Washington Post Reporter: We Will Scrutinize Rudy's Exaggerations -- Some Other Time
October 11, 2007 -- 4:00 PM EST // //

The other day I wrote about the fact that Rudy Giuliani keeps employing an amusingly transparent distortion of something Hillary said more than ten years ago in order to make the case that she's a closet Marxist. He's able to keep doing because the media keeps not calling him on it.

Today Washington Post reporter Lois Romano was asked directly about this particular distortion in a chat with readers by a questioner who used strikingly similar language to my post (and no, it wasn't me, swear):

New York: Hi, Lois. In the GOP debate earlier this week, Rudy Giuliani said: "The leading Democratic candidate once said that the unfettered free market is the most destructive force in modern America. I mean, just get an idea of where that philosophy comes from." Rudy uses this line on Hillary frequently. But as has been conclusively proven, it's an almost comically dishonest distortion of what Hillary actually said in a 1996 interview with Brian Lamb. In that interview, Hillary quoted another author saying that the unfettered free market had been radically disruptive, not destructive, and actually went on to praise free markets.

My question, though, is this. If Al Gore can be painted as a serial liar and exaggerator by the media for things he didn't actually say, why has Giuliani so far gotten a pass on the lies he's actually spouting publicly?

Lois Romano: He hasn't been really challenged on every word yet. That will come. Right now, there are so many people in the race trying to get footing, and the media is trying to illuminate facts about all of them. As the field starts to winnow, you will see more and more scrutiny of what candidates say and do, and what they have done or said in the past....

It's good to hear this reporter acknowledging that Rudy "hasn't really been challenged" on all his falsehoods. So...what the heck are ya waiting for, anyway? Rudy's been telling this one unchallenged for months and months. He really is a serial exaggerator, even though the pundits won't say so. And all it takes to tell readers the real deal is one extra sentence in the copy.

Something like this: "In fact, in the 1996 interview, Clinton quoted someone else saying that the unfettered free market was the most radically "disruptive" force, not "destructive," and she went on to praise free markets in the same interview." It's generally the work of 10 seconds.

Romano promises that aggressive coverage of Rudy "will come." We'll see about that. Recent history isn't exactly reassuring. And incidentally, this is kind of important. The guy is trying to make himself commander-in-chief of the most formidable military in human history. You know, finger on the nuke button, and all that. So maybe we should get on this, already?

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