Ken Berwitz
(NOTE: This is a repost of a blog originally put up yesterday. Somehow, I managed to accidentally erase it…but, I\’m happy to say (even though Hillary Clinton may not be) that I have been able to retrieve its contents).
Ben Carson said he got a full scholarship to West Point. That was 100% untrue. What a liar he is. What a pathetic joke.
Politico ran with this story, and so did virtually ever other media venue, They nailed him but good.
Except…..
Look at these excerpts from Blake Neff\’s article at dailycaller.com:
Politico has already begun to backtrack its explosive story accusing Ben Carson of lying about an acceptance to West Point, deleting its claim that Carson had confessed to “fabricating” his admission.When it first published its story Friday morning, the Virginia-based blog aggressively declared that Carson had admitted to telling a big lie about his past.“Ben Carson\’s campaign on Friday admitted … that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated,” Politico\’s story originally said.Just hours later, though, this opening line was removed entirely and Politico\’s accusation significant scaled back.Politico\’s original accusation has rapidly swept across the entire news cycle. “Carson Admits To Major Lie About His Background” was the headline at MSNBC, and similar titles appeared all over the web.Now, it appears, Politico\’s claim that Carson admitted to lying may have ironically proven to be a lie itself.“The Politico story is an outright Lie,” Carson spokesman Doug Watts told The Daily Caller News Foundation earlier Friday. In an interview with The New York Times, Carson described his offer of a spot at West Point as informal in nature.“It was, you know, an informal \’with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point,\'” Carson said.Despite Politico\’s claim that Carson had fabricated an application and acceptance to West Point, earlier statements by the candidate show that he\’s readily admitted to never applying to West Point. During a Facebook Q&A session with voters last August, Carson said he got an “offer” from West Point, but also said that he chose to not apply to the school, indicating the offer was informal in nature.“It was, you know, an informal \’with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point,\'” Carson said.Despite Politico\’s claim that Carson had fabricated an application and acceptance to West Point, earlier statements by the candidate show that he\’s readily admitted to never applying to West Point. During a Facebook Q&A session with voters last August, Carson said he got an “offer” from West Point, but also said that he chose to not apply to the school, indicating the offer was informal in nature.
The above excerpt suggests that the definitive “he is a liar: was all over the web. Well, I checked that. And it was. Still is.
Want an example? As I type this (about 6:30PM), this is what is on CBS,com:
Ben Carson\’s campaign admits he never applied to West PointDespite numerous claims from Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson that he had received a “full scholarship” to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — including a mention in his best-selling memoir “Gifted Hands” — Carson never even applied for admission to the academy, Carson\’s campaign confirmed to CBS News.
FYI: here is the statement issued by Carson spokesperson Doug Watts:
Dr Carson was the top ROTC student in the City of Detroit. In that role he was invited to meet General Westmoreland. He believes it was at a banquet. He can\’t remember with specificity their brief conversation but it centered around Dr. Carson\’s performance as ROTC City Executive Officer.
He was introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC Supervisors. They told him they could help him get an appointment based on his grades and performance in ROTC. He considered it but in the end did not seek admission. There are “Service Connected” nominations for stellar High School ROTC appointments. Again he was the top ROTC student in Detroit. I would argue strongly that an Appointment is indeed an amazing full scholarship. Having ran several Congressional Offices I am very familiar with the Nomination process.
Again though his Senior Commander was in touch with West Point and told Dr. Carson he could get in, Dr Carson did not seek admission.
The Politico story is an outright Lie. Dr. Carson as the leading ROTC student in Detroit was told by his Commanders that he could get an Appointment to the Academy. He never said he was admitted or even applied.
The campaign never “admitted to anything.”
This is what we have come to expect from Politico.
….which everyone now “knows” to be entirely true, because politico.com\’s subsequent half-baked backtracking (with other media presumably to follow), will never be read by more than a fraction of the public. It never is.
OK. Now that we\’ve seen how media jumped all over the Ben Carson bullcrap “lie”, let\’s look at where they are with Hillary Clinton\’s real one.
Last month, Ms. Clinton testified to the House Oversight Committee about Benghazi. At that time she was caught in an overt lie. Not an accused-then-hastily-walked-back lie like Carson\’s but an absolute, unequivocal, indisputable lie.
On the same day she was telling her own daughter that the Benghazi attack was by an al-qaeda like terrorist group, she was telling the grieving families of four dead U. S. citizens that it was all because of a video some private citizens made in California.
And what did our wonderful “neutral” media say after Ms. Clinton\’s performance (that\’s what it was; a performance)? That she emerged triumphant. They never laid a glove on her. The fact that she was caught in an overt, ugly lie, that she was telling to the families of the dead before their loved ones were even in the ground? No problem at all.
And that, of course, is before we talk about her lies regarding the level of contact between her and Clinton hatchet man, Sidney Blumenthal – himself a demonstrated liar, who President Obama explicitly told her not to hire in any capacity.
It is also before we talk about the explosive revelations, just made public today, that she signed a document explicitly aacknowledging that “the unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized retention, or negligent handling of SCI by me could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to advantage by a foreign nation.” I expect to be talking more about this tomorrow.
To summarize:
-When they could accuse Ben Carson of lying, they came running.
-When they knew Hillary Clinton to be a liar, they ran the other way.
These are not the actions of journalists. These are the actions of paid propagandists. And that, sad to say, defines much of what our media have become.
