Very Serious Reporting

Posted on 12/14/2009 at 4:00 pm by Bob Cesca

The screamer Politico headline:

White House to Harry Reid: Cut deal with Joe Lieberman

And nowhere in the piece is there any evidence of this. In fact…

The White House denied that it was pressuring Reid to cut a deal with Lieberman and said there was no difference of opinion about how to move forward on reform.

“The report is inaccurate,” said White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer in a statement. “The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand-in-hand with the Senate leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible.”

Politico’s daily quota for link trolling… accomplished!

Adding… This is hopefully true:

Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in.

Also… Let’s say this reporting is accurate and President Obama pressures Reid to acquiesce to Joe Lieberman. What then? Does anyone seriously believe Joe Lieberman (or any of the Gang of Dicks) will vote for this bill? Today it’s the public option and the Medicare buy-in, tomorrow it’ll be subsidies and Medicaid expansion. Paraphrasing John Cole from earlier: JOE LIEBERMAN WILL NEVER VOTE FOR HEALTHCARE REFORM!

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  • Zanath

    I don’t know what to believe anymore. This whole process is very annoying. I think I’m just going to stop watching the sausage making.

  • Skippy

    And the source for the story was…wait for it… an anonymous ‘White House official’. Who could be anyone from the freaking janitor upwards!What’s depressing is that this must the hundredth time Politico have pulled a Drudge-baiting story out their ass using an anonymous source, and a lot of liberals once again fell for it hook, line and sinker.

  • http://www.bobcesca.com Redmond

    Thank you for pointing out my immediate thought when I saw this piece getting buoyed about the liberal blogosphere all afternoon: IT’S POLITICO!You’d think people would’ve learned their lesson about taking anything that spews out of their anonymous hole seriously.

  • Allonfla

    TPM reports that Salazar – Obama Cabinet Secretary-visited with Lieberman today. Reporters were outside the office and there is a quote from Salazar. What was said? I have no clue

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    I was doing some research today, and discovered that one of Lieberman’s 2006 campaign promises was to help pass health care reform WITH a public option.Also, Bob, I figured you’d like my most recent post about Lieberman, so here it is:http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/why-joe-lieberman-why/

  • mary from TN

    I sure hope you are right.We all know that Politico is a rethug rag.But HuffPost has the same blazing headline right now. I was too disgusted to read the article.

  • Skippy

    The White House has now denied it. Politico were once again full of crap. Who’d have guessed?

  • likala

    Maybe, just maybe if the White House didn’t have to spend so much time debunking anonymous shit that apparently knee jerk whiny libs are looking for to jump on then they’d have more time to actually you know get some positive work done on HCR.

  • jhw22

    Hmmm, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the “anonymous” source from who-knows-where is less credible than the named White House official. But that may just be too reality-based.Jennifer

  • jhw22

    @likala, you may have had my favorite quote of the day with “debunking anonymous shit”.Jennifer

  • http://twitter.com/Cody_K Cody

    Shouldn’t Stranahan be here by now… chiming in with multi-level defense of anonymous sources?

  • Jan

    TPM is saying the WH is denying this.Who the hell knows with all these rumors.HuffPost is usually right on. Politico-not so much.But this just didn’t get out there by someone bullshitting.I am getting to the point where I believe Politico rather than the WH.In any case, I think us unemployed, uninsured, poor are screwed. Obama needs to get a grip. If this is true, he will be lucky to have a 20% approval rating among demss.Time to drink librally.

  • DaBomb

    @Jan- I am sorry, but HuffPo is never really “right on”.Other than Bob’s postings there, I don’t read HuffPo and there are plenty more of people like me who are turned off by their erroneous reporting.

  • likala

    @JenifferThanks, however, apparently we aren’t getting through, as evidenced by the comment above mine.

  • Stranahan

    The White House denied the PhARMA deal, too. Very trustworthy, they are.

  • Stranahan

    And look – if some of you suckers want to bury your heads in sand, I can’t help you. If you don’t understand the how and why or anonymous sourcing, I can’t help you. But don’t pretend your intentional dumb and wrong is somehow clever. There ARE lives at stake.The reporting is pretty clear on this. Bob should issue a retraction for his carrying water for the White House again here….because there’s no WAY the White House would ever compromisd, right Bob?Please dude – the White House and you aren’t on the same team. Get it through your head.

  • ceu

    Ed Schultz is saying that the WH “pushed back” but that “Gibbs didn’t deny it”. sighAnd there’s Lee, right on schedule. Yeah, I soooo wish we’d elected McCain & Palin because their honesty & sincerety just shines thru every syllable they utter.

