Mitch Berg Fails Another Fact Check: Endemic Intellectual Dishonesty on the Right

I'm writing this because I'm annoyed, out of patience completely with the rampant intellectual dishonesty on the right.  It is a pattern, an unacceptable pattern, one which beggars any hope of honesty or progress.

Let me hasten to add that this, clearly, is not true of all conservatives; but it IS true of an appallingly large segment of the right wing politicos, and the right-wing media, including the right wing-nut blogosphere.

So to a degree, my friend Mitch is being made the whipping boy, the example, for what is a far larger offense beyond his own responsibility; but it is not completely unfair either, because Mitch also does this regularly.

This morning, Mitch wrote:

Limousine LiberalsBy Mitch Berg

Number of federally-owned limousines  Limous soars on Obama’s watch;

Limousines, the very symbol of wealth and excess, are usually the domain of corporate executives and the rich. But the number of limos owned by Uncle Sam increased by 73 percent during the first two years of the Obama administration, according to an analysis of records by iWatch New. .

In related news; Strib still biased.

So, I followed Mitch's link to the iWatch News, the source of the claims that the Obama administration is indulging in wealth and excess. The purchasing limousines claim is completely debunked, not supported, by Mitch's OWN SOURCE. 

The very site that he links to in order to make his claim says the exact opposite of what he wrote:

State Department dominates the limo count, says purchases reflect need to protect diplomats and foreign visitors in a dangerous world (caption to photo OVER headline)

Most of the increase was recorded in Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

According to General Services Administration data , the number of limousines in the federal fleet increased from 238 in fiscal 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, to 412 in 2010. Much of the 73 percent increase—111 of the 174 additional limos—took place in fiscal 2009, more than eight months of which corresponded with Obama’s first year in office. However, some of those purchases could reflect requests made by the Bush administration during an appropriations process that would have begun in the spring of 2008.

The GSA said its limousine numbers are not reliable, even though the federal fleet numbers are officially recorded every year. In a statement, GSA spokeswoman Sara Merriam said, “The categories in the Fleet Report are overly broad, and the term 'limousine' is not defined,” adding that “vehicles represented as limousines can range from protective duty vehicles to sedans.” Asked whether the GSA actually knows how many limos it has in its fleet, Merriam responded that GSA “cannot say that its report accurately reflects the number of limousines.”

So, apparently, the limos that Mitch refers to aren't really limos; they're not luxury vehicles, they are sedans and vehicles for protective duty. 

And there aren't really as many of them as claimed; it is apparently a clerical category. 

And they weren't all purchased under the Obama administration, an unknown number appear to be from the Bush administration.


So...........while it was a tremendous temptation for Mitch to indulge himself in the phrase "Limousine Liberals" and to bash Obama , a temptation that apparently makes him all tingly, it simply wasn't true that the Obama administration was out spending extravagantly on numerous limousines.

I can understand not fact checking every single detail, so long as a blogger at least tries to be as accurate as possible, I suppose.  But the information which proved Mitch wrong was in the caption ABOVE the headline, and the second through fourth paragraphs. 

I was expecting to have to do a little more digging to fact check this, but simply reading beyond the first paragraph?  How much easier can you get to do basic, fundamental research?  I can't think of an instance where Mitch OR others on the right PASSED, even partially, one of these fact checks of their blog posts.

This isn't the first time Mitch and others on the right have failed a simple, objective, straightforward and fair fact check.  It happens all the time, it is so chronic that what the Right is producing as news and information is more like an ideological hybrid of fantasy and propaganda.  This demonstrates a total lack of intellectual integrity, and it damn well needs to stop.

I can understand and excuse an occasional mistake, but not this chronic, constant pattern of deliberate dishonesty.