President Obama leaves Friday for a ten-day trip to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. His trip will cost $200 million a day, or $2 billion for the trip, on which. he will be escorted by 34 warships, twelve percent of the United States Navy. All this according to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN).
Except it’s as false as Obama’s Kenyan birth, his Muslim faith, his secret importing of “small quantities of Muslims,” and the death panels in his health care act. The story was reported in an Indian newspaper, quoting an anonymous provincial official.
The White House response was that the “numbers are wildly inflated.” The Pentagon dismissed the report as “absolutely absurd” and “just comical.” And the non-partisan factcheck.org summarized its findings this way:
“This story has spread rapidly among the President’s critics, but there is simply no evidence to support it. And common sense should lead anyone to doubt it. For example, the entire U.S. war effort in Afghanistan currently costs less than that — about $5.7 billion per month, according to the Congressional Research Service, or roughly $190 million per day. How could a peaceful state visit cost more than a war?”
Newsweek ranks the “politicians, ex-politicians, media personalities, and political consultants who hawk their personal brands in the public marketplace—and influence American political discourse in the process.” On the Newsweek list Limbaugh is number one, Glenn Beck is number two, and Sean Hannity number three. They all have enough common sense to have been extremely skeptical of the story, even before checking it, which they seem not to have done. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that they were purposefully lying. And tragically millions of Americans listen to their lies and believe them. Fair and balanced? Not very Truthful? Not so you could count on.
Tags: Afghanistan war cost, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, death panels, ethics, factcheck.org, Fair and balanced, Fox News, Glenn Beck, health care act, India, Kenyan birth, lies, Michael Savage, Muslim faith, Newsweek, Obama Asian trip, Pentagon, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, talk radio, warships
Ethics Bob 
November 5, 2010 at 6:06 am |
Yeah, those numbers seemed obviously out of whack—let’s wait for the corrections and apologies. The problem is that all of these guys read Drudge and more or less pick up what he links to as gospel, and Matt’s batting average isn’t that good.
My quibble would be with the title of your piece: as you say, this is reckless, unfair, irresponsible and unprofessional, but I have no doubt that all of the people you mention either believe it or were so eager to get out with the story that they didn’t think about it very long. I think they believe (or believe it), and if they do, it just isn’t a lie. It’s misinformation.
That’s bad enough. Hannity and Beck are opinion guys, and are literally mistaken or wrong several times every day. Fox News did not, to my knowledge, repeat their version of the story.
[Also bad enough: the real price tag on the trip, which is irresponsible too, in the “Hell, we’re so far in the tank, what’s another couple billion?” category?”]
November 5, 2010 at 8:03 am |
[…] thanks to Bob Stone, who flagged this story on his blog. See, Bob?…I told you FactCheck was better than […]
November 5, 2010 at 9:05 am |
I take your quibble with a bit of a quibble. I struggled over the word ‘lie.’ They obviously spoke with reckless disregard for the truth.
My dictionary (Amer. heritage, 4th Ed) says a lie is:
1)A false statement deliberately presented as being true; a falsehood.
2) Something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.
Maybe they actually believed the falsehood, but considering their history i can’t give them much benefit of the doubt. What they reported meets the Supreme Court’s demanding test for libel.
I can’t let Fox News off the hook. That’s the name of the channel, and news is regularly intermingled with commentary, just as on MSNBC and CNN. (God help us.)
As far as your parenthetical comment, c’mon. The USA has serious business with india and the G-20. Presidents have to travel, and there’s a cost, whether it’s Obama, Bush, Reagan, or FDR.