  • Allonfla

    @Jan: HuffPo? right on? yeah right. Right underneath their headline is ‘WH denies the report’.

  • Allonfla

    @Lee: Seems like a lot of people are losing their credibility these days, huh?

  • ceu

    We don’t WANT you to “help” us, Lee.

  • Stranahan

    CEU,Sorry – I’ll try to stick my head in the sand more.Obviously, the White House is no defender of a robust Public Option…just like I’ve been saying for months. And Bob was wrong with his constant kneejerk defense of the White House in every case where someone reported otherwise.Am I missing something in those facts? Or can’t you handle reality?

  • Stranahan

    CEU – I know you don’t want help. You prefer to be stupid. Good luck with that.

  • http://oneceltsview.blogspot.com/ Wolfe_Tone

    And look – if some of you suckers want to bury your heads in sand, I can’t help you. If you don’t understand the how and why or anonymous sourcing, I can’t help you.

    Of course I understand the “how and why” of anonymous sourcing.It allows the writer to just make shit up.

  • Stranahan

    You understand nothing.You’re saying that HuffPost would just make shit up? That’s a pretty serious allegation – headline making.But see – you’re projecting. YOU just made it up. And you probably feel clever, right? You don’t have a single fact to back your allegation that paid reporters working for an established publication would ‘kae shit up.’You’re too stupid to be embarrassed, I bet.

  • http://oneceltsview.blogspot.com/ Wolfe_Tone

    You don’t have a single fact to back your allegation that paid reporters working for an established publication would ‘kae shit up.’(sic)

    Bullshit, Lee.HuffPo merely re-ran the Politico piece as “news.”No fact-checking of Politico, no verification. You may think Politico is a bastion of journalism. I don’t.Lately, HuffPost has become the Star Magazine of on-line publishing, re-running gossip, innuendo, and frankly, made-up shit as “news.” Anything to get those hits and comments coming… afterall, it’s all about the benjamins.Speaking of ad hominem attacks: Frankly, I’d rather have my head buried in the sand than be in you condition

  • ceu

    Ya feel better now, Lee? Ad hominem attacks have a cathartic value, eh?Anonymous sources let people make shit up.BushCo & Blair relied on an anonymous source saying that Saddam had WMD. Turns out the source was a fucking cab driver! He made it up!! THAT’S why we don’t rely on anonymous sources – ’cause they’re often wrong & have no access to the information they claim to know.Journalists/reporters used to get named sources or 3 sources confirming the same stuff as the anonymous source – they used to have ethics and a bit of self-respect. That’s gone out the window in favor of being the first with the story. “oh, this will upset the masses – run with it”.As for the rest of it, the rest of us have eyes & ears & brains & are quite capable of reading about & researching a subject without you “helping” us – ’cause, you see, it’s NOT all about you! So thanks, but no thanks!

  • eljefejeff

    If you take all the articles quoting anonymous sources, many more of them are full of shit than what the White House has said, which I admit has not always been truthful but at least they can be held accountable.

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    Sounds like Lee needs a hug.Maybe we can have Liebermeanderthal give him one.

  • http://www.phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Phydeaux Speaks

    The reason anonymous sources can’t be trusted is because they can’t be verified. And reportage without verification is nothing more than opinion and spin.

    Also, PPP, your blog has dandruff. (good post, though) :)

  • Stranahan

    You’ll note that Bob is now reporting the HuffPost version…

  • http://broadwaycarl.blogspot.com Broadway Carl

    Cody:Shouldn’t Stranahan be here by now… chiming in with multi-level defense of anonymous sources?Be careful what you wish for.

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    Phydeaux,That’s snow. :D

  • staci

    Okay, here goes my faulty memory again — didn’t Obama say that although he liked the public option as a mechanism for controlling costs, if there was another idea out there that was better that he would be open to listening to that plan? I just don’t remember Obama ever being married to the public option in the image that most of the left envisions it. Isn’t the Medicare at 55 better than that public option that most of the left was screaming was bullshit anyway?

  • Gottverdammt Klaus

    Staci – yes. Obama never made the public option his line in the sand. He said he favored it, but that’s as far as he got as far as I know.

  • DaBomb

    @staci- that is correct.@likala- I hope you weren’t talking about me earlier. I always criticize the anonymous sources crap in articles.

  • likala

    Nope DaBomb, you snuck in before I got mine posted. I meant the one above you.

  • sanjit

    Honestly,i hate writing this.But with what Senator Liebermann is doing to the Health Care bill-i am begining to wonder if there was real justification in the pogroms over the centuries and in Hitlers final solution.Are all Jews like LIEBERMANN?I think Shakespere had Senator Liebermann in mind when he created Shylock.