Maddow Digs Herself Deeper With More Election Spending Semantics
For Rachel Maddow, corrections never come easy. But while the MSNBC host has at least offered corrections where she has previously gotten it wrong - granted, with the immense level of sarcasm and snark that is her hallmark - a recent flap with online watchdogs has the indignant Maddow splitting hairs in near-comedic fashion in an effort to avoid admitting she was mistaken.
But the numbers still belie her position.
The exchange began with Maddow's appearance on Leno Tuesday night. She falsely claimed that "of the top ten people donating money in [the 2010 election cycle], seven of them were giving to Republicans." In fact, as NB's Noel Sheppard pointed out, Maddow had it exactly backwards: 7 of the top 10 individual contributors gave more to Democrats than Republicans during the past cycle (and a lot more at that).
But since NB and others - including cable news blogger and former NB contributor Johnny Dollar - pointed out this factual inaccuracy, Maddow has not corrected her claim. Instead, she has lashed out at the people pointing out her mistake, and tried to shift the terms of the debate.
Maddow responded to her critics during her Thursday night show. In her own defense, she said (via J$'s retort - italics are mine):
Of the top ten, seven of the top ten from the last election are contributing to the right. Only three of them are contributing to the left. And the only three that are contributing to the left are unions....There are only three out of the top ten contributors of big money of outside groups in the last election who are not contributing to right-wing causes and they are the unions.
So rather than admitting that she was wrong, Maddow moved the goal posts - on Tuesday, she was discussing individual donors, but on Thursday she shifted the discussion to independent groups that spend money on non-partisan (in the sense that they are not affiliated with a party or candidate) political communications.
Maddow's latter claim is correct: seven of the ten top independent spenders are conservative, while only three, all labor unions, are liberal. But that does not make her initial statement regarding individual contributors true.
Even the less tangible point Maddow tried to make - that conservative money dominates elections - is not exactly a slam dunk given the data. OpenSecrets.org, the source for data used by both Maddow and her critics, reports that businesses, labor unions, and "ideological" groups, their political action committees (PACs) and their individual members, all gave more to Democrats than Republicans during the 2010 election cycle.
Maddow's myopic focus on the top 10 independent spenders is virtually the only way she could salvage her argument. But the notion that spending by third party groups denotes more control over the electoral process than money given to political candidates is specious at best. And as OpenSecrets.org notes at the link above, Democratic candidates for office took in more money from every category, including "other," in the 2010 election cycle.
In short, not only was Maddow's initial claim wrong, her follow-up assertion was an excercise in semantics, and her underlying premise that conservative sources of political money dominate elections is not supported by the data. And yet Maddow continues spinning her web.
*****UPDATE: I meant to note that Maddow was not the only TV personality who falsely claimed that seven of the top ten individual contributors gave more to Democrats during the 2010 cycle. Fox News's Shep Smith also made that claim, and as far as I know has yet to correct the record.
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Comments
Shifting the Discussion
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:04pm.
The libs have successfully shifted the argument from public sector unions to all unions. She was successful in getting her lies out to millions+- Leno watchers that do not have cable, sat or internet or just accept it as gospel.. The newspapers are not going to correct her lies.
Exactly...
Submitted by Fenwick on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:34pm.
The misinformation is intentional and any half-hearted "corrections" will never reach more than an insignificant fraction of those who were fed the lie.
Exactly
Submitted by ArcherB on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 10:46pm.
People watch Leno and heard the lie. No one was watching her correction, no matter how snarky.
She knew what she was doing. Am I seeing a pattern? Didn't she lay down another doozy on Maher's show or something? She goes on these shows that are much popular than hers (meaning, it has viewers) and lies her ass off. Then she goes on her own show, which no one watches, and makes a correction.
She's a sly one, that Wesley Crusher.
"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary."
--Ernesto "Che" Guevara
With all the mistakes she's
Submitted by scarebear83 on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:08pm.
With all the mistakes she's made on her show I'm surprised... no, wait, I'm not surprised that people on the left continue to proclaim she "does her homework" and is so impressed by her educational background that you know, she must know what she's talking about.
To add insult to liberal BS,
Submitted by Diesel on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:08pm.
To add insult to liberal BS, FNCs Sheep Smith repeated maddows crap word for word!
Fire Sheep Smith!
This woman just LOOKS
Submitted by Slyrr on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:12pm.
This woman just LOOKS untrustworthy. She's got a perpetual sneer on her face, like half her mouth won't smile because she suffered a stroke. I mean, if she HAS suffered a stroke she has my sympathies. It would explain a great many things about her....
She majored in poli sci who
Submitted by pwoz on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:19pm.
She majored in poli sci who gives a shit what she says!
It's an MSNBC thing.
Submitted by Ashrak on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:27pm.
