HOD
2003-12-10 18:19:32 UTC
CAMPAIGN 2004
Who's Lying Now?
MoveOn.org's Daily Mislead lives up to its name.
BY BEN FRITZ
Wednesday, December 10, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST
In a June 6 speech about Medicare, President Bush said, "We must protect
seniors from high medical costs that can rob them of their savings." And
with the recently passed Medicare bill, which adds a prescription drug
benefit to the government's health insurance program for seniors, the
president claims to have done just that.
Yet according to a prominent liberal Web site, the Medicare bill is de facto
proof of dishonesty by President Bush because it includes a provision
supported by Democrats that forbids the government from using its purchasing
power to negotiate lower drug prices. Does the objection prove that Mr. Bush
was lying? Of course not. On the contrary, it's nothing more than the sort
of ideological disagreement that is inherent to democracy.
Unfortunately, the Medicare example is just one of many false accusations of
presidential dishonesty leveled by "The Daily Mislead," which accused Mr.
Bush of deception due to the Medicare provision on three separate occasions
(here, here and here). The Mislead is a new project of the increasingly
influential liberal organization MoveOn.org, which claims to reach more than
two million activists and recently received a donation of up to $5 million
from philanthropist George Soros, who is working to prevent President Bush's
re-election.
The Daily Mislead claims that it provides "an accurate daily chronicle for
journalists of misrepresentations, distortions and downright misleading
statements by President Bush and the Bush Administration," but in most cases
since its first issue on Sept. 15, it has done nothing of the kind. Instead,
despite numerous examples of actual deception by the Bush administration,
the Mislead has generally presented a series of partisan accusations of
dishonesty based on nothing more than political disagreement. Like too many
participants in the media bias debate, MoveOn is churning out a series of
analyses designed to support a preconceived agenda--whether the facts fit
the case or not.
In short, with The Daily Mislead, MoveOn has become the leader of a new
school of liberal criticism that seeks to brand every policy disagreement
with President Bush as a broken promise or lie. These loose accusations
trivialize charges of dishonesty, reducing them to little more than another
partisan spin tactic.
The most frequent way in which The Daily Mislead unfairly accuses the Bush
administration of dishonesty is to present evidence of a vague promise made
by the president and attack him for betraying this promise by not supporting
some favored liberal policy (such as spending more money on the issue).
For instance, on Nov. 20, the Mislead made this accusation: "President Bush
unveiled his energy plan in May 2001, vowing to 'make this country the
world's leader in energy efficiency and conservation in the 21st century.'
But the energy bill under final consideration by the Senate and supported by
the President devotes less than ten percent of the $25.7 billion in tax
breaks to energy efficiency."
But why is 10% not enough? How much would be enough? MoveOn never says,
because it's too busy engaging in partisan attacks posing as objective
analysis of dishonesty. It later points out, "The bill allocates only $1.5
billion over ten years in new energy efficiency spending, $300 million less
than for 'clean coal' technology, considered by environmentalists to be an
oxymoron." But why are environmentalists right about "clean coal," and why
isn't $1.5 billion enough? It further states: "Around $14.5 billion of the
tax breaks, about 62%, go to fossil fuels and nuclear power subsidies."
Nuclear power, of course, produces no air pollution and is supported by some
as an environmentally friendly power source. MoveOn may disagree, as it does
with the Bush administration's spending on energy efficiency, but it
provides no evidence as to why this disagreement is evidence of dishonesty.
Similarly, on Oct. 21, the Mislead attacked Mr. Bush for not requesting as
much for veterans' health as the American Legion, a veterans group, would
like and for not engaging in emergency spending approved by Congress that
included extra funds for veterans' health. The Mislead's evidence that this
position was dishonest? An extremely vague statement by the president in
which he said, "Veterans are a priority for this administration . . . and
that priority is reflected in my budget."
