Barack Obama

Not So Breitbart: The Stupidest Defense Of Mitt Romney’s Tax Return Stonewall Yet

Posted by on July 18, 2012 at 3:43 pm. 3 Comments :

If you were waiting for a slam-dunk idiotic justification for allowing Mitt Romney to continue to conceal his tax returns, your wait is over. And the source of this numbskullery is just who you might have guessed.

John Nolte of Breitbart News posted an item today headlined, “Romney Would be Insane to Release More Tax Returns, Unless….” That’s a pretty solid assertion that, pending some surprise revelation, Romney should continue to keep his mouth shut. But wait until you hear the reasoning. Breitbrat Nolte starts out stating that two of his most strongly held beliefs are world peace and that all politicians should release at least the last five years of their tax returns. Then he sets about explaining why he is abandoning his principles.

“I hate war and nuclear weapons and I’m big on transparency in government and even bigger on fully vetting candidates, especially presidential candidates — regardless of party.

“Those are my values and my principles. And in a perfect world, I would currently be standing side-by-side with the media and the Obama campaign demanding Romney release at least five years of his tax returns.

“But I’m looking out my window right now and the rivers are not chocolate and the clouds are not cotton candy and the media is not objective and the President of the United States is not honest. In other words, it’s not perfect.”

So Breitbrat Nolte is declaring that the beliefs he asserts are core to his personal values are expendable if the world is not perfect. The next question, of course, is when has the world ever been perfect? By this standard, Nolte is saying that he never has to abide by any principles at all since they are only operative when the world is perfect. And with respect to the subject at hand, neither does Mitt Romney.

Swiss MittBut Nolte doesn’t stop there. He complains that Romney should not be subject to a “unilateral disarmament,” which he contends would be the result of Romney being more forthcoming with his taxes. He says that for Romney to relent would “hand six feet of oppo-research over to Team Obama.” Except that the unilateral disarmament was already undertaken by President Obama who has released over a decade of tax returns, compared to Romney’s one year. And even that is in dispute as new information shows that he has failed to release pertinent parts of his 2010 return.

Furthermore, Nolte is making the curious argument that turning over tax data to the American people is crazy because it would allow an opponent to criticize it. Well, first of all, it would also allow voters to examine it and develop some confidence in the integrity of the candidate. But we wouldn’t want that, would we. Nolte seems to think that the purpose of releasing such information is purely tactical in a political context. He forgets that the real reason is to inform voters so that they can make better decisions.

Secondly, if Nolte is serious, then he is arguing that candidates should never reveal anything about themselves, because any information could be subject to criticism. By the way, Romney is making this same argument.

In another bit of misplaced loyalty, Nolte believes that releasing his tax returns now might make Romney look weak after insisting so fervently that he would not do so. Once again, Nolte is placing Romney’s electoral needs ahead of those of the people. What’s more, nothing makes Romney look weaker than the cowardice he is displaying by refusing to be honest with the voting public.

Finally, Nolte offers some peculiar advice to Romney. He suggests that Romney should agree to release some of his tax returns only after securing concessions from Obama for things that have nothing to do with taxes. For instance, one year of tax returns for documents about Fast and Furious. In other words, he is advocating holding Romney’s taxes hostage for political ransom.

This may be the stupidest part of all. Obama has no incentive whatsoever to comply with such demands. In fact, his incentive would be to laugh in Romney’s face. Here’s why: If Obama refuses to pay Romney’s ransom, then Romney declines to release any more tax data. But the only person that hurts is Romney as he takes more heat for his arrogant reticence to level with the American people. Romney is already getting hammered for not releasing his taxes, so why would Obama be inclined to put an end to that? The best thing Romney could do to trip up Obama would be to get his taxes out and curtail the controversy (unless what’s in the tax returns would cause more damage than that being done by withholding them – which seems likely at this point). Otherwise, Obama looks stronger for standing up to Romney’s ultimatum, and Romney looks shadier for continuing to stonewall.

The question now is – is Romney stupid enough to take advice from Breibrat Nolte?

Memo To The Romney Campaign: At Long Last Have You No Decency?

Posted by on July 17, 2012 at 4:32 pm. 15 Comments :

The campaign of Mitt Romney is so plainly in panic mode that they are resorting to the most despicable brand of insults imaginable. It is an affirmation of just how desperate they are to evade reasonable questions about Romney’s dubious past.

