Waiting for the Real Story

As we all should know by now, the initial reports that we get on any story will almost always turn out to be false, especially if reported by television news.  The problem is that those first "reports" tend to have a life and tenacity of their own, and many people--especially those who rely entirely on TV news and partisan blogs for their "information"--continue to believe the misinformation long after it's has been debunked.

To wit:

• In the first Iraq war, "on-the-scene" television reporting from CNN and others suggested that "smart bombs" and Patriot missiles were almost 100% effective.  The real story that was pieced together later proved that this was fiction.
• Initial reporting on the Fast and Furious operation proved to be false, but we had to wait weeks before an unbiased analysis by a Fortune magazine reporter gave us the real story.  Indeed, it seems that the "whistleblower" relied on by Darrell Issa and the Obama haters may have been the only bad guy in the whole affair.
• More recently, an ABC reporter claimed to have smoking-gun emails about the Benghazi incident.  It took a former Fox News reporter to give us the real story a little later:  the emails were fabricated.

The point is that a lot of people still believe the original story, even after the real story is finally available.  Now we have the IRS "scandal".  It turns out (as many of us expected) that many of these groups deserved the scrutiny they were getting and some even lied on their applications.  You won't hear this real story from the likes of Charles Krauthammer or Peggy Noonan. In fact, they will probably keep repeating the untruth.  (Both of them have become caricatures of themselves, but I digress.)  They are too occupied with their state of perpetual frenzied outrage. 

A Subsidy Is an Entitlement If You're from a Red State

This from today's New York Times.  It is becoming increasingly clear that the "takers" of Mitt Romney's 47% are really from his own party.  It validates my definition of "taxes" from an older post:  Money that is collected from the Blue States and then sent to the Red States.

WASHINGTON — A Tennessee congressman who supports billions of dollars in cuts to the food stamp program is one of the largest recipients of federal farm subsidies, according to new annual data released by a Washington environmental group.

Using Agriculture Department data, researchers at the Environmental Working Group found that Representative Stephen Fincher, a Republican and a farmer from Frog Jump, Tenn., collected nearly $3.5 million in subsidies from 1999 to 2012. The data is part of the research group’s online farm subsidy database from which the group issues a report each year.

In 2012 alone, the data shows, Mr. Fincher received about $70,000 in direct payments, money that is given to farmers and farmland owners, even if they do not grow crops. It is unclear how much Mr. Fincher received in crop insurance subsidies because the names of people receiving the subsidies are not public. The group said most of the agriculture subsidies go to the largest, most profitable farm operations in the country. These farmers have received $265 billion in direct payments and farm insurance subsidies since 1995, federal records show.

During debate on the farm bill in the House Agriculture Committee last week, Mr. Fincher was one of the biggest proponents of $20 billion in cuts to food stamps in the legislation. At times he quoted passages from the Bible in defending the cuts.

“We have to remember there is not a big printing press in Washington that continually prints money over and over,” Mr. Fincher said during the debate. “This is other people’s money that Washington is appropriating and spending.”[...]

To top it all off, Rep. Fincher has joined Tony Perkins, Michele Bachmann, and other Rightwing haters to share with us the insider knowledge that God is opposed to federal spending...unless the check is written to them.

More Deception from Christian Life Resources

Christian Life Resources (CLR) is an affiliated organization of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).  It's supposed mission is "to use life and family issues as bridges to convey the love of God and to share the message of salvation through Christ."  Unfortunately, it has evolved into a mouthpiece for the Republican Party, and particularly for the rightmost fringe of that party.  That is bad enough.  But all too often it uses deceptive and dishonest means to further its political agenda.

Today provides another example.  The following quote appeared on its website today: "The American College of Pediatricians continues to oppose the over-the-counter distribution of 'emergency contraceptive' medication to children as recently mandated by the court."  It then links to an article.  The deception here is that the American College of Pediatricians is not a medical organization like, say, the American Academy of Pediatrics.  The group was, rather,  formed for specifically political reasons.  Simply attaching the word "Pediatricians" doesn't change that fact.

The implication on the CLR website is that this group is some sort of recognized and authoritative medical organization.  It is nothing of the sort.  The Wikipedia entry for the American College of Pediatricians estimates its membership is between 60 and 200.  The American Academy of Pediatrics, by contrast, has some 60,000 members.

CLR, of course, has every right to pursue its agenda (although, as a WELS member, I consider its political activism unbiblical and embarrassing).  But to use deception to further its cause is not worthy of a group claiming Christian principles.  The American College of Pediatricians is an explicitly political organization.  Passing it off as a medical authority is dishonest.