Will wonders never cease?
Yesterday Politico published a very suspect article claiming, at first, that Ben Carson had lied about a scholarship to West Point. Afterwards Ben Carson ripped, and I do mean ripped, into reporters who tried to question him.
Mr. Carson, the doctor whose soft-spoken and sedate style have made his rise to the top of the Republican presidential field all the more puzzling, abandoned his gentle manner on Friday night and delivered a powerful public scolding of the news media that has begun to question his celebrated biography.
In the process, he turned what has become an almost robotic ritual for candidates under attack — the live and often defensive news conference — into an aggressive confrontation, and at times interrogation, of the reporters’ motives and methods.
But thats not what has me somewhat surprised. What’s surprising is fellow journalists and even those who are running against Ben Carson came to his defense.
Trump had already cut ties with Politico calling it “the dumbest and most slated” news site he has ever seen calling them “losers!”
*Not accurate* in Politico story:
-Carson claimed to have applied to West Point.
-Campaign admitted Carson fabricated history.— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) November 6, 2015
He followed up with:
…[T]here is no evidence in Politico’s story that Carson ever claimed to have applied to West Point…What initially looked like a disaster for Ben Carson could now be a major black eye for Politico.
McKay Coppins from BuzzFeed wrote:
“Politico’s ‘admits fabricating’ headline isn’t really right.”
[U]nwillingness to admit fault plagues Politico’s big story of the day…As all of Twitter — not to mention the Carson campaign — has pointed out, Carson admitted no such [fabrication]…He never applied to West Point … and Politico reported that he had
I've been a reporter for almost 30 years. Politico's Ben Carson story is among the stupidest things I've even seen in print.
— Scott Baker (@bakerlink) November 7, 2015
https://twitter.com/AlexPappas/status/662709092150939648
Politico admits to fabricating headline: https://t.co/bytNcCCCog
— Kendall Breitman (@KendallBreitman) November 6, 2015
If it’s between Politico and Ben Carson, put me in the Ben Carson column please.
I’m a big fan of Ben Carson … I know there’s a media kerfuffle about it … but I can tell you this: I like & trust Ben Carson.
When Politico finally changed the lede they still caught heat from The WaPo’s Dave Weigel:
The new Politico lede remains problematic: Carson just now ‘conceded that he never applied,’ [though] he wrote that in his memoir 23 years ago
It’s good to see reporters and fellow Republican nominee’s coming to Carson’s defense. In the end this was Politico using the Dan Rather/See-BS method of “reporting”. Throw some red meat out there and challenge others to prove it wrong. When they prove it wrong the bell has already been rung so who cares if its all lies. Many times that worked, as it did for Dan Rather for years. But every so often it comes back to bite them in the ass.
See author page
You must have missed Donald Trump’s tweet on the whole matter which read, WOW, one of the many lies by Ben Carson! Big story.
Or the interview Trump did with Bill O’Reilly in which he trashes Ben Carson for ‘getting religion’ in a bathroom, Trump said that Ben Carson could not have recovered from his “pathological condition” (Carson really said ‘pathological temper’) without a lot of drugs, and he even mocked his religious conversation. How is that being supportive?
When Trump was the undisputed front runner they attacked him. Now that Carson is on top, at least in some polls, they’re going after him. Whoever the Republican front runner is can expect the same. In the meantime HRC, who has been caught red handed lying about emails and Benghazi, will be given a free pass until the MSM deems it “old news” and no longer a campaign issue. This is no surprise and was/is to be expected.
@Debra Carey: Trump is a sleaze bag. An example of the very worst of human traits.
@Debra Carey:
That was a retweet:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Nov 6
“@Robostop10: @realDonaldTrump This is not good. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/ben-carson-west-point-215598 …” WOW, one of many lies by Ben Carson! Big story.
It was from the early AM before everybody learned the POLITICO story was false.
So, POLITICO followed up today with a headline ”GOP rivals wary of going after a wounded Carson.”
@Rich Wheeler:
TDS
@Debra Carey:
Since you successfully trolled me. Trump wasn’t even mentioned in Curt’s post.
Donald Trump has regained some ground lost to Dr. Ben Carson, Reuters’ 5-Day Rolling Poll finds. Trump now leads Carson nationally, 27.7 percent to 22.2 percent.
Ben Carson said Friday that he supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement negotiated by the White House – aligning himself more with the GOP’s establishment wing than with the social conservatives who have powered his campaign.
from the Detroit News Carlisle, Pa. — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s published account of having dinner with a top commander in the Vietnam War after marching in a Memorial Day parade in 1969 as a high school ROTC cadet in Detroit does not match historical records.
In Carson’s 1990 best-selling autobiography, “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story,” the neurosurgeon tells of being offered a scholarship to West Point as a high school senior sometime after having dinner with the U.S. Army’s chief of staff, Gen. William Westmoreland, on Memorial Day 1969.
But Westmoreland’s personal schedule shows the general was not in Detroit on Memorial Day or during the days preceding and following the holiday. His schedule says he was in and around Washington, D.C., that weekend, according to Army archives The Detroit News reviewed Friday.
