The pressure of talk radio often brings words before thought. And the format of talk radio leaves little room for host or guest to reach back to the same audience that was listening hours or even minutes before to inform them of a mistake. Last night, after appearing on Air America's "Majority Report," Atrios did the next best thing -- publicizing his mistake on his blog in a post entitled "Fact-Checking My Ass." He writes, "Tonight on the 'Majority Report' I said that I thought the average monthly social security benefit (for retirees) was $850 (I think that's what I said. I may have said $800). I lied -- it's $926."
Over at Powerline, The Big Trunk assesses today's front-page headlines for the three major New York City dailies. The New York Post takes the top prize for its headline -- "Pin-head Arafat's terror '$trike'" -- pimping a story on Yasser Arafat's investment in the Union Square late-night Bowlmor Lanes. The headline -- "Yasser, that's my alley: Put $1.3M in Bowlmor" -- nets the New York Daily News a "respectable second place." And finally The Big Trunk's take on Goliath, "As a long-time fan of Mr. Arafat, the New York Times chose not to cover the story itself and declined to enter the competition. The Times covers this particular story via the AP: 'Report: Arafat invested in bowling company.'"
Speaking of investments, Josh Marshall and Mystery Pollster Mark Blumenthal caught ABC and the Washington Post misrepresenting the results of their poll on Social Security investment funds. Both the original and revised versions of the Post article report even support and opposition to a Social Security plan permitting private investments (specifically, 47 percent in favor to 46 percent against) when respondents are told that "the cost of the transition to a new program could reach $2 trillion over time." As Marshall and Blumenthal both point out, this question was only asked of those 53 percent of respondents who said they favored private accounts earlier in the survey. Thus, in Marshall's words, "just under 25 percent of respondents support Bush's plan once they know the costs and an overwhelming 69 percent oppose it." Blumenthal looks deeper into the numbers and finds that, "Only 7 percent of Americans say they would invest 'all or most' of their Social Security funds in the stock market if it meant their retirement benefits would go up or down with the market."
And with only hours to go until Santa's sleigh arrives, Kevin Drum can only find the strength to muster up some sarcastic Christmas spirit:
HO HO HO. ... Let's see. George Bush has reduced Pell grants for low-income college students, cut food aid for global charities, and virtually halted the presidential pardon process.
This is called "compassionate conservatism." Merry Christmas.
