Sarah Palin Gets Facts Wrong By Misquoting WSJ Story; Lashes Out At Reporter Who Corrected Her

In a speech about the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, Sarah Palin asserts, “Everyone who ever goes out shopping for groceries knows that prices have risen significantly over the past year or so.” The Wall Street Journal‘s Sudeep Reddy notes that this is not true.

Grocery prices haven’t risen all that significantly, in fact. The consumer price index’s measure of food and beverages for the first nine months of this year showed average annual inflation of less than 0.6%, the slowest pace on record (since the Labor Department started keeping this measure in 1968). Even if you pick a single snapshot — say, September’s year-over-year increase in prices — that was just 1.4%, far better than the 6% annual increase for food prices recorded in September 2008.

Palin took to her Facebook page to take issue with Reddy and, interestingly, referring herself as “just a former governor and current housewife” and “even humble folks like me can read the newspaper. I’m surprised a prestigious reporter for the Wall Street Journal doesn’t.” Only, the article to which she refers says it’s been “the tamest year of food pricing in nearly two decades.” The article says ingredients are costing more, but food retailers are struggling to figure out how or if to pass that on to consumers. Reedy writes:

It does indeed report that supermarkets and restaurants are facing cost pressures that could push their retail prices higher — but it hasn’t happened yet on a large scale. Critics of the Fed’s quantitative easing policy are focused primarily on concerns about potential future inflation.