The fallacious Fact Check epidemic: As the U.S. Mainstream Media's bias becomes ever more apparent, some are naming names and shaming the guilty and aggressively pushing back; TheWrap on Dinesh D'Souza calling-out the AP's Beth Fouhy; PolitiFact Florida "rulings" show a pro-Democrat bias according to MediaTrackers.org

Fox News Channel video: "Fox News Watch" -Media coverage of the RNC; Host: Jon Scott, Special Guests: Judith Miller, Jim Pinkerton, Alan Colmes, Cal Thomas. Uploaded September 1, 2012. http://video.foxnews.com/v/1818497994001/
See the entire show at: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-watch/2012/09/03/media-coverage-rnc

Seinfeld's Cosmo Kramer once famously felt compelled to share with his best friend what he was doing with some of his free time when we didn't see him -"I'm watching the watchers, Jerry.' 

Similarly, former LA-based Slate blogger Mickey Kaus, long a favorite of ours, and now with a media perch at The Daily Caller, takes a scalpel to the the U.S. Mainstream Media over their new "Fact Check"-ing obsession and wonders if what they're really doing is simply walking onto more thin ice -and only MORE BIAS.; Kaus adroitly observes that it "opens up a giant sluice for the introduction of concealed bias, esp. when “facts” are fed to the fact-checkers by the competing campaigns"

The Daily Caller

Credulous fact-checkers fall for scam

By Mickey Kaus

September 2, 2012

Why the Fact-Checkosphere is failing: So, as I understand it, this year the MSM will righteously strike back against “Post-Truth Politics” through rigorous fact-checking, followed by a manly, non-balanced, yet authoritative calling out of transgressors for the liars that they are.  James Fallows and Jay Rosen, among others, have heralded this great new day. One problem, of course, is the ease–rather, the constant temptation–of presenting debatable policy issues as right/wrong fact issues, a problem emphasized by dissenter Ben Smith yesterday. Another is the way what Smith calls “the new pseudo science of fact-checks” opens up a giant sluice for the introduction of concealed bias, especially when “facts” are fed to the fact-checkers by the competing campaigns.

Read the rest of his post at:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/02/credulous-fact-checkers-fall-for-20-scam/ 

Earlier this afternoon, TheWrap had the story on an effort by one prominent conservative media personality to push back at what they see as the guilty parties. In this case, reporter Beth Fouhy at the AP who seems to have a history of... well, you be the judge, and take a look at what one well-known conservative media website says.

Can they really be so wrong about one person who has such a proven track record like Fouhy's, many of whose pieces appear in the Miami Herald? 

That would have to be an awful lot of coincidences for her to be correct every time, wouldn't you say? http://newsbusters.org/people/beth-fouhy

TheWrap

'2016: Obama's America' Author Dinesh D'Souza Fires Back at Associated Press 'Fact Check'

By Todd Cunningham

September 03, 2012 @ 2:37 pm

Author Dinesh D’Souza, who wrote and co-directed “2016: Obama’s America,” told TheWrap Monday that a recent Associated Press report “fact-checking” his hit documentary is “a crude and inaccurate attack masquerading as a news story.”

The AP article, posted Friday and written by Beth Fouhy, was headlined “Fact Check: Anti-Colonial Obama Not Plausible.”

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/2016-obamas-america-author-dinesh-dsouza-fires-back-associated-press-fact-check-54501

Closer to home, the problem of media bias, and even institutional bias, is even more rampant on a local level because there are not only fewer people paying close attention and who know all the details and context about what's REALLY GOING ON, there are fewer people in newsrooms who will stand up and stop it from airing or going into print.

They just look the other way and make a mental note of it.

A SUBTLE FORM OF BIAS IN LOCAL NEWS

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/09/01/A-Subtle-Form-of-Bias-in-Local-News

And just so there's no confusion on this point, let me be clear.

In my opinion, despite the efforts of Journalism Schools to inculcate a stronger sense of pro-active ethical probity into their students the past thirty years, the evidence to date suggests that in an era of news reporting retrenchment and uncertain economic futures, fewer people in the press corps will stand up to their own corporate management team, editorial superiors or Editorial Board when those people engage in untoward behavior and bias, and in some cases, don't even try to hide it,.The reason?

