On October 3, NBC Nightly News presented a “fact check” of the Palin/Biden debate, courtesy of reporter Andrea Mitchell. The report adhered to the unfortunate (and much discussed here at fair.org) tendency of media “false balance.”
Here’s Mitchell’s first catch:
MITCHELL: Both candidates exaggerated, Palin on a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.
PALIN: We’re building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is north America’s largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever.
MITCHELL: Independent fact checkers say it’s only a deal on paper and won’t be built for years.
So far so good. Next, Mitchell sought out a Biden exaggeration:
MITCHELL: And Biden suggested most Americans would be worse off under John McCain’s health care plan.
BIDEN: I call that the ultimate bridge to nowhere.
MITCHELL: Biden didn’t mention that many of the self-insured would benefit under McCain’s proposal.
Come again? Biden’s point in the debate was that a $5,000 tax credit wouldn’t much help a family trying to buy insurance that typically costs about $12,000 a year. Mitchell’s fact check–that some self-employed Americans would actually benefit–is irrelevant, not to mention misleading; the self-insured are a small percentage of the workforce.
After raising appropriate questions about Palin’s views on the constitutional powers of the vice presidency and troop levels in Iraq, Mitchell located the next Biden exaggeration:
MITCHELL: And Biden incorrectly said McCain voted the same way Obama did on funding the troops in Iraq. McCain didn’t vote.
This is actually inaccurate. FactCheck.org– among others– had been making the case that McCain was a no-show on this funding vote, but they were confusing two different votes. To their credit, FactCheck issued a correction. Will Mitchell?
So in the end, three exaggerations from Palin, two from Biden–in other words, pretty much even. Except that the Biden exaggerations identified by NBC… well, weren’t.