The examples of "dishonesty" that consist of little more than vague
statements and partisan disagreement go on. On Oct. 17, the Mislead said the
Bush administration's campaign to promote the success of the Iraq war was
dishonest because troop morale is low. On Oct. 7, it attacked the
president's statement that education would be his "top priority" after he
proposed only a small increase in funding for federal educational programs.
And on Oct. 30, it accused the president of being deceptive when he promised
to make the national park system the "crown jewel of America's recreation
system" because of a dispute over funding for park maintenance and the fact
that some parks have long waits for student groups to visit.
In other cases, The Daily Mislead has made accusations of dishonesty that
might be serious, but the only evidence MoveOn marshals for its cause is
highly subjective.
The Oct. 14 Mislead opens with the following statement: "Despite President
Bush's rhetorical claim that 'the best safeguard against abuse is full
disclosure,' Republican Senator Arlen Specter compares the lack of candor
from the Administration about the Patriot Act to 'a big black hole.' " Why
should we believe Mr. Specter's accusation? MoveOn doesn't tell us. It also
notes that "fellow Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says 'it's like pulling
teeth to get answers' from Attorney General John Ashcroft about whether the
Justice Department may be using the Act to justify wrongful handling of
Americans detained simply on suspicion of terrorist connections." The
Mislead then notes that Mr. Ashcroft has testified before Congress three
times since early 2002, while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did so 12
times, but fails to grapple with potential reasons for the difference, such
as the war in Iraq.
These are subjective accusations against the president, not serious analyses
of dishonesty. The Oct. 1 Mislead makes a similarly absurd claim, stating,
"On Tuesday members of the Iraqi Governing Council contradicted Secretary of
State Colin Powell's optimistic timetable for self-government, saying it
could take up to 18 months to ratify a constitution, thus extending the U.S.
occupation into 2005. This is far longer than senior administration members
suggested just last week but is exactly what President Bush's father warned
might happen." That the Bush administration disagrees with the Iraqi
Governing Council about the timetable for the occupation and that this claim
contradicts a statement by George H.W. Bush in a 1998 book are not in
themselves evidence of dishonesty, though, just disagreement.
Another favorite tactic of the Mislead has been to blast the administration
for promises it was unable to fulfill or policy plans that changed due to
altered circumstances. In essence, these supposed examples of dishonesty
actually consist of outcomes the Bush administration cannot realistically
control.
The very first Mislead, from Sept. 15, included such an attack, nothing that
Mr. Bush said his "first goal is an economy that [will] employ every man and
woman who seeks a job." MoveOn then attacked the president because the
economy had lost approximately 2.5 million jobs since he came into office.
The fact that the economy has not created jobs, however, is not evidence
that Mr. Bush didn't attempt to spur job creation through his economic
policies.
Similarly, the Misleads from Sept. 29 and Oct. 3 attack the administration
for not reaching the job creation goals it offered in support of its tax cut
plans. And in perhaps the biggest stretch of all, the Oct. 24 Mislead
implied that a Bush pledge to crack down on corporate leaders who violate
the public trust was broken by an internal memo at military contractor
Haliburton, which is obviously not proof of deception by the administration.
Worst of all, the Mislead occasionally engages in deception of its own,
citing inaccurate or misleading evidence or publishing articles that do not
even include accusations of dishonesty by the Bush administration.
The Nov. 25 Mislead analyzed the situation in Iraq and accused Mr. Bush of
dishonesty because he "yesterday said that we 'put the Taliban out of
business forever'--taking credit for supposedly ridding the world of the
terrorist regime." It goes on to describe "the President's declarations that
the challenges in Afghanistan are over." But the Nov. 24 speech quoted in
the Mislead is all about the continuing missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In
it, Mr. Bush makes clear that Taliban are still a threat and that challenges
remain in Afghanistan, saying, "We are fighting the terrorists in Iraq and
Afghanistan and in other parts of the world so we do not have to fight them
on the streets of our own cities." Mr. Bush is clearly acknowledging the
continued turmoil in Afghanistan, which consists in part of fighting
remnants of the Taliban regime.
