It really is amazing how liberal media members regularly make false statements on national television with total impunity.
Consider MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell who twice on HBO's Real Time Friday arrogantly claimed that the Obamas' federal income tax rate was "in the high twenties" (video follows with transcribed lowlights and commentary):
In a discussion about the federal budget, Pete Hegseth, the CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, said, “We missed some opportunities by not arguing for the simplification of the codes that Mitt Romney and President Obama and everyone else are paying a higher rate because they’re actually paying what they owe. But instead, they’ve got access to lawyers and all the opportunities that the little guy doesn’t, and so they exploit loopholes while the little guy making $30,000 is paying a higher rate, and that’s wrong.”
O’Donnell as an MSNBC host was compelled to defend the current White House resident.
“Don't even dream of lumping the Obamas in with the Romneys,” he protested. “The Obamas take a charitable deduction. I could do the Obamas’ tax return.”
“What do they pay, Lawrence?” challenged Hesgeth.
“The guy is a salaried employee, he’s got some book royalties, and he takes a charitable deduction, that’s it, and he pays in the high twenties,” wrongly asserted O’Donnell.
“But is he paying his fair share?” smartly asked Hesgeth.
“Yes, he pays in the high twenties,” O’Donnell again wrongly stated.
“He paid 18 percent this last year,” correctly responded Hesgeth.
And therein lies the problem which is quite common at MSNBC: the hosts and commentators say whatever they want without any regard for the truth.
I guess O’Donnell either missed, ignored, or chose to misrepresent the public release of the Obamas’ tax return last month showing that they paid an effective federal income tax rate of 18.4 percent NOT “the high twenties” that this arrogant, morally superior liberal commentator twice claimed on national television.
Makes you wonder how many times he misrepresented this on his own program, and what other falsehoods he’s guilty of.
As the discussion continued, O’Donnell even challenged Maher about how much he’s paying in taxes leading the host to eventually say, “Who’s in the room with my accountant – you or me?”
Exactly.
But therein lies another problem: once a host identifies that a guest is either 100 percent wrong about something or is lying about it, why would he or she ever have him or her back on the program?
In reality, this is a question that the folks at MSNBC should be asking about O’Donnell and all of their hosts and contributors.
Or is the truth just clearly unimportant?
If that’s the case, it’s imperative that cable and satellite providers move MSNBC away from the rest of the real news networks on their channel guides, for if they don’t, they’re aiding and abetting the dissemination of false information to the American people.
Certainly someone should care about the truth being reported on so-called news networks.
