Dear Leader provides latest “fact-check:” Every Sunday, the Washington Post includes a full-length Fact Checker piece in its hard-copy Sunday edition.
This Sunday, the Post featured this Fact Checker piece. Perhaps it’s time for Glenn Kessler and his editors to take a good long rest.
In Sunday’s post, Kessler “fact-checked” the following statement by Obama, made on May 31:
“The good news is, today, our businesses have created nearly 7 million new jobs over the past 38 months. Five hundred thousand of those jobs are in manufacturing.”
As Kessler notes, the statement by Obama was factually accurate. But he threw two Pinocchios at the prez anyhow. This was his explanation:
KESSLER (6/16/13): While the president has long preferred to point to the gain in jobs since early 2010—the low point in employment during his presidency—the fact remains that manufacturing employment is still about 600,000 jobs smaller than it was when he took office. That stands in stark contrast to overall non-farm employment—which is about 2 million jobs larger.“Manufacturing job growth has slowed in the past year,” our Dearest Leader patiently tells us. For that reason, “it might be time to retire this talking point.”
Moreover, the growth in manufacturing jobs has basically stalled over the past year. The president’s continued use of this 500,000-job statistic, even as other job stats keep improving, suggests the news is not as good as advertised. Without some presidential acknowledgment that manufacturing job growth has slowed in the past year, it might be time to retire this talking point. In the meantime, the president earns Two Pinocchios.
Crazily inaccurate statements are being made all the time. The public ought to be warned about these false remarks.
This Sunday, though, the Washington Post decided to focus on a statement which is actually accurate. The Post just thinks it might be time to stop making this accurate statement.
On the one hand, we’re lucky to have a Dear Leader like this—a Dear Leader who is willing to tell the president when it’s time to “retire” an accurate statement.
On the other hand, is it time for Kessler and his editors to enjoy a good long solid rest?
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