The Green[e]house Effect: a Weblog

Adventures in Journalism

This dispatch from the Associated Press about the Democratic debate last night in New Hampshire— should make even the most jaundiced reader apoplectic. If this reporter made a stab at some semblance of neutrality, I can hardly tell. It looks like a hit piece, through and through.

Some choice examples:

• Facts got most blurred Tuesday night when the Democrats took on President Bush's record, such as when Sen. John Kerry criticized the administration's environmental policies by telling the story of [the Denuccios, a] Salem, N.H., couple.

  As he told it, the Denuccios can't drink their water or shower because they live next to a lake contaminated with the gasoline additive MTBE.

  But in a post-debate telephone interview, Lisa Denuccio said the couple now showers with the water from their town rather than the old polluted well. ``We can't do without that,'' she said of the showers. However, she says, they still drink bottled water.

  Let me see: Kerry said the couple can't shower with its own water ... and one of the people in question says she had to switch to the town's water. Wow, what a paradox.

• Several of the nine candidates criticized the tax cuts Bush pushed through Congress. But none mentioned that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who has served both Republican and Democratic presidents, has cited those cuts as a reason for the recent economic growth.

  Think that might be because of how even more observers cite the tax cuts as a reason for recent half-trillion dollar deficits? I dunno — could be, don'tcha think?

• Using a favored attack line against Bush, Lieberman said ``3.5 million people have lost their jobs'' and Howard Dean commented twice on the 3 million jobs lost under Bush.

  While it is true that about 3 million jobs were lost during the early months of the Bush presidency, that trend has been reversing for several months as the jobless rate has dropped from a peak of 6.4 percent in June to 5.9 percent last month.

  So let's see: the Democrats said 3 million people have lost their jobs ... and hey, look! Nearly three million people have lost their jobs! Those Democrats, stooping to telling the truth — I tell you, what won't they do?

It kills me to see tripe like that coming from the Associated Press, of all places. If the pros can't do any better than this, sign me up for the National Enquirer.

Posted by Greg Greene at December 10, 2003 01:31 PM