{"id":8646,"date":"2012-12-12T10:45:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T18:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8646"},"modified":"2012-12-12T10:45:57","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T18:45:57","slug":"politifacts-lie-of-the-year-the-romney-campaigns-ad-on-jeeps-made-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8646","title":{"rendered":"PolitiFact’s Lie Of The Year: The Romney Campaign’s Ad On Jeeps Made In China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, the proclivity for deception and dishonesty as practiced by Republicans and right-wing media has earned them the honor being awarded “Lie Of The Year”<\/em><\/a> by the fact-checkers at Politifact.<\/p>\n

\"Mitt<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

There were so many deserving lies told by Mitt Romney and his campaign that it must have been a difficult choice for the folks at PolitiFact. The particular lie that captured the prize this year was Romney’s claim that Barack Obama “sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China”<\/em> at the cost of American jobs. As noted by PolitiFact:<\/p>\n

“It was a lie told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a close campaign — that Jeep was moving its U.S. production to China. It originated with a conservative blogger, who twisted an accurate news story into a falsehood. Then it picked up steam when the Drudge Report ran with it. Even though Jeep’s parent company gave a quick and clear denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.<\/p>\n

“And they stood by the claim, even as the media and the public expressed collective outrage against something so obviously false.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, the Romney camp dug in their heels when criticized about the brazen dishonesty of their claim. But then this is the candidate who proudly declared that \u201cWe\u2019re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers <\/em>[who have] jumped the shark.\u201d<\/em> It is the campaign whose strategist admitted that they could simply “Etch-a-Sketch”<\/em> away the extremist conservative positions they touted in the GOP primary. And Romney set a record for assaults on the truth by earning 84 citations of falsehoods (41% in all) by PolitiFact, 19 of which were “Pants-on-Fire.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It would, however, be unjust to let Romney walk away with all the glory. He had plenty of help from right-wing media, most notably Fox News. Most of the Fox menagerie joined in to defend Romney’s fibbing, including Neil Cavuto, Sean Hannity, and the incorrigible kiddies at Fox & Friends. And, of course, Fox was backed up by notorious prevaricators across the web like the Drudge Report and the anti-fact-checkers at NewsBusters.<\/p>\n

Lest anyone come away with the impression that the reality-based community as represented by PolitiFact is secretly in league with the Obama cabal, none other than Fox Nation has endorsed them on numerous occasions, eagerly citing their analyses<\/a> when it served their purpose. Of course, they also conveniently lost their link to PolitiFact when the results didn’t go their way. That’s the modus operandi of the fair and balanced network.<\/p>\n

This addendum to the campaign of 2012 puts a lovely bow around what was the most consistent theme of the GOP throughout the year: Lies, lies, lies. And in the days following the election, Republican operatives have declined to acknowledge that this strategy hurt them in the minds of voters. Consequently, we can expect this sort of duplicity to be a part of future Republican campaigns. The GOP may not be doing all that well getting their candidates elected, but they might very well have a lock on PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year award for many years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again, the proclivity for deception and dishonesty as practiced by Republicans and right-wing media has earned them the honor being awarded “Lie Of The Year” by the fact-checkers at Politifact. There were so many deserving lies told by Mitt Romney and his campaign that it must have been a difficult choice for the folks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[260,908],"class_list":["post-8646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-mitt-romney","tag-politifact"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2fs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7467,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7467","url_meta":{"origin":8646,"position":0},"title":"Fox News Covers Up Mitt Romney’s Lies As Exposed By PolitiFact","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/30\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Another example of the myriad means by which Fox News distorts reality on behalf of Republicans are the choices they make in what not to report as well as what to report dishonestly (which are the only two options considered by Fox reporters). The truth detectors at PolitiFact are a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8851,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8851","url_meta":{"origin":8646,"position":1},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Mitt Romney’s Chinese Jeep Myth Revisited","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/15\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Fox News grabs hold of a blatant and self-serving lie, they just won't let go no matter the cost to their credibility (assuming they had any). The latest of example of this destructive tenacity is a story on Fox Nation that unbelievably declares that \"Romney Was Right: Chrysler CEO\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7884,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7884","url_meta":{"origin":8646,"position":2},"title":"Romney Campaign Advisor Says That Facts Have ‘Jumped The Shark’","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/28\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone paying attention to this campaign already knows that Mitt Romney has little respect for facts. He has repeatedly mangled the truth in order to advance his campaign and to slander President Obama. And it isn't just a few policy disagreements that are shaded for effect. Romney is a full-blown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7999,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7999","url_meta":{"origin":8646,"position":3},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Another Imaginary Apology – UPDATE: Romney vs. Reality","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/12\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE: Mitt Romney has weighed in on this matter by demonstrating his complete unreadiness for leadership, and a lack of character and diplomacy, with a statement that advances the same lies as Fox News did. He said that it was... \"...disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8229,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8229","url_meta":{"origin":8646,"position":4},"title":"11 Mitt Romney Debate Lies For Journalists To Highlight (But Probably Won’t)","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/17\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Media Matters has compiled a list that is a good starting point for the media to address the lies Mitt Romney told during the town hall debate last night. The problem is that the press is so timid and accustomed to dishonesty on the part of Romney that they don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8203,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8203","url_meta":{"origin":8646,"position":5},"title":"Biden\/Ryan Debate: Paul Ryan Reprises PolitiFact’s 2010 Lie of the Year","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/11\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not enough for Republicans to merely lie after having set the bar for veracity so low this election season. Consequently, after Romney spent 90 minutes lying last week, Ryan had to aim higher. And boy, did he. He reprised the 2010 Lie of the Year per PolitiFact. PolitiFact's Lie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8648,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646\/revisions\/8648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}