Holding Republicans Accountable?

Wednesday's Example of Media Bias   —   Posted on September 14, 2011

[NOTE:  Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, are candidates for the Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential race.]

From an Associated Press dispatch titled “FACT CHECK: Perry, Romney Twist Records in Debate”:

ROMNEY: “At the end of four years, we had our unemployment rate down to 4.7 percent. That’s a record I think the president would like to see. As a matter of fact, we created more jobs in Massachusetts than this president has created in the entire country.”

THE FACTS: To be sure, 4.7 percent unemployment would be a welcome figure nationally. But Romney started from a much better position than President Barack Obama did. Unemployment was only 5.6 percent when Romney took office in 2003, meaning it came down by less than 1 percentage point when he left office in 2007. Obama inherited a national unemployment rate of 7.8 percent.

That’s the entire item. The AP doesn’t note that if nationwide unemployment were down by less than one percentage point since Obama took office, it would be as low as 6.9%–which would also “be a welcome figure nationally” compared with the current 9.1%.

Meanwhile, check out this AP correction:

BASTROP, Texas–The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about Texas residents questioning why Gov. Rick Perry has not spent more time in areas affected by wildfires. The single person who asked about Perry’s involvement was not an area resident.

Other than that, the story was accurate.

Read the original post at opinionjournal.com.  (Scroll almost halfway down to “Accountability Journalism”)