Stupid facts always get in the way of good journalism

Sweet fancy Moses. You would think it would be pretty damn easy for the AP to add context to the President Clinton/Chris Wallace interview. Unfortunately, that would be called journalism and it isn't the press' job to get at the truth.

Clinton accused host Chris Wallace of a "conservative hit job" and asked: "I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, 'Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?' I want to know how many people you asked, 'Why did you fire Dick Clarke?'"

Wallace said Sunday he was surprised by Clinton's "conspiratorial view" of "a very non-confrontational question, 'Did you do enough to connect the dots and go after Al Qaida?'"

"All I did was ask him a question, and I think it was a legitimate news question. I was surprised that he would conjure up that this was a hit job," Wallace said in a telephone interview.

You would think that a careful reporter would take the statement Clinton made:

I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, 'Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?' I want to know how many people you asked, 'Why did you fire Dick Clarke?

And say, "Hey, I wonder if that statement is true?" It is certainly verifiable, just go to your trusted Lexis Nexis (or whatever handy database you have available) and find out whether Chris Wallace & Company have ever asked that question.

And what to you know? That has already been done by the wonderful folks at Think Progress (here, here, & here) they found that, in fact, NO ONE on Fox News Sunday has asked those questions of administration officials. So, instead of being a chance to empirically show that Fox News is not "Fair & Balanced" the story that the AP is selling is that President Clinton is unhinged.

What can we do? Email the AP and let them know we aren't going to let them get away with shoddy reporting- info@ap.org