The latest installment of "Stupid Fact Checks" involves the Associated Press, which appears to be determined to deny the truth of any statement, no matter how obviously correct, made by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump or running mate Mike Pence. At Sunday's second debate, Trump said, "what President Clinton did, he was impeached, he lost his license to practice law, he had to pay an $850,000 fine to one of the women." The AP, as seen after the jump, claims Trump was wrong in saying Clinton "lost" his license:

Stephen Braun and Jack Gillum touted how "key assertions by Hillary Clinton in defense of her email practices have collapsed under FBI scrutiny" in a Tuesday "fact check" for the Associated Press. Braun and Gillum examined several of Mrs. Clinton's key contentions in recent months regarding her e-mail scandal, and detailed the facts contrary to each of her statements. The two also pointed out that despite the FBI not recommending criminal charges, the federal investigation "left much of her [Clinton's] account in tatters."

The Associated Press and Stephen Braun did all they could to cover for the Clintons yesterday.

First, the wire service attached the most boring headline imaginable to Braun's story about Bill Clinton's shell company shenanigans: "Bill Clinton company shows complexity of family finances." The message to subscribers, particularly the broadcast networks: "This is boring and time-consuming. Don't waste your time reading this, let alone using it." As Scott Whitlock at NewsBusters noted early this afternoon, "All three networks on Wednesday ignored the latest questions to hit the Clintons and their foundation." So if there was a strategy, it worked. Braun's story was seemingly designed to induce a MEGO (my eyes glaze over) reaction:

On Wednesday, Jack Gillum and Stephen Braun of the Associated Press fact-checked five of Hillary Clinton's claims about her e-mail scandal from her Tuesday press conference. Gillum and Braun spotlighted that Clinton is "the only secretary of state known to have conducted all official unclassified government business on a private email address," and pointed out her "striking departure from the rely exclusively on private email for official business."

In a four-paragraph "Big Story" item time-stamped 10:48 a.m. ("CURRENT, FORMER OFFICIALS BACK SECRET SURVEILLANCE"), Stephen Braun at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, names several Sunday news program guests who he writes are "are supporting the government's collection of phone and Internet data following new revelations about the secret surveillance programs aimed at disrupting terrorist plots." Meanwhile, the Politico is hyping former Vice President Dick Cheney's characterization of Edward Snowden as a "traitor."

Both outlets, and thus far most of the establishment press, are ignoring a report by CNETs Declan McCullagh Saturday afternoon which I believe would be dominating the news by now if anyone except Barack Obama were President. It directly contradicts an assertion Obama made -- "Nobody is listening to your phone calls" -- shortly after the NSA-Snowden story broke, and one of Congress' most liberal Democrats is the source (links are in original; bolds are mine):

Since Mitt Romney is supposedly responsible for the death from cancer of a woman who died in 2006, seven years after the presumptive GOP nominee left Bain Capital, it seems more than fair to talk about what has resulted from the Obama administration's blatant favoritism towards UAW members while shafting former Delphi salaried workers.

Tonight, the Associated Press's Adwatch entry by Stephen Braun actually calls out the Obama super-PAC Priorities USA, specifically saying that the assertion by Joe Soptic, the woman's widower, "that Romney bears some blame in his wife's death is not backed up factually in the ad." Fair enough, but, especially because it was in the news today, let's look at the Delphi situation.




