The Congressional Budget Office issued a new report Tuesday on the federal budget deficit, Obamacare and jobs -- and Official Washington exploded.
It all centered on one line about how the health care reform law would affect employment. CBO actually said that Americans would choose to work less, for various reasons, and that if you translated the fewer hours worked into full-time jobs, it would equal 2.5 million by 2024 (2.3 million by 2021). It didn't say that Obamacare would cost the country 2.5 million jobs, but Republicans said so anyway.
But it wasn't just the GOP, which had a political incentive to take advantage of economic jargon. It was the political press as well. They either misrepresented what the report said -- or shrugged off the actual facts, opting instead to speculate on what the political spin would mean for the horse race.
Forget the fact that FOX News, the Daily Caller, the DC Examiner, all lied about the CBO report. We know they have no integrity or credibility. But the NY Times, the Washington Post, and a number of journalists and pundits on Twitter also blurted out the GOP spin, and did almost nothing to correct it.
The pundits' explanation?
Tho much reporting & GOP response to new CBO report on ACA is inaccurate/false, problem for Dems: If you're explainin', you're losin'
— Jackie Calmes (@calmesnyt) February 4, 2014
Because relating facts and correctly analyzing the situation is just too hard. Better to bleat idiocies like "If you're explainin', you're losin'" and nod your head like the morons you are, eh Villagers?
But those who report news incorrectly and then provide no explanation for their incompetence and complete failure are... winning, somehow? Oh, I love modern-day Newspeak!
ReplyDeleteSeriously? They're explainin' because you're LYIN'.
ReplyDelete