John Sununu, a top Romney surrogate, has been making the media rounds this week and distinguishing himself as, perhaps, the worst spokesman of all time. And bear in mind that Sununu is not some amateur, Tea Party, political neophyte who is unfamiliar with the media. He is the former governor of New Hampshire and was the Chief of Staff to President George H. W. Bush. So it was no mistake of inexperience that last week he charged, with no evidence whatsoever, that “This is a president who wallowed in Chicago in the murky soup of politics/felons.”

Apparently that baseless smear was not sufficient to rescue Romney from the teetering precipice of his own ineptitude. So today Sununu escalated his unhinged assault by calling President Obama a pot smoking, Indonesian, socialist. No, really…

“[Obama] spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S. he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure.”

And Sununu wasn’t through. Later he added that “I wish this president would learn how to be an American.”

These are the sort of immature invectives that characterize the ultra-rightist operatives of the John Birch Society, the Tea Party, and the Ku Klux Klan. Yet they are emanating from the severely pursed lips of an establishment Republican speaking on behalf of the GOP nominee for president. It is an abhorrent display of racism and unpatriotic vilification.

Mitt Romney has a lot for which to answer. His latest explanation for the discrepancy in his Bain Capital tenure is that he had “retired retroactively.” His response to those seeking his tax returns is that “Those are the two years people are going to have, and that’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances.” In his arrogance he believes that he can stonewall the American people and still get their votes.

Another Romney surrogate also spoke out today. John McCain made a statement in response to a flurry of Internet insinuations that he had selected Sarah Palin after having seen 23 years of Romney’s tax returns. McCain shot down that talk and insisted that the real reason was because “we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate.” Um, that actually makes it worse, John.

Meanwhile, Romney spent yesterday at fundraisers in Mississippi where he sought to portray the GOP (Greedy One Percent) as the party of the people. At the River Hills Country Club, where he raised $1.7 million dollars at $50,000 per head, Romney said…

“We’re accused of being the party of the rich. And it’s an awful moniker, because that’s just not true. We’re the party of people who want to get rich. And we’re also the party of people who want to care to help people from getting poor. We want to help the poor.”

Indeed. What an awful moniker. And I’m sure the folks who shelled out fifty grand to hear this tripe were just the sort to “care to help people from getting poor.” No doubt they were well aware that Romney’s tax plan would benefit the wealthy far in excess of any relief the middle class would ever see.

Sununu’s virulent attack on Obama is not only repulsive, it is utterly devoid of logic or facts. No Republican has yet been able to explain how Obama could be such a committed commie subversive and still have provided over an economy that has seen corporations achieve record-breaking profits and a stock market that has soared 55 percent. And if it weren’t for obstructionists in Congress, Obama’s jobs initiatives would have produced millions of new jobs. All of this from a president who Republicans say is anti-business and hates Wall Street. Just this afternoon Romney delivered a speech wherein he charged that Obama is “crushing economic freedom” and “wants Americans to be ashamed of success.” Two more delusional, and unsupported allegations that are debunked by reality.

The desperation of the Romney camp is boiling over with these latest shots by Romney and Sununu. While Obama’s team has merely been citing media generated stories about factual inconsistencies in Romney’s resume and his obsessive secrecy. You don’t see the Obama campaign bringing up the fact that Romney is a war mongering draft-dodger. You don’t see them harping on the fact that Romney flipped his position on choice after telling a harrowing tale of a tragic back alley abortion that resulted in his taking a position from which he said he would never waver.

However, you do see the Romney campaign descending to ethical depths from which they may never be able to surface. When a candidate resorts to these sort of tactics before he is even officially the nominee, it is a virtual concession of defeat. He doesn’t believe he can win fairly with a campaign based on substance and a dedication to the issues about which voters are concerned. And when these tactics are employed this early you can only expect things to get worse as election day nears.

The problem for Romney is, how much lower can he go? I suppose that he could still select Allen West as a running mate. Or Ted Nugent. Or maybe Ronald Reagan’s ghost (the first Zombie-American candidate). He could accuse Obama of having been brainwashed by Islamic extremists in his youth and is a walking time-bomb set to go off after his reelection (I think Breitbart and Beck have already visited this nightmare). Or he could tap Palin and reprise the “palling around with terrorists” theme. That was never really played to its full potential.

I better stop there. I don’t want to give the Romney campaign any ideas. In their condition, these might actually sound good.

Running Cover For Mitt Romney: Fox News Comes To The Rescue

Posted by on July 16, 2012 at 5:59 pm. 3 Comments :

So what’s a Republican presidential candidate to do when he’s asked too many questions for which he has no answers (or for which the answers are too damaging)? Run to Fox News, of course.

