Newsmax’s Ronald Kessler follows in the footsteps of NewsBusters in bashing the media for fact-checking.
Like NewsBusters, Kessler uses his Oct. 1 column to attack the Washington Post for a fact-checking item on President Obama and daily security briefings:
A stunning example of how journalists cover up for this president appeared last week in Glenn Kessler’s Fact Checker column in the Washington Post. Kessler — no relation — gave three pinocchios to an ad from American Crossroads pointing out that President Obama has skipped half of his intelligence briefings.
Kessler did not dispute that that was a fact. Indeed, Kessler wrote, during 2011 and the first half of 2012, Obama’s attendance record fell to just over 38 percent. But Kessler went on to offer excuses: Obama could not “skip” a briefing if he had not scheduled one. He reads the President’s Daily Brief. He meets with his national security advisers and asks questions. And some other former presidents also did not attend the briefings.
In a conclusion that is entirely beside the point, Kessler wrote, “Ultimately, what matters is what a president does with the information he receives from the CIA.”
But since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, what president who cares about the security of the country would risk blowing off the briefings? As noted in my story, “Former CIA Director: Intelligence Briefings Are Valuable,” President Bush almost never missed one.
Kessler conveniently omits Kessler’s statement that President Reagan attended very few briefings.
The Washington Post pointing out the fact that a lack of in-person briefings doesn’t mean the president is not being apprised of national security concerns is presented by Kessler as an example of “how journalists cover up for this president.”
But Kessler is hardly an impartial judge of journalism. He repeats the right-wing falsehood that Obama “claim[ed] that roads, bridges, and teachers rather than businessmen are responsible for the success of their own companies.”