Because, hello, those are the very same people who will have a say in who is around a year from now in that very newsroom.

NATIONAL USC ANNENBERG-LOS ANGELES TIMES POLL SHOWS LOCAL TELEVISION NEWS RULES WITH VOTERS

Posted August 24, 2012

http://annenberg.usc.edu/News%20and%20Events/News/120824LATimesPoll.aspx

That is especially true in South Florida, where despite what you may want to believe, the general level of ethics in the news room down here is certainly no higher than you'd find in the offices at City Hall, County Halls and the State Capitol that are being followed. 

That level of newsroom ethics in South Florida is largely below-average compared to the rest of the country, and some have been able to keep jobs despite how well-known their own biases and proclivities are for looking the other way and making excuses for shoddy journalism practices. 

Over the next week, I'll be pointing-out some examples of this to you readers here on the blog by putting some sunshine on some stories and news angles that you haven't seen mentioned or reported upon elsewhere.

MediaTrackers.org

PANTS ON FIRE: PolitiFact Florida Rulings Show Clear Bias in Favor of Democrats, Against Republicans

By Sean Davis

30TH AUG 2012 AT 12:36

http://florida.mediatrackers.org/2012/08/30/pants-on-fire-politifact-florida-rulings-show-clear-bias-in-favor-of-democrats-against-republicans/

Recent posts of mine on media bias in its various guises include my April 16, 2012 blog post, titled, Despite self-congratulatory declarations, Tampa Bay Times' PolitiFact's bias in analyzing "facts" over past few years is becoming increasingly apparent to everyone, and Breitbart's Big Journalism's Tony Lee points out some recent examples re Romney.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/despite-self-congratulatory.html

as well as my January 1, 2012 post, Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise! 

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/florida-voters-shake-their-heads-in.html

More proof that Tampa Bay Times' bias is showing: intentionally-misleading faux headlines in blog posts: "Marco Rubio's grandfather ordered deported"

More proof that Tampa Bay Times' bias is showing: intentionally-misleading faux headlines in blog posts: "Marco Rubio's grandfather ordered deported"

Yes, in 1962 -nine years before Marco Rubio was born.

Yes, rather than someone at the The Times doing the right thing and put the year in the headline, they intentionally left it out knowing THAT headline would provoke more hits and visits to the website. Once again, telling the truth would've ruined what the Mainstream Media thought was a clever idea.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/node/117342#comments 

It reeks of desperation.

As I've stated here before, The Buzz blog has degenerated from one of the best places to find out useful information in the state to the number-one site for creepy political Internet trolls from the  Kos Kooks Army, which is why I and so many people I know around the state no longer bother leaving comments there, esp. information that is not controversial.
No matter what you say, you get attacked.

At least when Greg Gutfeld on Fox News' Red Eye does his funny, intentionally-misleading made-up bits, say, something like this, "George Clooney is dead... tired of people asking him when he first realized he was good-looking," everyone gets why it's funny.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/red-eye/index.html

Despite self-congratulatory declarations, Tampa Bay Times' PolitiFact's bias in analyzing "facts" over past few years is becoming increasingly apparent to everyone, and Breitbart's Big Journalism's Tony Lee points out some recent examples re Romney

Despite their rather self-congratulatory declarations, the Tampa Bay Times' PolitiFact's bias and rather loose standards for "experts" in analyzing "facts" over the past few years is becoming increasingly apparent to anyone paying close attention, and over the weekend, Tony Lee at Breitbart's Big Journalism was only too happy to point out some of those recent inconsistencies regarding their comments on Mitt Romney, and hammer them like nails.


Breitbart's Big Journalism

ROMNEY PUTS POLITIFACT ON ROPES
by Tony Lee 

In two separate instances, Politifact has contradicted itself with its rating of the accurate claim made by the Romney campaign that women account for 92.3 percent of the jobs lost under President Obama. 

