Vicious or just stupid?

Conservative victory in November is no sure thing, but the derangement of the media suggests things are on a good path.

One of the first things they used to teach in journalism school is that you can’t know what’s in another person’s mind. So we write that reporters for the Wisconsin State Journal and others “say” Paul Ryan was wrong about when the Janesville General Motors plant closed.  We don’t say they “believe” that because we can’t possibly know. That’s Journalism 101.

The kids who play reporter nowadays don’t extend similar courtesies, to Ryan or to their readers. Some have even made up things they claim Ryan meant to say, in order to suggest he was lying. Such as saying Ryan was wrong to “imply” President Obama promised he’d keep GM Janesville open.

Here’s the direct quote Ryan attributed to Obama, from a 2008 campaign stop in Janesville:

“As president I will lead the effort to retool these plants” so we can build energy-efficient cars. “I believe that if your government supports you, this plant will be here for another hundred years.”

National and Wisconsin media flocked to repeat the Democrats’ lie that GM Janesville closed on George W. Bush’s watch. In fact, Obama had been in office about four months when the plant shut its doors.

Liberal newspapers whose circulations are dwindling and networks whose viewers are fleeing—in no small part because audiences no longer trust them—are in full panic mode.  It’s now clear they will say anything to smear Paul Ryan and the stellar platoon of conservative leaders from Wisconsin stepping onto the national stage. Be assured that this will get worse before it gets better.

Then again, so will the circulation numbers.

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