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EDITOR OF REDSTATE
Why Ron Fournier Proves Mitt Romney Must Beat The Liberal Media, Not Woo Them
When Republicans talk about the liberal press, they should not just remember John Harris at the Politico, but also Ron Fournier of National Journal. If you want to know what the subtle racism of the liberal media looks like, consider Ron Fournier’s latest epiphany on how Mitt Romney’s welfare attacks on Obama are racist.
It takes one to know one I guess.
On the day the well respected by the press Yahoo! News Washington Bureau Chief David Chalain revealed his true colors only to see his media brethren rush to defend him after his firing (he lamented on a live mic that Romney had no problem partying as black people drowned), Ron Fournier was out accusing Mitt Romney of racism. Fournier is one of those members of the Gang of 500 that other members listen to and aspire to be.
According to Fournier, Mitt Romney’s ad saying, “You wouldn’t have to work” is a dog whistle that real means “Blacks wouldn’t have to work.” Doing no more extrapolation than Fournier did, what he is really saying is that if you are a Republican talking about welfare you are a racist.
What does it say about Ron Fournier that he hears the line about Mitt Romney’s ad and he himself translates it as “blacks wouldn’t have to work”? What is his presupposition about black people in his interpretation?
The fact is, Ron Fournier is a liberal. He does not like Mitt Romney. He does not like Republicans. And he hates the fact that Republicans and a sizable number of independent voters largely think he and his cohorts in the mainstream media are mostly full of crap. So to get around it, he and his cohorts have invented a liberal organization called Politifact, run by a sizable number of Democrats who had the mendacity to declare themselves independent voters before taking the job, that they can hide behind as an impartial arbiter of their crap claiming it is truth.
Consider his claims of racism about Mitt Romney and the GOP. He descends to “it’s Politifact, not me!”
Before explaining why these tactics work (and why Romney’s team knows, or should know, they are playing the race card), let’s quickly deal with this fact: The ad is wrong. As countless impartial fact-checkers have noted, the Obama administration memo cited by the Romney team actually gives states flexibility to find better ways of getting welfare recipients into jobs.
Why ignore fact-checkers?
Only a liberal or an idiot could take the fact checkers seriously in this. As Conn Carroll noted, Ron Fournier willfully chooses to ignore that what the Obama Administration did was allow states to change the definition of work.
As J. P. Freire noted on twitter responding to Fournier, “So wait, Obama guts welfare reform, Republicans object, and their objection is playing the race card?” Fournier’s response? Hide behind the fact checkers the media set up to claim themselves right.
But what are the real facts? The Obama Administration did end welfare as we know it. It is objectively fact unless you are a fact checker or Ron Fournier.
Just consider the mind blowing leaps and bounds of Ron Fournier — he can take a line in a commercial and extrapolate that it is really about black people, but he cannot take a regulation from the Obama administration allowing states to change the definition of work and extrapolate that this is designed to get around the work requirements in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. Again — only a liberal or an idiot could do that.
But Fournier would rather claim racism about Mitt Romney based on his own preconceptions about race and claim Romney is playing the race card — “coincidentally” at the same time the Democrats start pushing out the “GOP is playing the race card” meme — and hide behind “fact checkers” than intellectually admit he is wrong.
His column is horribly offensive and his unwillingness to do anything other than hide behind liberal fact checkers who didn’t really check the facts is pathetic for a person in his position.
To paraphrase Fournier, that leaves one inescapable conclusion: Ron Fournier is either recklessly ignorant of the facts, some of which he possesses – or he is lying about why (and how) he is playing the race card.
Ron Fournier’s actions show that as long as the media sets up phony fact checkers as arbiters of a truth they want that may not be, Mitt Romney must not just beat Barack Obama, but also beat the liberals in the media.
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