THE LIES THAT KEEP ON GIVING.

September 8, 2008

8:05 PM

Reporters continue to timidly equivocate over the McCain campaign's dishonesty about Sarah Palin's record. Two lies in particular stand out because they are central to the "fellow maverick" rationale for Palin's candidacy: her purported opposition to "The Bridge to Nowhere" and the fabrication that she "sold the governor's jet on eBay."

A week ago, the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs purported to "fact check" Palin's claim regarding "The Bridge To Nowhere." He begins with this exact quote:

told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere."

Dobbs then concludes that the statement is "half-true" because "Palin did make the final call to kill plans for the bridge, but by the time she did it was no longer a politically viable project." Well that's not the claim Palin made. Palin claimed she "told Congress 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere," a far more specific assertion than simply having "killed the bridge." But the important point of the story, as Bob Somerby points out, is that Palin told Congress nothing. Nada. Zip. Bubkus. ZERO. Palin didn't tell Congress anything at all, and in no sense is the statement "I told Congress thanks but no thanks" even remotely true -- it's not half true, it's just completely false.

In "fact-checking" Palin's claim, Dobbs forgets to actually evaluate the veracity of the original statement, divining an interpretation of what Palin meant rather than what she actually said. This is generally, how "fact-checking" this claim has been approached. By not challenging what Somerby points out is the most compelling part of the story, they allow the lie to continue being repeated. The media has shown such a reluctance to identify this whopper as a lie that the McCain campaign has cut a commercial touting this massive fabrication as part of Palin's "maverick" credentials.

This has continued with other demonstrably false claims made by the McCain campaign, most notably that Palin "sold the governor's jet on eBay." Palin herself has taken pains to avoid saying she "sold" the plane, but these subtleties escape her running mate. She put it up on eBay, it didn't sell, and they had to sell it at a loss (the dominant theme of Palin's lies is that every single one seems to cost taxpayers millions). Nevertheless, the McCain campaign has continued to repeat the lie. On Friday, when CNN's Campbell Brown confronted Bay Buchanan with the McCain campaign's dishonesty, Buchanan pitched a fit. But when Brown asked for Paul Begala's opinion, Begala, allegedly a liberal, said this (emphasis mine):

BEGALA: No, I will say, it's actually something Bay and I agree on. We're both press bashers irrespective of what the campaigns want. I think the corporate media has fallen in love with this woman and has given her rock star status and need to give her a much thorough review of her record. In defense of governor Palin, I think that the eBay thing with the plane is within the acceptable bounds of hyperbole.

Begala thinks outright lies are within "acceptable bounds of hyperbole" and that Palin's record should be "reviewed" but not in a manner that challenges her most outrageous claims.

The press shouldn't require any motivation to confront politicians on bogus claims. But is it any surprise that they fail to do so when the so-called opposition is willing to give them a pass rather than hammering them on their flagrant dishonesty?

--A. Serwer