Washington Post Aggressively Fact-Checks Pathological Exaggerator Rudy Giuliani
October 24, 2007 -- 10:34 AM EST // //
A couple weeks back I said some churlish stuff about The Washington Post's new Fact-Checker section. The question was whether such an elemental function of journalism really needed to be ghettoized in one section when it should be part of the constant every-day flow of stories.
Well, I'm happy to report that I was wrong. The Fact-Checker has a very aggressive fact check of Rudy Giuliani that's definitely valuable and worth a read.
In sum, Fact-Checker deftly skewers Rudy's ongoing and deeply inane Hillary-bashing -- and his recent assertion that he has little in common with her -- by showing conclusively that he's basically in sync with her on many key issues. The Fact Checker concludes that "Giuliani still remains fairly close to Hillary Clinton on social issues, such as gun control, abortion, and gay rights," and awards Rudy "two Pinnochios" for "significant omissions and/or exaggerations."
Which presents a chance to ask this key question about Campaign 2008 once again: When will Rudy's chronic exaggerating and dissembling enter the official media narrative of the Presidential race? Al Gore, as you all know, was labeled a "serial exaggerator" for far, far less. Rudy is actually more than a serial exaggerator -- he's a pathological exaggerator who's perfectly capable of lying while keeping his face straighter than a ruler. So why don't we hear Rudy described in such terms?
The answer, I submit, lies in the undeniable double standard that your pundits and commentators adopt when judging the character of Dems and Republicans. Ever since the 2000 Bush-Gore campaign, it's been standard operating procedure for pundits and commentators to use the flimsiest of passing anecdotes, as well as outright false ones, to leap to an instant judgment about the entire character of Dem candidates. Gore's earth tones? He's a phony. Kerry's ordering of swiss cheese on a Philly cheese steak? He's an effete snob. Hillary's southern drawl or her cackle? She's scripted, calculating and pandering.
By contrast, with some exceptions, there's generally a profound reluctance on the part of pundits and commentators to reach overall character judgment of GOP candidates based on such stuff. John McCain, for instance, has pandered to a nauseating degree to the religious right in this campaign; the reaction of some pundits has been to actually excuse him for this by saying that he doesn't want to be doing this but knows he has to.
You hear similar things, though to a less pronounced degree, about Rudy: He's saying all this stuff because he has to in order to prevail in a GOP primary. You rarely hear his exaggerations and dissembling -- okay, his lies -- described for what they are, much less hear any pundits reflect on what this tells us about Rudy's character.
Not sure how to change this. Anyway, props to The Fact-Checker for taking a stab at telling the truth about pathological exaggerator Rudy Giuliani.
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