EmptyTimCup
07-03-2012, 04:45 PM
Once Again, the Washington Post’s Fact Checker Cripples a Team Obama Talking Point (See Which One Here) (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/once-again-the-washington-posts-fact-checker-cripples-a-team-obama-talking-point-see-which-one-here/)
The Obama campaign on Tuesday released another ad accusing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney of being an “outsourcer” of jobs.
“What a president believes matters,” the ad begins. “Mitt Romney’s companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries. He supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.”
[clip]
But by not disputing the WaPo article and instead focusing entirely on how the Obama campaign has interpreted it, the Fact Checker is able to work around its long-standing rule and set the “outsourcing” record straight.
First, the article cited in the Obama ad only says that Bain was “prescient in identifying an emerging business trend — the movement of back-office, customer service and other functions out of companies that were willing to let third parties handle that business,” according to the Fact Checker.
“This was an important shift in the U.S. business landscape, and Bain Capital caught the wave, investing in companies that … were ‘pioneers’ in the emerging market” of handling certain tasks for other companies.
Second, it’s crucial to note that while all this “outsourcing” mentioned by the Obama campaign was going on, Mitt Romney wasn’t managing the company. The WaPo article details events that occurred post-1999 — after Romney had stepped down so that he could focus on the Olympics. In fact, the original article never even claims the outsourcing took place while Romney was in charge.
Oddly enough, the Romney campaign has so far invested more time in refuting how Team Obama has interpreted the original WaPo article than it has in refuting the article itself (although the Romney campaign did send the Fact Checker information arguing that Bain created jobs in the U.S. The Fact Checker argues that those were offset by the jobs outsourced).
The Obama campaign on Tuesday released another ad accusing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney of being an “outsourcer” of jobs.
“What a president believes matters,” the ad begins. “Mitt Romney’s companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries. He supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.”
[clip]
But by not disputing the WaPo article and instead focusing entirely on how the Obama campaign has interpreted it, the Fact Checker is able to work around its long-standing rule and set the “outsourcing” record straight.
First, the article cited in the Obama ad only says that Bain was “prescient in identifying an emerging business trend — the movement of back-office, customer service and other functions out of companies that were willing to let third parties handle that business,” according to the Fact Checker.
“This was an important shift in the U.S. business landscape, and Bain Capital caught the wave, investing in companies that … were ‘pioneers’ in the emerging market” of handling certain tasks for other companies.
Second, it’s crucial to note that while all this “outsourcing” mentioned by the Obama campaign was going on, Mitt Romney wasn’t managing the company. The WaPo article details events that occurred post-1999 — after Romney had stepped down so that he could focus on the Olympics. In fact, the original article never even claims the outsourcing took place while Romney was in charge.
Oddly enough, the Romney campaign has so far invested more time in refuting how Team Obama has interpreted the original WaPo article than it has in refuting the article itself (although the Romney campaign did send the Fact Checker information arguing that Bain created jobs in the U.S. The Fact Checker argues that those were offset by the jobs outsourced).