RNC: Anyone Watching? Thoughts? (Please keep it Civil)

[pokoko]

Allfreedom99 said:

Also interesting is that after Paul Ryans speech there were many news outlets and fact checkers saying he had some "false" claims. Even prominent fact checkers were saying this, when in fact when one looks through the script of his speech there were many so called "false" claims that were actually true.

One claim during Paul Ryans speech regarded a GM plant near his home town in Wisconsin. He stated this:

My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory. 

A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.”  That’s what he said in 2008.

Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year.  It is locked up and empty to this day.  And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight. 

Because of those statements media outlets and "fact checkers" looked into it and claimed that since he was apparently blaming Obama for the plants closure (which he wasn't) they said the plant stopped production in December of 2008. Actually as some others looked into it the fact is that most production of SUVs and such had ended in December of 2008 and the plan was to close it, but however the plant was still making Trucks until April of 2009. Yet many "fact Checkers" said Paul Ryan made "false" claims about it. There were other statements they claimed were "false" by Paul Ryan but in fact some of those statements he told the truth, he just left out some arguments that the left would say about his stances on those topics.

So we have fact checkers now fact checking the fact checkers.

You're right technically, but let's be honest here; we both know that Ryan was trying to link that plant closing to Obama in the minds of his audience.  It's a crafty bit of political speaking and it's still fundamentally dishonest.  I'm sure you're aware that Ryan did state previously that Obama promised to keep the plant open, which certainly is untrue.  Obama could not have known the plant would close at the time of his speech, and the decision to close the plant came before he was elected, even if the final shut-down came after.  Ryan is implying that Obama is responsible even if he didn't directly say it this time.  At least he knows to clean up his statements when called out, I'll give him that, as many politicians keep saying falsehoods as long as they can.

So, yes, some of the fact checkers didn't dig deeply enough.  It's happened before and it will happen again.  I see no reason to see a conspiracy here, and I hope you're not climbing up on the "all media is liberal" soapbox that many conservatives use to deflect any and all criticism.

Ryan was being a typical politician when he said that, so I see very little reason to make a big deal out of this.