Is there an "H" in Sarah?

By Ward Harkavy Thu., Sep. 4 2008 at 4:06 PM

Categories: Daily Show, Featured, GOP, McCain, Obama Drama, Palin, REPORTERS (EMBEDDED)

Just checking.

Colleague Zach Baron points me to one story from the U.S. press that at least called bullshit after yesterday's faith-in-Palin-based revival meeting hosted by God-pandering John McCain. It's "Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention," from the Associated Press's Jim Kuhnhenn. Among the facts checked regarding Sarah Palin and the performance of her and her touters:

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

While we're at it, the pesky NYC org FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), has already done its damnedest to round up examples of the U.S. press's annoying penchant for referring to McCain as a "maverick." In "Maverick No Matter What: McCain's VP pick just reinforces media storyline," FAIR points out, he's called a maverick no matter what he does. Even when he's not being a maverick, which is 99.8 percent of the time.

If it's bathroom humor you want, go to the Daily Show. Jon Stewart did some great fact-checking last night (full episode) on Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove, and a funny bit about Foghorn Leghorn (Fred Thompson) and Droopy Dog (Joe Lieberman). But John Oliver's report from the Larry Craig Memorial Bathroom takes the urinal cake.