Lying Liars and the Liars Who Tell Lies

PolitiFact's 'Lie of the Year' Turns Out to Be True

Last month, PolitiFact selected its "Lie of the Year." Given PolitiFact's dubious record of singling out Republicans for lying far more often than Democrats, you probably could have guessed the winner of this particular sweepstakes was a Mitt Romney campaign ad:

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.

And they stood by the claim, even as the media and the public expressed collective outrage against something so obviously false.

but now:

Fiat (FIA.MI) and its U.S. unit Chrysler expect to roll out at least 100,000 Jeeps in China when production starts in 2014 as they seek to catch up with rivals in the world's biggest car market. ...

"We expect production of around 100,000 Jeeps per year which is expandable to 200,000," [Chrysler CEO Sergio] Marchionne, who is also CEO of Chrysler, said on the sidelines of a conference, adding production could start in 18 months.

"Fact Checking" has just become another arm of the liberal media campaign.  Once in a while, they do occasionally ding a liberal politician, often with a dash of "false on the face of things, but true in heart". Similarly, when judging a conservative true, it often with a note of "technically true in fact, but deep down deceptive." It's too bad, because politicians do deserve to be fact checked.  The Romney campaign was correct to say:

... we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers...

You don't fight the battles where the enemy always gets to pick the ground.