On Sept. 19, the Mislead cited a quote by Vice President Dick Cheney on
NBC's "Meet the Press" in March when he said, "We believe [Saddam Hussein]
has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." It notes that six months later
Mr. Cheney said, "I misspoke." But despite the Mislead's title, "Bush
Administration Spends Week Retracting Assertions About Saddam's Threat to
the U.S.," the evidence actually suggests that Mr. Cheney did simply
misspeak. In the same interview, the vice president referred to Iraq's
attempts to reconstitute its "nuclear program," and said Iraq had "pursued"
nuclear weapons and that "we know he's out trying once again to produce
nuclear weapons." In context, Mr. Cheney clearly was referring to Iraq's
attempts to obtain nuclear weapons, not alleging it possessed them at the
time.
At times, the Mislead's arguments verge on irrelevant, because there's
simply no logic to support a claim of Bush administration dishonesty. The
Nov. 6 Mislead, for instance, is about the fact that the Army Corps of
Engineers was considering canceling a no-bid contract extension with
Halliburton. It contains no evidence at all that anyone in the Bush
administration was involved in the overcharges that led to the potential
cancellation. And on Nov. 14, the Mislead attacked Bush administration
changes in overtime rules that some analysts said would lead to millions of
workers losing their right to overtime pay. The evidence that this is
dishonest is a quote in which the president promoted his tax cut plan
because it returns money to the American people. The idea that Mr. Bush's
support for tax cuts means that he should support any plan that would lead
to workers being paid more is absurd on its face.
Although it occasionally contains legitimate instances of Bush
administration dishonesty, The Daily Mislead is primarily a vehicle for
MoveOn's partisan attacks on the president. There's nothing inherently wrong
with partisanship, but framing these attacks as objective analysis of
dishonesty is highly deceptive.
The Daily Mislead is just one more example of how partisans eager to exploit
the public's frustration with actual dishonesty by their leaders
systematically conflate disagreement with deception. Until we recognize the
difference, it will be hard to sort out truth from fiction.
The Wall Street Journal
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end
Who's Lying Now?
MoveOn.org's Daily Mislead lives up to its name.
BY BEN FRITZ
Wednesday, December 10, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST
In a June 6 speech about Medicare, President Bush said, "We must protect
seniors from high medical costs that can rob them of their savings." And
with the recently passed Medicare bill, which adds a prescription drug
benefit to the government's health insurance program for seniors, the
president claims to have done just that.
Yet according to a prominent liberal Web site, the Medicare bill is de facto
proof of dishonesty by President Bush because it includes a provision
supported by Democrats that forbids the government from using its purchasing
power to negotiate lower drug prices. Does the objection prove that Mr. Bush
was lying? Of course not. On the contrary, it's nothing more than the sort
of ideological disagreement that is inherent to democracy.
Unfortunately, the Medicare example is just one of many false accusations of
presidential dishonesty leveled by "The Daily Mislead," which accused Mr.
Bush of deception due to the Medicare provision on three separate occasions
(here, here and here). The Mislead is a new project of the increasingly
influential liberal organization MoveOn.org, which claims to reach more than
two million activists and recently received a donation of up to $5 million
from philanthropist George Soros, who is working to prevent President Bush's
re-election.
The Daily Mislead claims that it provides "an accurate daily chronicle for
journalists of misrepresentations, distortions and downright misleading
statements by President Bush and the Bush Administration," but in most cases
since its first issue on Sept. 15, it has done nothing of the kind. Instead,
despite numerous examples of actual deception by the Bush administration,
the Mislead has generally presented a series of partisan accusations of
dishonesty based on nothing more than political disagreement. Like too many
participants in the media bias debate, MoveOn is churning out a series of
analyses designed to support a preconceived agenda--whether the facts fit
the case or not.
In short, with The Daily Mislead, MoveOn has become the leader of a new
school of liberal criticism that seeks to brand every policy disagreement
with President Bush as a broken promise or lie. These loose accusations
trivialize charges of dishonesty, reducing them to little more than another
partisan spin tactic.
