Romney and Ryan aren’t making it easy for people trying to be objective and impartial reporters. They lie too much.
Ezra Klein explains how the Romney campaign’s persistent lying makes it hard for people trying to be impartial, objective reporters.
And here’s the scorecard: looking as hard as they could, Klein and Dylan Matthews could find only two true claims about policy in Ryan’s address, along with six falsehoods and three claims categorized as “misleading.”
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
Ezra Klein wants to bend over backwards to give both side relatively equal praise and blame. But he can’t because the Romney campaign is just too blatantly dishonest.
So how is it we landed in this universe where people like Romney, Ryan, the GOP in general believe they can get away with pumping out such blatant hogwash? Because for decades political reporters have bent over backwards to give both sides relatively equal praise and blame.
Oh there may be some peeps heard off in the corners about nonexistant “Welfare Queens(TM)”, faked Swiftboat stories, twisted up Willie Horton naratives but the GOP knows the cost/benefit ballance is the lie is always going to pay off because the fourth estate won’t dump the ton of bricks on them that they should and the low info voters figure there must be some truth to it all or the press would be howling.
Romney/Ryans’ belief that they can get away with this blatant dishonesty, that it is good strategy, that it is OK is the real poison here. It is time for the press to earn their constitutionally protected position and stamp a scarlet “L” on Romney & Ryan. And not just for an afternoon. These guys need to wear that “LIAR LIAR” tag all the way to november. If the american people are then fools enough to hire these con men we deserve what we will surely get.