From the Washington Post:
Other times, the president's assertions simply outpace the facts. In New Hampshire earlier this month, he said his education legislation made "the biggest increase in education spending in a long, long time."In fact, the 15.8 percent increase in Department of Education discretionary spending for fiscal year 2002 (the figures the White House supplied when asked about Bush's statement) was below the 18.5 percent increase under Clinton the previous year -- and Bush had wanted a much smaller increase than Congress approved. Earlier this month, Republican moderates complained to Bush's budget director, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., that the administration was not spending the full amount for education that Congress approved. Daniels said it was "nothing uncommon" and decried the "explosively larger education bill."
Why does the reporter use euphemisms like "the president's assertions simply outpace the facts" rather than say he chooses to lie to the American people?
bj
because this doesn't demonstrate that he is actually telling a lie, only that he is WRONG. Lieing means knowing the truth and saying different, it involves INTENT, and that's harder to proove. - maybe he does know the truth, but you need facts to back that up. More importantly, I would guess, is that many in the press are afraid to appear to express something that sounds like an opinion, and calling someone a liar SOUNDS that way. (even though they may be able to back it up with facts)
barry
Bush has enough staff for people to be correcting his speeches once they know something is wrong, but since the media isn't going to call him on it, they don't bother.
The information about the International Atomic Energy Agency report was denied pretty quickly by the IAEA, but they continued to use it in speeches after that. Americans don't pay enough attention to notice, so why bother?
Remember the story about how they had direct evidence that the President and the White House were targets on 9/11, and that's why he bounced all around the USA without giving a press conference? They had to admit later that it was made up.
Bush's statements about his sale of Harken Energy stock also had to be "retracted".
I think it is disturbing that all of these things aren't pointed out more often, for all politicians, not just Bush. Don't even get me started on Ari Fleischer.