Mitt Romney has absolutely no coherent response to the criticisms he is fielding on his tenure at Bain Capital. Nor can he answer credibly why he won’t release his tax returns. So he is relying on Fox News to fill the void by diverting attention to anything else in the hopes of changing the subject.

The diversion that Fox appears to have selected on is a snippet of a speech wherein President Obama addressed the collective value of a nation united to advance prosperity for all. The soundbite was edited to include only a small and misleading segment of the speech so as to make Obama look as if he were dismissive of the hard work done by entrepreneurs. The part that Fox has been running in an endless loop says:

“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

What the President actually said in the full context was:

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

“The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

“So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the GI Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President — because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together.”

That was a pretty explicit endorsement of both personal initiative and community strength. But the memo obviously went out at Fox headquarters advising everyone to get on board this story and distort it beyond all recognition. The theme that was regurgitated throughout the Fox universe was that the President had insulted small business owners. It was broadcast by Fox & Friends, Megyn Kelly, Neil Cavuto, and The Five. It was published on Fox Nation and Fox News online. It was also picked up by Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the Right-Wing Noise Machine. Shortly thereafter the Romney campaign itself picked up the baton and ran with it in an email statement:

“They are also insulting to the hardworking entrepreneurs, small-business owners, and job creators who are the backbone of our economy.”

The only way that anyone could arrive at that conclusion is if they were determined to be dishonest in their representation of the President’s remarks. So it isn’t surprising that Romney’s camp released this statement. They are notorious for their aversion to the truth.

In addition to the “insult” meme, Romney also launched a diversionary attack that accused Obama of funneling public money to his political allies and campaign contributors. Part of this attack was in the form of a web video that mocked Obama’s singing of “Let’s Stay Together.” However, that video has already been removed by YouTube due to copyright violations. This is what Romney told the kiddie crew at Fox & Friends:

“When billions upon billions are given by the Obama administration to the businesses of campaign contributors, that’s a real problem. […] If you’re a campaign contractor to Barack Obama, your business may stand to get billions or hundreds of million in cash from the government. I think it’s wrong – stinks to high heaven and I think the administration has to explain how it is they would consider giving money to campaign contributors’ businesses.”

There are two glaring problems with that critique. First, Romney provided no proof whatsoever – not even an example that had any evidence attached to it. It was a blunt force assault with nothing behind it of substance. And we can expect more of this garbage. Romney has been sending out surrogates like John Sununu to smear Obama for associations with Chicago corruption – also without proof. Secondly, For Romney to complain about Obama padding the pockets of his donors is an odd line of attack because at least Obama reveals who his donors are. Romney has steadfastly refused to identify the bundlers working for his campaign who are responsible for raising the bulk of his funds.

Furthermore, much of the Romney election effort is managed by outside Super PACS, who also withhold donor information. Mitt Romney is running perhaps the most secretive campaign in history. We don’t know who’s bankrolling it. We don’t know what is in his tax returns. We don’t know what role he played at Bain Capital. We don’t know how much cash he had stashed in off-shore bank accounts. Worst, of all, we don’t have any idea what his plans are for resolving the nation’s problems.

Romney operates his campaign like an organized crime syndicate, insisting that everything is above board, but never letting anyone close enough to see where the bodies are buried. Just today a news report revealed that one of Romney’s biggest contributors is under investigation for ties to Chinese mobsters. And Romney has the gall to challenge Obama’s donors?

Romney should immediately disclose who his donors are. Then we can have a discussion. But he is unlikely to do so because it would probably be more damaging to his candidacy than keeping them secret. He’s clearly got something he is intent on hiding. But he is fortunate that he has Fox News to run interference for him and create diversions when necessary.

Mitt Romney Takes A Trip Through Whine Country

Posted by on July 14, 2012 at 11:17 am. 2 Comments :

So what does it take for Mitt Romney to finally agree to spend a couple of minutes answering questions from the media (other than Fox News)? Apparently all it takes is an avalanche of bad press about his self-contradictory explanations about his tenure at Bain Capital.

Romney has had only a handful of interviews with non-Fox reporters in this election cycle. He evaded appearances on the Sunday news programs for an unprecedented 20 months. But yesterday, in order to respond to allegations concerning his management of Bain Capital while it was engaging in business that sent American jobs overseas, Romney held a sort of speed-dating event with five news networks. And the whole blitz amounted to nothing more than an “apology tour,” except that it was Romney insisting that he be the recipient of the regrets. The whining spanned the media spectrum:

FOX: “He really needs to reign in his team and finally take responsibility for what they’re saying.”