This is just another example of rightwing cult of victimization. MAN UP guys politics can get pretty rough and dirty. Should i remind people about the fake UNDERAGE DOMINICAN HOOKER story that came out 6 days before the election? Or Dr J’s warnings that MILLIONS OF AMERICANS MIGHT DIE FROM EBOLA or the DISEASED KID INVASION FROM MEXICO !!!
When a man dies hanging drapes it is an accident.
When Obama says that man died fighting Dutch troops in Indonesia it is a lie.
Obama published that lie in one of his ”auto”biographies.
When a cancer patient has almost all her costs covered without debate or argument by her insurer but still dies, it is a tragedy.
When Obama says that woman had to fight all the time to get her coverage (even invoking the idea of a ”pre-existing condition”) so as to get ObamaCare passed it is a LIE.
But Obama led about his step-grandfather’s death as well as his mother’s illness with nary a whimper from the media.
Here’s a walk down memory lane. The media had and has a lack of curiosity when it’s someone they support.
http://www.ijreview.com/2015/11/465980-false-things-obama-said-about-his-bio-that-didnt-cause-the-media-to-go-into-full-meltdown/
How many times have conservatives been told that the only reason they don’t like Obama is because he is a [half] black man? How many of the left wingers that frequent this site have actually said that? Tom comes to mind.
Yet here we have the left wing, predominantly white media attacking a [full] black man for no other reason than he is a Republican. But don’t call them racist. Oh, no, they’re not racist against Ben Carson, they are simply truth seekers, well, at least according to them.
The predominately white left wing has done this before. Anyone remember Herman Cain, Allen West, Doreen Borelli, Thomas Sowell, and even Juan Williams as the predominately white left wing set out to destroy those black Americans?
But don’t point out their own racism in attacking good people just because they are black.
@retire05: He’s not being attacked er vetted because he’s black. He’s being closely vetted lol because he’s Conservative. That of course is also true of the other Black Conservatives you mentioned.
Conservatives may claim their attacks on Obama are also politically, not racially, motivated.
@Rich Wheeler:
Really? Says who? You?
Your party, your rules. Any criticism of Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. was labeled “racist” by everyone on the left. No exceptions. Say that you don’t agree with Obama on any issue and you get the standard boilerplate response from the left “They hate him because he’s black.”
Your party made that rule. Now you can suck it up and live with it.
May claim? IOW, you don’t accept that reason. Never mind the obvious damage Obama has done to this nation. Don’t like him? Democratic Party rule: it’s because you’re racist.
@retire05: Do you think the liberal media is after Conservatives because they’re Black—you know that’s wrong o5.
You also know ALL criticism of Obama by The Right is not labelled racist though some clearly is.
Get honest on this. Is that too much to ask?
@Rich Wheeler:
How is it wrong? Isn’t that what those on your side of the aisle say if anyone objects to the policies of Obama. It’s racism
Bullshit. Any criticism of Obama is quickly labeled racist by everyone on the left.
That’s your side’s rule. Now deal with it. The claim that the left is racist against Ben Carson is just as legitimate (even more so) than the claim the right is racist against Obama.
Don’t like it when we play by your side’s rules, do you?
Stupid? Looking in your bathroom mirror again, RW?
@Rich Wheeler:
I see you altered your post to this:
Here’s some honesty for you; the party of racists is the Democratic Party, your party, the party of Hillary, Bernie and yes, Webb.
And if you want to see real racism, look no further than cities run by Democrats where black children are relegated to failing schools. Take a look at the drop out rate in Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, all cities run by Democrats.
@retire05: “ANY criticism of Obama is quickly labeled racist by EVERYONE on the left.” Ridiculous assertion.
You say The LIBERAL news media is after Carson because he’s Black not because he’s Conservative.–to quote you– bullshit
You are an extremist. Might make you feel real tough but it won’t win any Prez. elections–so be it.
@Rich Wheeler:
How so?
Do you think that liberals can’t be racist?
Anytime a liberal goes after a black, for any reason, I say that is racist. You are not allowed to criticize a black for any reason. Not my rule, the rule of the party you support. I am simply holding you to your own party’s rules.
I am not the one who craps on the uniform they once donned. That, RW, makes you the extremist. That, and your support of a grifter who bilks you out of money all in the name of animal “rights.”
Which has exactly what to do with the conversation? Nada. Obfuscating again, I see.
FYI, I am as tough as Smith and Wesson makes me, which is tough enough.
@retire05: You make sense only to yourself O5.
Nobody ever made a “rule that every time you go after a Black politician you are racist” That’s absurd on it’s face–
Today is the U.S Marine Corps 240TH Birthday—tomorrow is Veterans Day–I served 13 months as a Marine in Viet Nam–you say I’ve crapped on my Marine Corps Officer’s uniform. I’d say the only crap here is what continually comes from your foul mouth
Happy Birthday Marines
Thanks to ALL our Veterans for your service