Governor Ultrasound still hasn’t been charged!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2014

Once again, Maddow errs: Your Daily Howler just keeps getting those results!

We still haven’t reviewed Rachel Maddow’s biggest groaners from last week. But last night, thanks to our pushback, Rachel was pretty clearly on her best behavior.

Still, you can be sure that she will misinform you at least once every night. Last night, she mixed some snark with some misinformation concerning Ultrasound.

Why hasn’t Governor Ultrasound been indicted yet? We don’t know, but in a tease, Rachel softened us up with some snark:

MADDOW (1/20/14): All right. And then there`s a guy named Bob McDonnell. Remember him? If Bob McDonnell fell in the forest right now, would anybody hear it?

Stay with us.

Wonderful snark! Later, at the start of her actual segment, we all got misinformed:

MADDOW: Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s last day in office was last Saturday. In December, right around Christmas time, the Washington Post reported that the federal prosecutor who has been investigating Governor McDonnell had informed him and his lawyers that criminal charges are going to be filed against Governor McDonnell. Bob McDonnell will be criminally indicted, but! Merry Christmas!

According to the Washington Post, prosecutors decided to wait until the governor was out of office before they brought those charges.

Well, he’s now out of office nine days. Was the Washington Post right? Are those criminal charges forthcoming?

I don’t know. And neither do you.

We don’t plan to charge Rachel a fee for use of our “we don’t know and neither do you” hook. But in that short, inaccurate passage, Maddow misrepresented what the Post reported in December.

Again! We already went over this bullroar once, in real time.

Back in December, did the Washington Post report “that prosecutors decided to wait until the governor was out of office before they brought those charges?”

No! As we noted in real time, the Post reported something different. The Post reported that prosecutors might not charge McDonnell at all.

This is the start of the report Maddow keeps misrepresenting:

HELDERMAN (12/19/13): Federal prosecutors told Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell last week that he and his wife would be charged in connection with a gift scandal, but senior Justice Department officials delayed the decision after the McDonnells' attorneys made a face-to-face appeal in Washington, according to people familiar with the case.

Dana J. Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told the McDonnells' legal teams that he planned to ask a grand jury to return an indictment no later than this past Monday, people familiar with the conversations said.

McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, would have been charged with working together to illegally promote a struggling dietary-supplement company in exchange for gifts and loans from its chief executive, the people said.

The plan to seek the felony charges this week changed, however, after attorneys for the state's first couple met with Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole on Dec. 12.

The attorneys argued that the governor had done nothing improper to assist businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. In particular, they focused on the credibility of a key witness, said a person familiar with the presentation. They also argued that if prosecutors proceeded with charges, they should wait until after McDonnell left office Jan. 11 to allow a smooth transition of power to Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe (D).

Some element of the lawyers' arguments apparently persuaded the Justice Department to delay, according to people with knowledge of the case. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

On Friday, the day after the meeting, McDonnell's attorneys were told that the decision would be put on hold, the people said. A final decision about whether to press charges is now not expected before Jan. 2 and could come as late as February, they said.

How hard is that to comprehend? “A final decision about whether to press charges is now not expected before Jan. 2...”

Our italics. Just read what that said!

That Post report didn’t say that prosecutors “decided to wait until the governor was out of office before they brought those charges.” It said McDonnell might not be charged at all.

Indeed, the headline still says this: “In probe of Va. Gov. McDonnell, prosecutors agreed to delay decision on charges.” It says they agreed to delay making their decision, not the date of indictment.

Maddow misreported this point in December. Last night, she did it again, laying a suggestion that the Post may have screwed things up—that the Post may have gotten it wrong. In truth, she is the one who keeps misstating what the Post really said.

Will McDonnell be charged? We don’t know and neither do you; you’ll note that the Post's February target date hasn’t passed. For ourselves, we almost never root for people to get charged with crimes, and this case doesn’t seem all that heinous, despite the cheerleading Maddow has done in the past year.

Maddow’s a different breed of cat. She frequently roots for people to get thrown in prison, preferably with their naked, shivering children along for the ride.

True Believers are like that. To us, Maddow seems like a bit of a tribal True Believer, a phase she may yet outgrow.

Whatever! But Maddow keeps misstating what the Post reported. We helped her with her comprehension back in December. Last night, she played us concerning this matter again, possibly not on purpose.

As she continued with her segment, she rolled her eyes at the oddball way some Democrats have apparently lobbied the prosecutors not to indict Ultrasound. She snarked and suggested that this had been a weird bit of behavior.

Granted, the snark was wonderful fun. But do you think she had any idea what she was talking about?

We don’t know if McDonnell will be indicted; also, we don’t root for indictments. Watching Rachel last night, we thought she might be hearing a lack of footsteps and maybe perhaps getting scared.

We don't know that, of course.