The “fact checking” organization, which the mainstream media treats as an unbiased and neutral arbiter, showed how much it is willing to stretch the truth to support Obama and undermine Republicans.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/04/13/romney-puts-politifact-on-ropes



Original article this references is at: 
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/apr/10/mitt-romney/romney-campaign-says-women-were-hit-hard-job-losse/



(And given how long his unconstitutional charade has been going on, what's the real reason that PolitiFactFlorida WON'T touch the issue of Florida State Rep.Joe Gibbons' illegal residency? His wife & kids live in Jacksonville, NOT Broward County. Period.)


In this respect, PolitiFactFlorida is very much like like their big brother covering national politics, and their business partner in crime, the Miami Herald.


Far more often than can possibly be explained by sheer coincidence or happenstance -but which can be explained by the Herald's much-lower journalism standards and worse editing than 20 years ago- in stories about politics, government, lobbying, and business in South Florida, the so-called experts that are cited in Miami Herald stories are often ones that either have an emotional or financial stake in the discussion or argument, and these are often NOT mentioned, even though they are known to people in the area who pay close attention to things.
People like, well, me.


This worsening of standards is particularly noticeable in Herald stories involving women entrepreneurs, residential and commercial real estate trends in downtown Miami, especially on Biscayne Blvd., or Hispanic media and businesses.


Articles on those subjects are almost uniformly boosterish in nature, sometimes to the extreme of appearing to be little more than paid ads or press releases, and there seems to be a clear disinclination to ask hard questions and instead accept facts and figures proffered by the parties themselves.
Plus, worst of all, the reporters involved routinely quote people who have a financial stake in what is going on in the industry generally, or, have an interest in it being portrayed as positively as possible, and thus can't be objective.


Unfortunately, the reporters involved often don't appear to be smart enough to understand that they are being used or played for chumps by the Usual Suspects.


Boosterish articles in the Miami Herald will be the subject of a future blog post here soon, and the problem is not which article to mention on these subjects so much as which ones to disregard, because they are actually written fairly and objectively.
They are the minority, esp. those about residential and commercial real estate in downtown Miami.
That has gotten completely out of control the past few months with so many self-serving front page stories.


I'll actually be at the Herald on Tuesday morning and in downtown Miami that afternoon, so I will try to take some photos of the properties mentioned in recent Herald articles that have gotten the wet kiss treatment so I can run them next to the links I use.

Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise!

Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise!

Political insiders say Sen. Bill Nelson likely to win third term
By Adam C. Smith, Times Political Editor
In Print: Sunday, December 25, 2011

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/political-insiders-say-sen-bill-nelson-likely-to-win-third-term/1207786

It's like a poll of national sports writers in Miami in the days before Super Bowl III that overwhelmingly favored the Baltimore Colts over the New York Jets, the Georgetown Hoyas over the Villanova Wildcats in the 1985 NCAA basketball tourney.

And how did you like last season's World Series between the Red Sox and the Phillies, the pre-ordained classic that never was?

Who actually had the Packers over the Steelers in the Super Bowl before the 2010 season started?

(You'll recall that my prediction before the game was spot-on.)

Dear reader of the blog, whose attention and time at this first post of the year I appreciate, please tell me when since 9/11 has there ever been a poll of elites and insiders in this country or this state or this county where the unexpected was accurately predicted?

Even when there were plenty of signs that something unexpected could well happen?

Precisely.

The sports analogy is nationally-known print sports writers and TV reporters appearing on nationally-syndicated sports talk radio shows of the sort that I have been listening to since I was a kid in the 1970's -just like I did with Tony Kornheiser's Washington, D.C.  radio program for WTEM-AM in the '90's before he was at ESPN- listening to them opine on the NCAA basketball tourney selections in the days before the tourney starts.

They're clearly eager to hear guests offering insight into possible upcoming upsets for the benefit of their listeners or viewers, but almost invariably, the host or co-hosts then ignore everything that's been said, heard and seen -and history- by then picking nothing but 'chalk,' i.e. picking nothing but the top-seeded teams.

Yes, despite every one's always saying that they want something unexpected, look what happens when "experts" are asked and results have consequences?

That's a pretty common 'phenomena' in contemporary U.S. sports media that you rarely hear anyone discuss or criticize, and it's political counterpart is equally common at almost every national and Florida-based newspaper and media website worth perusing, even the good ones.