Van Jones was just lamenting how nothing in his house says made in America on it.
Mr. Environmentalist himself calls for more factories in this country?
The idiocy of MSNBC is growing exponentially by the minute.
title of this thread
Submitted by jon_torlin on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:40pm.
Ok, I know I'm losing my mind, I keep looking at this title "Maddow dogs herself deeper" and I keep mentally replacing the word "herself" with "himself." Happened more than once.
-Jon
Rachel Maddow 'smacked down' by PolitiFact
Submitted by SharonMcP on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 7:55pm.
Responding to Rachel Maddow
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/article/2011/feb/25/responding-rachel-maddow
Maddow's response was akin to grabbing a bigger shovel
Submitted by Par for the Course on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 8:33pm.
Dig faster Rachel, if you think it will help.
Here's another inconvenient truth Maddow forgot to mention
Submitted by SharonMcP on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 8:35pm.
Wisconsin’s state budget — frequently asked questions
By Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/116480323.html
Wrong Facts?
Submitted by Eaglesfan57 on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 8:19pm.
Rachel Maddow gave the wrong facts because that's what her handlers gave her and as a prized political hack she doesn't bother to investigate her facts. She has a long time ago proven that she has no credibility. As for being an entertainer, I have as of yet to see that.
Wow, Maddow is more than filling Olby's shoes
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 9:22pm.
Watch it, Fat Edward, she's a comin-for-ya.
→ No problem, SOL
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 9:27pm.
She's more man than Ed can handle.
Maddox and Election Spending Semantics
Submitted by NVRAT on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 10:07pm.
Same old story... Maddcow opens her mouth before engaging brain. The major income sources for the Democrats are the Unions and the National Lawyer Association as evidenced by the last elections. A large percentage of the Stimulis package went to purchase management of two Automobile manufactures saving many thousands of Union jobs and giving money to states to save public union jobs (at least for one year). That was Obamas payback for the 400 million dollars the unions gave to his campain. And, of course we all know that the lawyers do not want reform limiting payments from their cash cow "Big Business`". I recently received a $13.00 check for a settlement with a Drug manufacturer that I knew nothing of. I noticed that the class acion participants received $64 Million in settlement funds and the Law Firm received $63 million. The lawsuit was for over charging buyers (don`t know how much), now I have a $13.00 check and will probably have to pay more for the drug in the future because the drug co. will just have to pass the cost of the law suit on to the consumer. I have always said that the Democratic cash cows are; 1) The Social Security Fund for political payouts 2) Unions for personal Coffers and 3) National Lawyers Association for personel coffers .
Maddow and Fox's Smith
Submitted by garyd99 on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 10:21am.
If anybody at Fox was get things wrong it is the toad Shepard Smith. When 3:00 or 7:00 comes around the channel automaticly changes, Judge Jusy looks good compared to the toad.
Sorry for the typo
Submitted by garyd99 on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 10:22am.
Judge Judy
Shep Smith
Submitted by Nick Shaw on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 10:26am.
Let's not forget Juan Williams was speaking with Shep when he made those statements and Juan nodded politely along. I have been waiting for Sheps clarification but, I don't really expect it.
Why on earth?
Submitted by Patriot II on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 12:50pm.
Does anyone listen to this pitiful embecile? She is so pathetically ignorant, she knows nothing and doesn't even suspect anything! Take the dimwit off the air.....clean up the air.....! imho
This seems to be Madcows
Submitted by shipley130130 on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 6:37pm.
This seems to be Madcows operating mode. Claim something false, then claim something slightly different to make it seem like her first false claim was true and try to convince the audience that the slightly different thing is what she said originally. Sounds like she lies, boiled down. It must be difficult to keep the confusion straight in her head.
Shlep
Submitted by catnamedjake on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 11:02am.
So it's not just me! Hoestly does Shlep Smith have to take up two whole hrs every weekday? I'm sure he's a good guy and all, but the extreme lefty moonbat talk---- man-oh-manochevitz!!!!!
Rachel - poliriFact
Submitted by alvin on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 2:26pm.
PolitiFact editor gets slapped down by Howard Kurtz on Reliable Sources for his dishonest rating of Rachel's show. Good for Howard
I don't think that was a slap down.
Submitted by Par for the Course on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 4:42pm.
As Adair said, after Kurtz played the clip of Maddow responding to Politifact, “what she just did was mislead everybody” by playing a nine word clip out of context.
Why did Maddow play only a nine word clip in response to Politifact? Because context counts and I think she knows it.
Link to a video clip of Kurtz's segment with Adair.
ms madcow made a mistake?
Submitted by frjimt on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 4:56pm.
who knew?
besides her mother, the teleprompter (borrowed from the WWing) & the three leftist cheeseheads who watch her.
my apologies to cheese/heads