CNN: “It’s something which I think the president should take responsibility for and stop.”

ABC: “He sure as heck ought to say that he’s sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team.”

CBS: “He ought to apologize for what he’s doing.”

NBC: “The president’s campaign has been I think outrageous I think in making the charges they have.”

Poor fella. Sort of makes you want to pat him on the head and tell him everything will be alright. Except that, unless he shows some integrity and comes clean about his past, this isn’t going away. And for his part, President Obama is not wavering from his insistence that Romney level with the American people.

Obama - No Apology

Romney’s transparent evasions do nothing to instill confidence in him as a leader. And his continued refusal to release more than a year or two of tax returns doesn’t help either. His arrogance, and an attitude that implies that he’s not subject to the scrutiny that commoners must bear, make thngs even worse. Yesterday he said…

“We’re putting out what is required, plus more that’s not required. Those are the two years people are going to have, and that’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances.”

Translation: So take or leave it, you squawking peasants. I’m not telling you any more than I feel like. There’s nothing you can do about it. And you’ll see nothing at all from the years that I am making the centerpiece of my candidacy. So shut up and let me get back to my dancing horses and car elevators.

Fox News Can’t Stop Lying About Tax Cuts For The Middle Class

Posted by on July 9, 2012 at 10:33 am. 12 Comments :

The announcement today that President Obama is committed to preserving the current tax rates for middle class Americans has been met by Fox News choosing to frame the issue in a more negative and dishonest manner.

Fox News

On the Fox News web site the story was featured with a headline reading, “Obama ‘100% Committed’ To Tax Hike.” Later, on Fox News as the President was speaking, the network displayed a caption reading, “Pres Urges Congress To Pass Tax Increase On Households Earning More Than $250,000.”

Both of those statements are false. The President is neither committed to, nor urging, a tax increase. The tax increasing was passed and signed into law by Republican president George W. Bush. The legislation implementing the Bush-era tax cuts included a sunset provision for when the cuts would expire. That was Bush’s doing, not Obama’s. What Obama is trying to do is to preserve the tax cuts for the vast majority of Americans who actually need them and will spend them to help the economy grow. It is flat out dishonest to say that, because Obama supports allowing the cuts to expire for a few people at the top of the economic scale, that he is proposing a tax increase as characterized by Fox News.

Deficit FactorsMost independent economists agree that lower taxes for the middle class is more likely to fuel economic growth because the middle class spends more of their money on cars, clothes, food, appliances, electronics, travel, etc. The rich, on the other hand, disperses more of their income to savings or retirement accounts that do nothing to stimulate the economy. And studies have proven that the Bush-era tax cuts are one of the biggest contributors to the deficit.

The President is making a rational proposal that Congress come together and agree to pass the middle class relief that both sides insist is necessary to spur growth. There is simply no reason not to do so. The question of whether to cut taxes further for the rich can be debated separately and need not put everyone else at risk. If Republicans refuse to do this because the wealthy are being left out, then they are effectively holding the majority of Americans hostage on behalf of helping millionaires become even richer. But then, that’s the mission of the GOP (Greedy One Percent).

These facts are available for everyone to see and factor into their appraisal of the current economic debate. Everyone except for Fox News viewers, that is. They will continue to be misinformed and subject to opinions that are contrary to reality and harmful to their own interests.

An Arrogant Romney Campaign Shifts Focus To Window Dressing

Posted by on July 6, 2012 at 11:16 am. 2 Comments :

In the past week Mitt Romney has come under severe attacks by conservatives who think that he is blowing any chance he had of beating President Obama. Bill Kristol, Laura Ingraham, and Rupert Murdoch have all made it clear that they are more than disappointed with Romney’s performance as a candidate. Even the Wall Street Journal published a scathing editorial that said that “the campaign looks confused in addition to being politically dumb,” and that those responsible “ought to be fired for malpractice.”

In the wake of this disastrous week that saw stinging criticism from staunch allies, Mitt Romney’s campaign has announced a new shift in tactics. They are now going to commit themselves to better messaging.

“Mitt Romney is planning to fortify his communications and messaging team […] The campaign plans to bolster its rapid response and overall messaging operations.”

Messaging? That’s what Romney thinks is the problem? The Washington Post is reporting that Romney is committed to his current and insular staff of long-time associates. The sense of the campaign is that they are doing just fine but for a lack of effective media.

