Matt Yglesias neatly skewers
AP reporter Nedra Pickler’s style of insinuating:
A Dec. 10 wire story took a look at a recent Democratic debate and concluded that Democrats “sometimes leave out the facts” in their critiques of the Bush administration. For example: “[S]everal of the nine candidates criticized the tax cuts George W. Bush pushed through Congress. But none mentioned that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan . . . has cited those cuts as a reason for the recent economic growth.” Shocking! Sources indicate that the candidates also failed to mention the Tuesday- evening chicken wings special at the Lucky Bar and my little brother’s late guinea pig, creatively named Guinea.
[…]
According to Jack Stokes of AP media relations, “these fact-checking” pieces “aren’t criticism,” they’re simply an effort to “add some context to what was said.” But they read an awful lot like attempts to insinuate dishonesty, whether or not the candidate in question is telling the truth.