It's a real buzz-kill, and in my opinion is one of the main reasons that few big political movements happen down here as spontaneously as they do in other parts of the country -the news media here really isn't interested in change, and cover and report accordingly, rather than let the narrative and natural ebb-and flow of events tell the tale.

This explains, in part, why the national news media write as if they would like Newt Gingrich to be finished after the Iowa Caucus this coming week, despite all the larger states he leads in, like Florida, for instance, despite less resources than Mitt Romney.

In short, the news media really doesn't want change, they just want the pretense that change could happen, which is why the voters who DO want big change are so frustrated by the news media's bias.
It's not just a political bias on the part of some reporters, though it IS that, but also a bias towards what they already know, understand and can explain, which is why so much political reporting is derivative to a nauseating degree.

That's another reason I'm in favor of having an election system like Louisiana's, where all the candidates run together and the general election is between the top two finishers, regardless of party affiliation.

(I know there's a name for this system but I'm too tired to think of the name of it.)

Now THAT would be fun and reward the voters with an election worth watching and get more sensible people in office, and be a handy tool for dealing with gerrymandering.
Imagine what gerrymandered districts would be like in South Florida under a system like this -less extremism of the left or right.

Florida voters across the state that I've been in touch with since this most recent post on the insider's poll continue to shake their heads in wonder as the old St. Petersburg Times and their reporters and columnists continue flogging a series of stories with a never-ending story-line about their poll of "political insiders" favoring incumbents in 2012.

Really?

Imagine that?

Of course they do!
And so do the state's print and electronic media thru their mostly bad and superficial coverage, too!

Which, of course, is part of the problem, no? 

The very same elites, "insiders" and news media that thought they would have Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio to play with -like a cat's toy- for a few months, with Rubio playing the role of well-chewed rubber mouse?

After all, hadn't these same forces already publicly proclaimed Charlie Crist a political genius, month-after-month, for 'splitting the difference,' despite the lack of any empirical evidence that held up to serious scrutiny, that he had fundamentally changed the broken and much-loathed political culture of Tallahassee, south Georgia's anti-Mayberry?

Yes.

Evidence, who needs tangible evidence that anything was changing for the better in Tallahassee when the state's news media was in love the way the Florida news media was in

full-thrall to Charlie Crist and his affable white hair in 2009 and early 2010?

Yes, Florida, the Sunshine State, where the then-formerly popular governor Crist lost that Senate GOP primary that the Sunshine State's Mainstream Media and political elites had considered a mere formality, having already been writing newspaper stories/columns and filing TV stories for months that took the position that he was "inevitable."

So "inevitable," in fact, that the state's news media actually started filing stories on whether Crist might soon be a GOP VP candidate, a pseudo-fact that because it was printed in Florida newspapers so often, started appearing more frequently in DC-based media, blogs and websites as well, where they didn't know any better.
(The Beltway pundits assumed the reporters here in Florida must know what they were talking about, and had some sources who knew it was true.)

And all of this MONTHS before the formality of an actual election

After all, the MSM and political elites would know, wouldn't they, they're "experts"?

And besides, as they were always keen on reminding us, Florida is SO important.
Except when it's not.

But they were 100% wrong and Marco Rubio trounced Crist in the GOP primary.

And then, not willing to accept the mandate of the people, the elites of both parties and many columnists and editorial boards decided that Crist should be given yet another chance to win, not just one, so millions were given to him by the comfortable status quo-types who reminded us over-and-over that despite his loss to Rubio, Crist was still the best candidate.

Then in November, Rubio trounced Crist for yet a second time, and made hapless Democratic Party nominee Kendrick Meek a third-place finisher in a three-way race, and a very bad third place at that.

Yes, Florida, the same state where the only statewide-elected Democrat in the FL Cabinet,
a multi-millionaire, former banking executive and longtime Democratic insider who was married to a wealthy attorney and former Democratic gubernatorial nominee, lost the gubernatorial race to a wealthy businessman who had never run for elective office before.

Losing in some part because she never did the one thing that all good elected officials must do -explain who they are, what they've done, what they are in favor of and against and why.

That is a necessity.

