New at CJR: Fact-checking versus strategy

My new post at CJR analyzes how media organizations in New Hampshire and at the national level have covered recent misleading ads by Rick Perry and Mitt Romney:

In Sunday’s Boston Globe, reporter Michael Levenson warned of a coming “year of mudslinging.” This “rough, negative, and confusing advertising onslaught,” as Levenson calls it, is foreshadowed by recent ads run by Texas governor Rick Perry and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney which are “drawing howls of protest from Democrats but no apologies from the Republicans’ campaigns.”

In both cases, the evidence is compelling that the candidate ads were misleading...

How should reporters here in New Hampshire or at the national level cover these sorts of claims?

Read the whole thing for more.

Comments

[David in Cal]

I certainly agree that reporters ought to forthrightly correct inaccuracies in campaign ads. However, I don't think the Romney ad worked. It didn't exploit the objectivity bias of the press, so as to reinforce the ad's message. On the contrary, the ad seriously hurt Romney, because it became national news that he had run a dishonest ad.

I cannot imagine what the person who created that ad was thinking. He had no need to reinforce the message that the current economy stinks. Everyone knows that. Why risk the backlash from a quote out of context?

I also think reporters ought to forthrightly correct false statements that come from sources other than ads. E.g., I think it would be appropriate for the media to blast Gail Collins and the New York Times for falsely claiming that the dog was strapped to the roof of Romney's car, when it was actually the cage that was strapped there.

This leads to my usual soapbox about political bias. Will the media be equally diligent about correcting inaccurate criticism of Republicans? I don't think they will.

[David in Cal]

As an example of my last point, I offer Ayers Admits To Obama Fundraiser That Obama Campaign Called ‘Myth’

Will it become national news that Obama's campaign manager told an untruth in denying that Ayers had held a fundraiser for Obama? Don't hold your breath.