Remember when the AP reported news instead of creating it?
So I am reading my digital copy of the News Journal this morning, and I happen onto this AP article by Mr. Calvin Woodward. As an aside, it must suck to have the last name “Woodward” as a journalist. I mean, whether this Calvin Woodward is related to Bob Woodward or not, the legacy of that name must be hard to live up to. And we shall see, this Calvin does not.
So let’s wade into the story is brings us today.
One of President Barack Obama’s campaign pledges on taxes went up in puffs of smoke Wednesday.
Oooo…clever imagery.
The largest increase in tobacco taxes took effect despite Obama’s promise not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000.
Uh…wait a minute. He was talking about income taxes, not sin or sales taxes.
This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.
At this point I check to see if I have stumbled onto the opinion section. For that sentence was not a quote. Yes, a reporter just reported that the rich are less likely to smoke than the poor, without support from a study or a scientist saying that is true. You would think he would provide support for his statement in the very next sentence, but no….
To be sure, Obama’s tax promises in last year’s campaign were most often made in the context of income taxes. Not always.
“I can make a firm pledge,” he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
Mr. Woodward is probably a smoker. And he is probably pissed off that he has to pay more today for a pack of Luckys than he paid yesterday. So he is pissed. “That damn Obama, he broke his promise not to raise taxes!” Inner monologue and reality: “He was talking about income taxes, payroll taxes, and the like.” Woodward: “Too bad! I want to rant. And I will find one quote out there that justifies my rant!”
And he did. Mr. Woodward found this one quote, well actually one phrase in one sentence in that quote to justify saying that President Obama broke his promise not to raise taxes on the poor and middle class. It is a logical leap, and stretch. Muscles are being pulled. Reality is wearing thin.
Read the entire article. Mr. Woodward is taking on the role of advocate, making the case that Obama is breaking his promise. Now, investigative journalism, the kind BOB Woodward practiced in the 1970s, does take on a hint of advocacy. But here, CALVIN Woodward literally has to create a problem, and then rail against it.
If Mr. Woodward wants to become a columnist, then he should do it. If he wants to remain a reporter, then hell, go to a Republican Congressman, feed him your line about breaking his promise, and then make your story about the Republican. While it is still ethically problematic, at least then you would be reporting the news, Mr. Woodward, rather than creating it.
Did Obama say that? Yes? OK, then, shut up.
No, you shut up, you anon idiot. The promise was on income taxes. You are a liar to say otherwise, like Mr. Woodward.
Our liberal media.
They are so in love with Obama that they can’t think straight.
Remember when the media was all over the last president for lying about torture, the war, secret meetings with enron….that was awesome
Gotcha! journalism at its finest. No actual analysis of the tax increase, just a lowest-common-denominator finger-point.
So I guess the above quote that states “not any of your taxes” is inaccurate?
h,
The fact that your entire political ideology depends on you being willfully stupid and stridently obtuse is telling.
h.
The context and implication here is important. Obama was talking about payroll and income taxes. Taxes on money you earn, not on goods you buy.
Indeed, you can justify that Obama is claiming that your state property taxes will not be raised in that quote, since those taxes falls within the “not any of your taxes” range. But of course, only an idiot can claim that since Obama does not have control over state property taxes.
The quote is accurate technically but not substantively.
DD,
He knows that. He is just playing at being so stupid. His ideology demands it.
Ha! Concerned conservatives for the Poor! LOL>>>>I can’t stop!!!!!LOLLLLLOOOLLLLL!!!!!
Mr. Woodward here joins the ranks of the execrable Ron Fournier and the perennially clueless Nedra Pickler from the AP as poster children for the so-called liberal media.
Don’t buy tobacco. No tax increase. You can be as rich or as poor as you want. Your taxes did not necessarily go up because of a tobacco tax increase.
Argh.
Barack Obama: “Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”
Delaware Dem: “No, you shut up, you anon idiot. The promise was on income taxes. You are a liar to say otherwise…”
Okay, then.
Whiny smokers with their stupid infantile sucking habit.
So Delaware Dem believes that income tax is payroll tax is capital gains tax. All one and the same.
Love the mental midgets we have here.
[chirp] [chirp] [chirp]