The most frequent way in which The Daily Mislead unfairly accuses the Bush
administration of dishonesty is to present evidence of a vague promise made
by the president and attack him for betraying this promise by not supporting
some favored liberal policy (such as spending more money on the issue).
For instance, on Nov. 20, the Mislead made this accusation: "President Bush
unveiled his energy plan in May 2001, vowing to 'make this country the
world's leader in energy efficiency and conservation in the 21st century.'
But the energy bill under final consideration by the Senate and supported by
the President devotes less than ten percent of the $25.7 billion in tax
breaks to energy efficiency."
But why is 10% not enough? How much would be enough? MoveOn never says,
because it's too busy engaging in partisan attacks posing as objective
analysis of dishonesty. It later points out, "The bill allocates only $1.5
billion over ten years in new energy efficiency spending, $300 million less
than for 'clean coal' technology, considered by environmentalists to be an
oxymoron." But why are environmentalists right about "clean coal," and why
isn't $1.5 billion enough? It further states: "Around $14.5 billion of the
tax breaks, about 62%, go to fossil fuels and nuclear power subsidies."
Nuclear power, of course, produces no air pollution and is supported by some
as an environmentally friendly power source. MoveOn may disagree, as it does
with the Bush administration's spending on energy efficiency, but it
provides no evidence as to why this disagreement is evidence of dishonesty.
Similarly, on Oct. 21, the Mislead attacked Mr. Bush for not requesting as
much for veterans' health as the American Legion, a veterans group, would
like and for not engaging in emergency spending approved by Congress that
included extra funds for veterans' health. The Mislead's evidence that this
position was dishonest? An extremely vague statement by the president in
which he said, "Veterans are a priority for this administration . . . and
that priority is reflected in my budget."
The examples of "dishonesty" that consist of little more than vague
statements and partisan disagreement go on. On Oct. 17, the Mislead said the
Bush administration's campaign to promote the success of the Iraq war was
dishonest because troop morale is low. On Oct. 7, it attacked the
president's statement that education would be his "top priority" after he
proposed only a small increase in funding for federal educational programs.
And on Oct. 30, it accused the president of being deceptive when he promised
to make the national park system the "crown jewel of America's recreation
system" because of a dispute over funding for park maintenance and the fact
that some parks have long waits for student groups to visit.
In other cases, The Daily Mislead has made accusations of dishonesty that
might be serious, but the only evidence MoveOn marshals for its cause is
highly subjective.
The Oct. 14 Mislead opens with the following statement: "Despite President
Bush's rhetorical claim that 'the best safeguard against abuse is full
disclosure,' Republican Senator Arlen Specter compares the lack of candor
from the Administration about the Patriot Act to 'a big black hole.' " Why
should we believe Mr. Specter's accusation? MoveOn doesn't tell us. It also
notes that "fellow Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says 'it's like pulling
teeth to get answers' from Attorney General John Ashcroft about whether the
Justice Department may be using the Act to justify wrongful handling of
Americans detained simply on suspicion of terrorist connections." The
Mislead then notes that Mr. Ashcroft has testified before Congress three
times since early 2002, while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did so 12
times, but fails to grapple with potential reasons for the difference, such
as the war in Iraq.
These are subjective accusations against the president, not serious analyses
of dishonesty. The Oct. 1 Mislead makes a similarly absurd claim, stating,
"On Tuesday members of the Iraqi Governing Council contradicted Secretary of
State Colin Powell's optimistic timetable for self-government, saying it
could take up to 18 months to ratify a constitution, thus extending the U.S.
occupation into 2005. This is far longer than senior administration members
suggested just last week but is exactly what President Bush's father warned
might happen." That the Bush administration disagrees with the Iraqi
Governing Council about the timetable for the occupation and that this claim
contradicts a statement by George H.W. Bush in a 1998 book are not in
themselves evidence of dishonesty, though, just disagreement.
