Why does the liberal world take this: Who the hell is Becky Bowers? And why does the liberal world take this?
In 1998, Bowers was writing for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, presumably as an undergraduate. This is her staff bio at the Tampa Bay Times:
TAMPA BAY TIMES: Becky Bowers is a staff writer for PolitiFact.com. She has worked since 2002 for the Times as a copy editor, copy chief, business graphics reporter, online business editor, deputy business editor and most recently as the deputy government & politics editor. After nine years in the Tampa Bay area, she and her similarly geeky husband moved to Washington, D.C., with their tiny supercharged dog.Here at THE HOWLER, we’re not impressed with all the fun about that husband and dog. We’d like to know why someone like Bowers is able to work as a journalist. And we’d like to know when the liberal world will stop accepting this stuff.
Lawrence and Rachel were clowning last night. They were serving us comfort food. When will liberals force them to fight?
When will the weak-willed E. J. Dionne finally get off his ass?
And when they do "fight" as Rachel Maddow did specifically about this PolitiFact entry on Wednesday night, what is your reaction, Somerby?
ReplyDeleteDamned if they do, damned if they don't.
And for those who didn't see it, which is most of the United States of America, Maddow specifically said "fact-checking" like this, when you have one candidate making a demonstrably false statement ("He didn't say it was an act of terror for 14 days" to paraphrase as best I can) then bend yourself into a pretzel to look "objective" and say the other guy also said somethings that weren't exactly kosher, gives the right-wing echo chamber permission to create their own reality and say that when Obama said "acts of terror" in a speech about Benghazi on the day after Benghazi, he didn't really mean Benghazi. In fact, he must have meant every act of terror EXCEPT Benghazi.
Maddow went on to say that we are entering a world where the truth, even about the simplest things, no longer matters.
It's all about spinning it, and that purportedly "mainstream" sources like PolitiFact do so much damage to any kind of hope for rational discussion when they do this "Well, both sides were wrong" nonsense about the simplest facts in front of them.
If I remember right, Bob's beef with Maddow, who gave some credit for being right on the merits (the *lack* of merit, that is!) of Romney's statement, was that she was willing to blame ONLY the right-wing echo chamber:
ReplyDelete"Mitt Romney, getting it wrong last night because he apparently consumes the right-wing version of reality instead of the real reality outside the right wing conservative media bubble"
Did Maddow really blame the mainstream media?
Did she really blame liberals (or so-called liberals, if you like) for their poor responses?
If so, show me & I'll say -- good for Maddow.
Otherwise I'd say, Somerby has a worthwhile point about the failures *outside* the "the right wing conservative media bubble" Maddow complained of.
You talked about this in the thread two days ago -- but you had no competing quotes from Maddow.
Have you got something now? Or just your continuing (continuous!) animus toward all thing Somerby?
"...who _he_ gave some credit for being right..."
Delete"Bob's beef with Maddow, who gave some credit for being right on the merits (the *lack* of merit, that is!) of Romney's statement, was that she was willing to blame ONLY the right-wing echo chamber:"
DeleteThat's because you obviously got your take on this ONLY from Somerby.
Maddow quite specifically went after PolitiFact. To wit, from the transcript you are obviously too lazy to look up yourself:
'''
MADDOW: Part of the reason I think this country would be better off if the Web site "PolitiFact" didn`t exist is because "PolitiFact" has encouraged relativism on the subject of whether or not stuff happened as a mainstream thing.
So like when Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed entitled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" and he went on CBS News and defended his call to let Detroit go bankrupt, including that headline, "PolitiFact" fact-checked whether or not Mitt Romney did say `Let Detroit go bankrupt," and they found that half
true, because basically they don`t think that Mitt Romney likes to be quoted saying "let Detroit go bankrupt" or something, even though he did.
So half true?
"PolitiFact" last night looked into whether or not President Obama used the phrase act of terror the day after the Benghazi attack when he
gave that speech in the Rose Garden.
"PolitiFact" said yes he did say that but it`s only half true because people on the right say maybe he didn`t mean it when he said it.
This infection is leading the conservative media, through purportedly arbiters of fact like "PolitiFact," these baldly false, conservative feel-good assertions about noble facts that come from the right end up becoming just the other side of a political issue. We`re taking an objective look and that is bull.
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. The unemployment rate is below 8 percent. The day after the Benghazi attack, the president called it an act
of terror.
Do whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better, but do not confuse your "World Net Daily" caliber, therapeutic, conservative, alternative reality, fantasy bubble for what actually happened, because stuff really does actually happen. And eventually you really do have to
deal with it.
You can almost see the spittle drying on Bob's lips.
ReplyDeleteWell, here it is the same as with Bob as it was it his terrible reaction to 47%. The dreaded Maddow gets it right, but She still not right because She doesn't point out that the left is just as bad as the right.
DeleteCan we talk? Bob's is a religious reaction. We must simultaneously display the cleansing righteous rage, but never, never commit the sin of pride by imagining
we are a for a moment higher in the lord's esteem than these blasted sinners. A bit on the super human side? Well, that's the program.
You seem truly unaware that this "story" represents exactly the sort of pivot point that can throw the White House to Romney.
DeleteIt's true.
Given that it's true, it's exceptionally relevant and important that non-right-wing sources are playing it Romney's way.
Maddow could do something important by pointing that out.
Will she?
Assuming she avidly reads this blog and thus is aware of this pivot point, I assume she won't.
DeleteRight. Becky Bowers holds the fate of the next election, if not that of all humankind, in the balm of her hand.
DeleteThank GOD we have Somerby to shine the light!
Yeah, I'm sure you're right 4:20. It's no biggie. The less said about it the better.
Delete"Geeky" is now nothing more than a marketing buzzword, like "wonky." Any climber who uses an iPad and wears glasses will describe themselves as "geeky"; anyone who uses a chart will describe themselves as "wonky." The key is to use the terms in a sort of half-apologetic, self-concious way, to make them somehow endearing. You're a geek or a wonk because you can't help yourself, darn it, not because you're smarter than other people.
ReplyDeleteI'll lay 3 - 1 odds that Becky Bowers wears glasses, but could just as easily wear contacts.
Bob - did you see this, on Greenwald's update? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcWjYMj4eN8
ReplyDeleteLawrence O'Donnell on camera admits to not knowing that Obama has used the Espionage Act to persecute whistleblowers.