deliberately misled his readers to the tune of $1.4 trillionconsidering only the debit half of Obamacares balance sheet, but not its revenues and savings. Then he falsely cited the CBO to cover his tracks.
more...
http://www.nationalmemo.com/23853/2/