Romney Strikes Back at Washington Post's Outsourcing Article

Noel Sheppard
June 27th, 2012 7:06 PM
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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his campaign have issued a strongly worded written challenge to the Washington Post refuting claims in its June 21 article that Bain Capital outsourced jobs while Romney was there.

On Thursday, the Post's Jennifer Rubin published some excerpts:

The article details companies that had facilities overseas, but it never provides an example in which American jobs were moved overseas. The headline implies that, while under Bain’s control, the six companies addressed in the article laid off Americans and sent the jobs offshore; but the article itself never provides an example of that occurring. The headline makes a claim that the article never substantiates.

Of note, this article did not quote a single human source. Had the Post contacted individuals affiliated with these companies, as is common in journalism, it would have learned that this is rife with inaccuracies and fails to live up to the Post’s investigative legacy. [Romney for President] has confirmed the analysis below with company officials. [...]

No firms identified in this article relocated jobs done by American workers to any international locations during the period of time where (a) Romney was at Bain Capital (1984 – Feb. 1999) and (b) Bain Capital owned interests in the companies (hereinafter, the “Romney Era”).

This article addresses China when discussing Bain’s investments in GT Bicycles, Modus, and ChipPac. As established below, no American jobs were relocated to China during the Romney Era by any of these companies. [...]

This article does not even attempt to address India.

Unsurprisingly, the President has used this inaccurate lede for political gain. Minutes after your story posted online, David Axelrod wrote: “Tonight’s story in the Washington Post exposed Mitt Romney’s breathtaking hypocrisy. He has campaigned all over this country, vowing that he would be an advocate for American jobs. But tonight we learned that he made a fortune advising companies on how to outsource jobs to China and India.” The Post’s inaccurate reporting has consequences.

That's just part of what Rubin included in her Thursday piece.

Readers are encouraged to review all of it as well as the Romney campaign's 10-page rebuttal to the Post which specifically outlined what happened at each of the companies named by the paper with comments from current and former heads of said companies supporting Romney's claims.

The facts as presented by the Romney campaign bring into serious question the quality of the reporting done by the Post for this piece, especially in an election year.

The White House is already using points made in this article at campaign stops and in television advertisements.

If assertions made in the piece are indeed either inaccurate or assumptions, the Post needs to let its readers know.

Despite the pushback, that has not been the case yet. Politico reported a few hours ago that the Post is not issuing a retraction and is standing by its story.

Regardless, it seems safe to assume this matter isn't over with.

Now that the Romney campaign has so strongly rebutted, it's a metaphysical certitude interested parties in the new and old media will be digging for more information concerning the six companies named by the Post. It will be interesting to see what else comes up.

Maybe more importantly, the Romney campaign appears to have thrown down the gauntlet warning other Obama-supporting news outlets to be careful with their attacks.

This election cycle has already seen its share of smear jobs on Romney as well as virtually all of the Republican candidates.

Has the presumptive nominee finally had enough and decided he's going to strike back at any and all media assertions he believes to be unfair or lacking in facts?

If that's the case, we're in for a far more interesting home stretch to this campaign than any of us imagined.