Comment of the day: JEC: There is something deeply mentally, morally, and psychologically wrong here—with Glenn Kessler, with his bosses, and with his colleagues. In a Washington Post with good journalists, there would be a substantial number of resignations today: "Wow. Kessler et al fail basic Fact Checking Journalism 101 here...
...The formula is pretty simple: you read what the candidate actually said, then you evaluate whether what they said was true and fairly stated (i.e. not designed to be misleading). Here's what you don't do: make up something, attribute it to the candidate, pronounce it false, then say "it's all a matter of interpretation." Kessler claims that "a reader" is responsible for the fabricated claim, which -- to the Post's credit, I suppose -- is flatly debunked by the candidate's words quoted above the article. But why spend a column investigating a statement the candidate didn't make?
The Post's problem, of course, is that Democrats don't tell enough lies. Actual fact checking takes on an unseemly partisan tilt when one party is responsible for 80% of the falsehoods...
#commentoftheday
#journamalism
#orangehairedbaboons