That’s a fatal misperception. Rather than addressing serious shortcomings in his campaign’s lack of direction, Romney thinks that better PR is all he needs. But Romney’s campaign is almost exclusively centered on his opposition to Obama. He has not articulated an alternative to any policy put forward by the President. There is no Romney health care plan (except for the one that he implemented in Massachusetts that he now disavows).
Mitt RomneyThere is no immigration plan. There is no job creation plan. There is no economic revival plan. There is only heaps of scorn on whatever Obama is doing and promises that he has some magic formula to make everything better – a magic formula that he refuses to disclose.

So now that he is widely viewed in his own circles as being perilously close to blowing it, Romney makes a major announcement that he’s going to beef up his media team. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Continue to rely on all the same people that are driving you into a ditch, but bring aboard some more flacks to lie about it. That should work out just great – for Obama.

Fox Nation vs. Reality: Cherry Picking Poll Data

Posted by on July 2, 2012 at 2:03 pm. 1 Comments :

The top-of-page headline at Fox Nation today is a report that falsely declares that “Obama Poll Numbers Drop After Court Upholds His Law.”

Fox Nation Polls

The poll to which the Fox Nationalists refer is from the notoriously GOP-slanted Rasmussen Reports. Rassmussen is best known as a Republican shill. He attends GOP conferences and is a fixture on Fox News. His findings invariably favor right-wing politicians and policies.

As a demonstration of just how far afield he is, take a look at the most recent polls posted on RealClearPolitics:

RealClearPolitics Polls

Notice that Rasmussen is the only one that shows Romney in the lead. What’s more, in every poll taken since the the Supreme Court’s ruling on the health care bill, Obama’s numbers have gone up – not down. And that includes the poll from Fox News.

So Fox News promotes the results of a poll by Rasmussen even over their own poll. That’s how committed they are to deceiving the blockheads who watch their network of lies.

Even Fox Nation’s Vacation Coverage Is Blatantly Biased

Posted by on July 2, 2012 at 11:58 am. NO Comments :

The Republican Press Release Agency known as Fox News can’t even report trivial side issues without resorting to pathetic and insulting misrepresentations. Here is how Fox Nation is portraying the news that both President Obama and Mitt Romney are taking a few days of R & R:

Fox Nation Vacation

Notice that the President is characterized as a shiftless slacker who “Takes the Week Off,” insinuating that he is neglecting his obligations. The Fox Nationalists accompany this headline with a photo of a tropical paradise suitable for sunbathing and luaus, despite the fact that Obama is actually going to Camp David. Furthermore, he is only spending two days there, where he will also be working. This news is viewed as “Obnoxious” by the Fox Nation community.

Romney, on the other hand, is described “Recharging” at his own personal resort destination on Lake Winnipesaukee, where he has his own vacation home. His holiday is seen as a well-deserved respite from the stress of the campaign trail (which everyone knows is much more severe than being the leader of the free world). This news is viewed as “Cool” by the Fox Nation community.

Imagine for a moment if Obama had been photographed in the manner Romney is above. It would immediately have revived memories of John Kerry windsurfing, wherein he was savaged by the media for engaging in a sport that was reserved for upper-crusters (as opposed to dancing show horses). Put Obama on the back of a jet ski with his wife driving and there would be endless mockery of him as a pussy-whipped wimp. And add to that the fact that the jet ski is stalled in mid-lake and Romney is helplessly throwing up his hands, and you have the makings of a story about a clueless and out-of-touch elitist who can’t even get his jet ski started.

These sort of visuals are subtle, but they are also effective and deliberate. The problem with them appearing on Fox Nation is that they will only be seen by people who already share the puerile views of the emotionally-stunted editors at Fox Nation. So the exercise is a waste of time except for the degree to which they validate every criticism of Fox News as a brazenly biased mouthpiece for the GOP.

Fox Nation In Feverish Panic To Digest News That Obamacare Is Constitutional

Posted by on June 28, 2012 at 3:23 pm. 10 Comments :

For the past several months, Fox News has been been struggling mightily to dismiss the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) as a blatant overreach of congressional and executive power. They have characterized it as a job-killing, deficit-raising, breach of constitutional law. They attempted to belittle President Obama, whose background as a professor of constitutional law was mocked by the hosts and guests on Fox.