But Alex Sink and her political advisers and the Democratic Party, esp. the most liberal wind of that shrinking party, took all that for granted, as did most of the state's news media.

But finally someone started noticing what I had seen from the beginning -that she really was running for office in the worst possible way.

By late August and early September, reports started appearing in newspapers -but not on Miami-area TV- that her campaign had been done such a poor job of laying the groundwork explaining who she was and her stand on issues, that, surprise, there were still many voters who did not know that Alex Sink was a woman.

When you are running for governor of the fourth largest state in the country and three months before the general election, a sizable number of likely voters don't know what sex you are, you are poised for a bruising losing effort.

And that was when Rick Scott's TV campaign started in earnest of defining the woman who had been so blase that she and her staff thought that could wait until after the summer.

And the same elites and reporters were reporting for months that in a re-match now...

Sink would win.
But we don't have do-overs  a few months after the election, we just have the election.

Scott, a very flawed candidate, beat Sink, a very apathetic and blase candidate who didn't do the minimum required.

I ignore those stories for some of the same reasons that I voted against Sink, knowing that no matter how close the election might be or how much the news media, esp. the liberal news media in South Florida, wanted to play tail gunner for Sink and get Scott in a game of "gotcha," Sink was a seriously flawed person and candidate who was incapable of moving the football in Tallahassee and get the state out of its backwardness in so many areas.

Knowing that both branches of the state legislature are held by the GOP, and veto-proof if sink won, what could Sink possibly accomplish as governor given how  self-evident her personality and management flaws were?

She'd continually have been made a fool of as the legislature over-rode any vetoes she might made, even when I might have agreed with her reasoning.

To say the least, Alex Sink was not much of a gubernatorial candidate, and it's my guess that she would have been a terrible governor for the fourth-largest state in the country, even when she was right on the issue, because her personality and manner would NOT have worn well with residents.

In that election for governor between too very flawed candidates, we drew the well-meaning "Joker" who at least knew who he was, and we all have to live with that verdict for another three years.

Now, eleven months until the 2012 election, the same state "insiders" and experts I've described are alternately pre-ordaining Bill Nelson's re-election and/or the rise of some queer boomlet called the Connie Mack revolution.

To my way of thinking, where ideas -thoughtful and nuanced- really are important, Connie Mack is political 'fools gold' compared to Marco Rubio, who is Fort Knox in comparison, since as someone who supported Rubio from the beginning -even when state reporters were writing his premature obituary- I always knew that he was everything that Sink, Meek, Crist, Nelson and Mack are NOT.

In that comparison, to me, candidate Connie Mack is the small change you find in the shallow end of the hotel swimming pool while on summer vacation in North Carolina to escape the heat, humidity and boring existence of summertime South Florida.
(Asheville, North Carolina  1972 to be exact. A trip I've never forgotten: Mount Mitchell, Smokey Mountains, Stone Mountain, GA...)

Great for kids, like your two younger sisters, who race each other diving into the pool to get the quarters you throw, which amuses some of the other hotel guests around the pool otherwise zoning-out, but not really much to brag about for adults, or even teenagers paying close attention.

In short, there is no "there" there with Connie Mack IV.
Or any possibility of any upside that he would ever become the sort of thoughtful, savvy and sometimes counter-intuitive person that surprises you frequently with his principled stands representing the crazy-quilt of six different states cobbled into one that that is today's Florida, and able to cast important or even dire votes that will matter to this nation's future.


To me he's the personable but somewhat dis-connected high school homecoming king whose father is the mayor and largest developer in the area, and he's still milking the gravy train, occasionally doing the right thing, but not often enough to inspire either trust or respect.
To me, Connie Mack IV is NOT the answer to any reasonable question.


Like I've so often said on this blog about the city I live in, Hallandale Beach, and how it so thoroughly mis-managed to the detriment of the residents who want it to be MUCH BETTER now than it is, Mack's "An interpretive house of cards that falls apart at the slightest touch of rationality and evidence."

As for perpetually tone-deaf Alex Sink, the more things change...

Jetsetting Letter Misses Mark With Suffering Floridians

By Martin Merzer

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

http://www.floridavoices.com/columns/martin-merzer/jetsetting-letter-misses-mark-suffering-floridians