About us Login Get email updates
County Fair
Print

Why won't Andrew Breitbart hire a fact checker?

October 08, 2009 1:44 pm ET by Eric Boehlert

The thin-skinned attack man on the right didn't like it when the Daily Beast's Conor Friedersdorf  pointed out some obvious, gaping holes in the type of attack 'journalism' Breitbart preaches and practices [emphasis added]:

Mr. Breitbart’s media empire, and the outlets with which he most closely associates himself, are thoroughly ideological enterprises, publish few if any ideologically heterodox pieces, seldom if ever correct factual mistakes, and ignore liberal insights entirely.

These are outlets that scoff at claims that the Times attempts objective journalism, but that never question the “fair and balanced” claim made by Fox News, or acknowledge that they deliberately ignore certain stories. Its critics cite columns written by the Times’ “public editor” as evidence that the newspaper is unaccountable to the American people—yet they’d never dream of allowing semi-autonomous ombudsmen to operate on their own sites.

In his response posted at Andrew Sullivan's site, Breitbart remained completely silent about the fact that while attacking the mainstream media as being unfair and unprofessional, his sites regularly features falsehoods and almost never posts corrections when those falsehoods are detailed for all to see. And that was the Daily Beast's point: if Breitbart wants to be taken seriously, than he needs to start behaving seriously.

Right now, the junkyard of false accusations and pure fiction that litter his sites make it impossible to treat legitimately the right-wing critique of the press. i.e. Why should we listen to people who have no regard to fair play when they lecture the press about fair play? 

And on yeah, Andrew, any luck further deciphering the audio from last week's big community-organizers-pray-to-Obama scoop? Keep us posted, okay?

Expand All Expand 1st Level Collapse All Add Comment
    • Author by toombsie (October 08, 2009 1:52 pm ET)
      2  
      Haven't you heard we are in a recession?! These right-wing media outlets cannot afford to take on extra "fact-checking" staff members!
      Report Abuse
    • Author by PurpleState (October 08, 2009 1:57 pm ET)
      2  
      Andrew who?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by dmhack (October 08, 2009 2:00 pm ET)
      3  
      Fact checker?
      Come on---if he started relying on facts he wouldn't have anything to say.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by kydem09 (October 08, 2009 2:09 pm ET)
        6
      And Boehlert needs a spell checker.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by peace4all (October 08, 2009 2:20 pm ET)
        4  
        good catch, because spelling a word incorrectly makes the entire article incorrect, right?
        i love you trolls, you at least make me smile, like when i was a kid watching cartoons. please keep up the good work.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by kydem09 (October 08, 2009 2:26 pm ET)
            6
          No, but writing an article with misspellings about the need for a fact checker is kind of ironic, isn't it?
          Report Abuse
          • Author by DellDolly (October 08, 2009 2:48 pm ET)
            5  
            Actually, no, it's not, because the issue being raised wasn't about inconsequential spelling errors. It was about ideologically-driven errors that aren't corrected even when they are pointed out! It had nothing to do with minor spelling errors or anything similar.
            Report Abuse
          • Author by historygeek001 (October 08, 2009 4:32 pm ET)
               
            No, it's not. There is a difference between a spelling error and a factual error. And you misused "ironic." "Irony" refers to the use of words that is opposite of its literal meaning.
            Report Abuse
      • Author by PurpleState (October 08, 2009 5:28 pm ET)
           
        It wouldn't have caught it.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by pros2pros2940 (October 08, 2009 2:19 pm ET)
      4  
      There is simply no reliable "right wing" source of news. Their only existence is to spin bad news for conservatism into good news and the reverse for progressives.

      Had Nixon had the current media infrastructure he would never have resigned. Right wing media led by FauxNews allowed Bush / Cheney et al to get away with violations of federal law, the constitution and other law breaking under the guise of WOT and Patriot Act.
      Report Abuse

my.MediaMatters.org

Login  Sign Up

About the Blog

Feed Icon
  • County Fair is a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as well as original commentary, breaking news and rapid response updates to major media events from Media Matters senior fellows and other staff.