Another favorite tactic of the Mislead has been to blast the administration
for promises it was unable to fulfill or policy plans that changed due to
altered circumstances. In essence, these supposed examples of dishonesty
actually consist of outcomes the Bush administration cannot realistically
control.
The very first Mislead, from Sept. 15, included such an attack, nothing that
Mr. Bush said his "first goal is an economy that [will] employ every man and
woman who seeks a job." MoveOn then attacked the president because the
economy had lost approximately 2.5 million jobs since he came into office.
The fact that the economy has not created jobs, however, is not evidence
that Mr. Bush didn't attempt to spur job creation through his economic
policies.
Similarly, the Misleads from Sept. 29 and Oct. 3 attack the administration
for not reaching the job creation goals it offered in support of its tax cut
plans. And in perhaps the biggest stretch of all, the Oct. 24 Mislead
implied that a Bush pledge to crack down on corporate leaders who violate
the public trust was broken by an internal memo at military contractor
Haliburton, which is obviously not proof of deception by the administration.
Worst of all, the Mislead occasionally engages in deception of its own,
citing inaccurate or misleading evidence or publishing articles that do not
even include accusations of dishonesty by the Bush administration.
The Nov. 25 Mislead analyzed the situation in Iraq and accused Mr. Bush of
dishonesty because he "yesterday said that we 'put the Taliban out of
business forever'--taking credit for supposedly ridding the world of the
terrorist regime." It goes on to describe "the President's declarations that
the challenges in Afghanistan are over." But the Nov. 24 speech quoted in
the Mislead is all about the continuing missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In
it, Mr. Bush makes clear that Taliban are still a threat and that challenges
remain in Afghanistan, saying, "We are fighting the terrorists in Iraq and
Afghanistan and in other parts of the world so we do not have to fight them
on the streets of our own cities." Mr. Bush is clearly acknowledging the
continued turmoil in Afghanistan, which consists in part of fighting
remnants of the Taliban regime.
On Sept. 19, the Mislead cited a quote by Vice President Dick Cheney on
NBC's "Meet the Press" in March when he said, "We believe [Saddam Hussein]
has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." It notes that six months later
Mr. Cheney said, "I misspoke." But despite the Mislead's title, "Bush
Administration Spends Week Retracting Assertions About Saddam's Threat to
the U.S.," the evidence actually suggests that Mr. Cheney did simply
misspeak. In the same interview, the vice president referred to Iraq's
attempts to reconstitute its "nuclear program," and said Iraq had "pursued"
nuclear weapons and that "we know he's out trying once again to produce
nuclear weapons." In context, Mr. Cheney clearly was referring to Iraq's
attempts to obtain nuclear weapons, not alleging it possessed them at the
time.
At times, the Mislead's arguments verge on irrelevant, because there's
simply no logic to support a claim of Bush administration dishonesty. The
Nov. 6 Mislead, for instance, is about the fact that the Army Corps of
Engineers was considering canceling a no-bid contract extension with
Halliburton. It contains no evidence at all that anyone in the Bush
administration was involved in the overcharges that led to the potential
cancellation. And on Nov. 14, the Mislead attacked Bush administration
changes in overtime rules that some analysts said would lead to millions of
workers losing their right to overtime pay. The evidence that this is
dishonest is a quote in which the president promoted his tax cut plan
because it returns money to the American people. The idea that Mr. Bush's
support for tax cuts means that he should support any plan that would lead
to workers being paid more is absurd on its face.
Although it occasionally contains legitimate instances of Bush
administration dishonesty, The Daily Mislead is primarily a vehicle for
MoveOn's partisan attacks on the president. There's nothing inherently wrong
with partisanship, but framing these attacks as objective analysis of
dishonesty is highly deceptive.
The Daily Mislead is just one more example of how partisans eager to exploit
the public's frustration with actual dishonesty by their leaders
systematically conflate disagreement with deception. Until we recognize the
difference, it will be hard to sort out truth from fiction.
The Wall Street Journal
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`
end