The Republican activist and consultant who wrote the hit piece that is Clinton Cash and his publisher Harper Collins have changed “seven or eight” inaccurate passages in the Kindle version of the book. Amazon alerted readers, “significant revisions have been made.”
Ah, yes. Reality peeks its lonely head up over the beltway.
Annie Karni at Politico revealed Thursday morning:
Schweizer corrected “seven or eight” passages that were revealed to be inaccurate after the book was released, according to publisher HarperCollins.
Among them, Schweizer notes in the original version of the book that TD Bank, a major shareholder in the Keystone XL Pipeline, paid Bill Clinton for speeches and then said it would “begin selling its $1.6 billion worth of shares in the massive but potentially still-born [sic] Keystone XL crude pipeline project” after Hillary Clinton left office. But as his source on the sale of TD Bank’s shares, Schweizer used a press release that was revealed to be fake in 2013.
That passage has been removed from the most recent Kindle version of the book.
That should read seven or eight inaccurate passages that he’s admitted to and changed, because there are over twenty errors in Peter Schweizer’s book according to Media Matters, after they compiled factual errors caught by PolitiFact, ABC News, MSNBC, Politico, BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress, Slate, and Newsweek .
Harper Collins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, which owns the Republican public relations outlet of Fox News, praises the book with such Orwellian language as this, “In this blockbuster exposé, Schweizer does not allege illegal or unethical behavior, he merely presents the troubling facts he’s uncovered. Meticulously researched and scrupulously sourced, filled with headline-making revelations, Clinton Cash raises serious questions of judgment, of possible indebtedness to an array of foreign interests, and ultimately, of fitness for high public office.”
Yes, the point is buried in that pretty dress for the empty shell. There never were any allegations of actual “illegal or unethical” behaviors. In other words, don’t open the pages of Clinton Cash looking for facts. There are a lot of Glenn Beck chalkboard conspiracies and Republican innuendos — those twin pillars of Fox News that have made Rupert Murdoch a lot of money. That was before “significant” revisions were made to the “book”. Now there are still a ton of conspiracies and innuendos, they are just less blatantly false.
Republicans like to “ask questions” in lieu of presenting facts. They “ask questions” about President Obama’s birth certificate and now they are “asking questions” about Secretary Clinton’s fitness for office based on a book devoid of facts and evidence. Neither of these questions are based on reality, but they get such coverage from our beltway press that they become (incorrect) narratives that are deeply entrenched in the American psyche. Questions should be asked of all politicians. But the press has the burden of discernment. This whole “he said and I can’t be bothered to even fact check” style of “reporting” is dangerous.
Oddly, if a Democrat tries this, they are shamed by the same beltway that promoted Clinton Cash with nary a glance sideways at their fellow reporters, many of whom have been busted for being taken for a ride by a Republican with an agenda. An example of the lack of standards is the beltway shaming anyone who suggests that Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) might have trouble running for president since he didn’t graduate from college. No one is to ask any “unseemly” questions. So rude. See: The rule of press patriotism as it applies to Bush Weapons of Mass Destruction. Perhaps the press likes to be whipped by a stern Republican daddy, who shames them for doing their job, and enjoys making up for the failure to ask questions regarding weapons of mass destruction by chasing every morsel of conspiracy they can get their hands on.
The problem with this isn’t just that it hurts individual politicians. The larger problem is that it makes a mockery of the job of the fourth estate. Every time the press runs after yet another fake scandal, they are ignoring real problems. And because these fake scandals get debunked regularly and with great consistency, pretty soon the public won’t put any stake in anything they read. This hurts democracy.
This is what the Republican Party is left with — they are the party of conspiracy theories, selling trash to a willing press. They can’t afford to discuss policy, because no one would vote for them if they did. So they go the Glenn Beck chalkboard and exploit the fears and political ignorance of the public.
“Significant revisions have been made.” But these revisions haven’t caused anyone involved in peddling tabloid innuendo to do a rethink, nor have they caused the press to finally, at long last, ask for proof before they go on the word of a Republican. So, we can all look forward to more of the same failure to discern.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
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