Today was a nightmare come true for the right. Obama’s constitutional expertise was affirmed by the Supreme Court with a deciding vote provided by the conservative Chief Justice, John Roberts. Consequently, the weasels at Fox shifted into overdrive to fight back against this utterly devastating rebuke. By midday Fox Nation posted eighteen separate articles, all with negative appraisals of Obama and the Court’s decision.

Fox Nation on Obamacare Ruling

Some of the standouts include, “A Dark Day For Freedom,” “Obama Taunts Romney After Ruling,” “Palin: ‘Obama Lies, Freedom Dies” But without a doubt my personal favorite was the report of a tweet by the DNC’s Patrick Gaspard that said “It’s Constitutional, Bitches.” And then there was the story that Fox Nation posted with great alarm that the “Stock Market Drops After Obamacare Upheld.”

It should be noted that this story was published well before the markets had closed. At the time it was posted the market was indeed down about 160 points. The Fox Nationalists may not have considered that the drop might have something to do with economic news, including a report that the losses incurred by JPMorgan, previously said to be about $2 billion, were probably closer to $9 billion. They failed to make that observation even though the biggest losers on the DOW were banking stocks. But more importantly, by the time the markets closed they had rebounded to a trivial loss of only 24 points – a 140 point reversal.

By the logic that Fox was using, if a drop in stock prices was evidence that the business community was opposed to the Court’s decision, then the recovery minutes later is evidence that the market approves of the decision. But don’t expect to see that story on Fox. They are now fully engaged in their primary mission to destroy this presidency on behalf of the GOP and their wealthy, corporate constituency. It’s all downhill from here. Expect Fox to dial up the crazy as they encounter additional defeats, like the one today, on the road to November.

The Difference Between Fox News And Actual News

Posted by on June 27, 2012 at 4:19 pm. 6 Comments :

It has been well documented that Fox News is a partisan agent of the Republican Party. They brazenly promote the interests of the GOP and employ “analysts” who split their time between appearances on Fox and guiding multimillion dollar campaigns against President Obama and other Democrats (i.e. Karl Rove). But now Fox News has demonstrated perfectly why they are not in any reasonable sense a news enterprise.

In a segment of Fox’s signature “news” program, Special Report with Bret Baier, chief Washington correspondent James Rosen gave an account of a memo circulated by Mitt Romney’s campaign that alleged that the Obama campaign had contracted with companies to employ foreign-based call centers. Rosen regurgitated the information provided by Romney’s camp as if it were irrefutably true. The impression left by the report was that Obama is a hypocrite for criticizing Romney’s business record of outsourcing American jobs to other countries, while he was allegedly doing the same thing with his campaign.

There’s only one problem with this irrefutably true allegation – it has been refuted by a real news organization. ABC reporter Devin Dwyer did what reporters do. He investigated the claims made in Romney’s memo and discovered that they originated from a four month old right-wing blog, the Washington Free Beacon, whose web site describes it as being “Dedicated to uncovering the stories that the professional left hopes will never see the light of day.”

The Beacon reported that Obama’s campaign paid several thousand dollars to two foreign firms for telemarketing services. One of the firms was Pacific East, whose headquarters is in British Columbia, Canada. However, as ABC’s Dwyer learned after inquiring, the company also has offices in Oregon. The other firm is Donor Services Group, and it is based in Los Angeles, California, with no current ties to foreign operations. The Beacon apparently found data from 2009 that referenced services provided to a specific client from a facility in the Philippines. But there was no indication that there was any ongoing business there. And in neither case was there any evidence that the work performed by either of these companies for the Obama campaign was done by anyone outside of the United States.

Fox News has once again embarrassed itself as a haven for shoddy journalism. Their chief Washington correspondent took an unsubstantiated blog posting and broadcast it, without any fact-checking, to a Fox audience already dreadfully misinformed and pitifully ignorant. And Baier, the anchor of the program, never bothered to exercise any of the due diligence that a credible journalist would do. The story went straight from an avowedly conservative blog to Romney headquarters to Fox News, without any effort to certify the allegations.

It took a reporter from ABC to make a couple of calls, get the real story, and reveal that Romney, the Beacon, and Fox News were all accomplices in disseminating a lie. This is what happens when you have pseudo-news organizations that don’t actually do any news gathering. The broadcast news networks and CNN have bureaus staffed with reporters all over the world. But Fox News only has presenters who read copy off of TelePrompters and don’t do any original reporting. You can’t expect them to actually verify things they read on blogs, can you? Especially when it’s so much easier to just go with the talking points you get from the Republican National Committee. That’s the difference between Fox News and actual news.