Tuesday, August 10, 2004

It's a sad, sad state of affairs when a comedian (Jon Stewart, of course) is one of the only real journalists around. They have figured that out in Canada. From the Toronto Star:

"The Bush administration continues to massacre the truth with almost no contradiction from the media. Last week, there was Vice-President Dick Cheney, lying again, in a speech in Minnesota, where he repeated the popular Republican refrain of how Kerry and Edwards are the number one and four "most liberal'' members of the Senate.

It's a line that the right has been using to beat up the Kerry-Edwards ticket for weeks — but never had I seen it explained or sourced by anybody on TV. Not, at least, until last Tuesday's Daily Show.

Stewart interviewed the too-slick-for-his-own-good Texan congressman Henry Bonilla, who worked on the Republican's truth squad during the convention. It was his job to counter the Democrat spin."


Here is a clip from the interview that they are talking about.

And Stewart, of course, is right. The standard RNC Talking Point is that Kerry "ranks" as the most liberal member of the Senate, and Edwards "ranks" fourth. But has ANY journalist (except comic Stewart) asked WHERE those rankings come from and WHO, exactly, ranked them?

And if not, why not?

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