PolitiFact “Lie of the Year” for 2012 is itself a lie

While at the YMCA for my week-daily exercise, I saw a CNN piece about PolitiFact.com’s “Lie of the Year” for 2012.  The award’s recipient was a Romney/Ryan campaign TV ad.  According to PolitiFact (Tampa Bay Times), a Romney/Ryan campaign TV ad “was brazenly false” in claiming Fiat/Chrysler planned to MOVE Jeep production from the U.S. to Red China.  View the ad, however, and you find it did not make this claim.  The ad said “Obama … sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in [Red] China” and cited a Bloomberg article entitled “Fiat Says Jeep Output May Return to China as Demand Rises.”  According to the Bloomberg article, Fiat/Chrysler may begin producing Jeeps in Red China for the Asian market and quotes “Mike Manley, chief operating officer of Fiat and Chrysler in Asia.”  The bottom line is the ad was 100% correct.  Who fact-checks the fact-checkers?

In fairness, an early story falsely indicated Fiat/Chrysler might move Jeep production to Red China.  Apparently believing the story, that evening Mr. Romney spoke at a campaign event and said, “I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China.”  As far as I can tell, that was the only time Mr. Romney mentioned Jeep moving production to Red China.  As noted above, the subject ad released a couple of days later didn’t make that claim.

This is not the first time PolitiFact has had problems with the facts.  In a recent critique I wrote, “PolitiFact.com (Tampa Bay Times) and FactCheck.org (Annenberg Public Policy Center) are showing themselves to be unreliable” and provided a couple of examples.  Fact-checking groups should be trusted no more than the typical media outlet.

Even if PolitiFact had been correct, “Lie of the Year?”  What about Mr. Obama claiming for at least two weeks the murders in Benghazi on 9/11/12 of our ambassador (J. Christopher Stevens) and three other Americans (Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, and Sean Smith.  Messrs. Doherty and Woods were former Navy SEALs.  Mr. Smith was the information management officer.) had something to do with a protest gone awry about a video unflattering to Islam?  What about the ad claiming Mr. Romney was responsible for a woman’s death from cancer?  What about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) claiming he had inside information Mr. Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years?  (Having such info – let alone using it – is illegal.)  What about Mr. Obama over multiple years claiming “you can keep your doctor?”