Poor Matthew Yglesias is getting upset that whenever he mentions President Trump lying, conservatives always shoot back with what Politifact named its “Lie of the Year” for 2013: Barack Obama’s assertion that “If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.”
A sign of how many orders of magnitude more dishonest Trump is than Obama is that whenever I write about Trump’s constant lying, conservatives always come back with the exact same example.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 3, 2018
Would Yglesias like a different example? How about, “The Benghazi attack was a spontaneous protest over a YouTube video,” or, “I heard about Hillary Clinton’s homebrew email server when everyone else did, on the news” — even though we now know she was sending him emails from it. Wow, we can think of a bunch, but Yglesias insists he hears only one:
Obama said “if you like your plan you can keep your plan” and he said it categorically even though in reality that was only true for 90-95% of the population.
That one exaggeration stands out so much that every conservative in America remembers it years later.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 3, 2018
Not only did Yglesias “debunk” the lie of the year by calling it an “exaggeration” — CNN’s Brian Stelter retweeted it.
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) November 4, 2018
Exaggeration isn’t quite the word he’s looking for.
— Pooblius (@Pooblius_) November 4, 2018
Those two are the living embodiment of white privilege
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) November 4, 2018
I thought they embodied pure idiocy ?♂️
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) November 4, 2018
Might not be an either/or situation
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) November 4, 2018
I think I have different definition of 90-95%. ?♂️
— Asian Name ????? (@RealAsianGuy) November 4, 2018
Obama stated that "if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.. period". Followed by "if you like your plan you can keep your plan…period". Many of us had existing healthcare plans via work… we got new plans and higher costs. PERIOD
— Beware of Doug 1/1024th Owl (@dg_phelps) November 4, 2018
He also said costs would go down and not dramatically up.
— Roccam's Occam (@RoccamSoccam) November 4, 2018
Good thing Brian is the ultimate arbiter of media coverage for CNN
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) November 4, 2018
and the ultimate arbiter of TRUTH
— Media Critic (@mediacritizer) November 4, 2018
Absolutely embarrassing retweet for CNN's @brianstelter.
That lie (not exaggeration) was actually labeled Politifact's Lie of the Year in 2013 and impacted millions of Americans: https://t.co/cFaZyYBJ8l
It was also one of many from Obama while he was trying to sell the bill. https://t.co/q2hy5aR25u
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 4, 2018
And the reason it stands out is that it was such an obvious and blatant lie which was called out by many on the right, but journalists like Stelter defended it at the time. They also lied about the cost curve going down, premiums going down etc etc.
And that was just on ACA.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) November 4, 2018
I know it was. I have called it a lie repeatedly. What, specifically, are you objecting to?
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 4, 2018
Don't get me started on the river of BS about the Iran Deal
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) November 4, 2018
The reason I remember this "exaggeration" ( translated: lie ) is because I heard it every time Obama or one of his staff was on television, and was one of the main selling points of the ACA. Matt also forgot the "Period." part. https://t.co/yCIuGLqmWQ
— BT (@back_ttys) November 4, 2018
I guess we've moved on from that bold new era of journalism where reporters call a lie a lie.
— BT (@back_ttys) November 4, 2018
Stelter and company are more offended by lies about crowd size than they are lies that were used to pass a massive set of rules and regulations. (Yes, I realize Trump also lies about serious matters as well. Just pointing out the difference in reactions ).
— BT (@back_ttys) November 4, 2018
Brian Stelter: We must stop the blatant spread of misinformation on social media
Also Brian Stelter: Hey it’s just my interpretation man pic.twitter.com/PWAj1s1Haj
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) November 4, 2018
“That’s not how I interpreted his tweet. But that’s the beauty of twitter.” What, that journalists can just retweet something ridiculous and then shut down any discussion?
It's a real testament to the state of affairs that I can't even joke that you must have faked this. There's no reasonable world where that conversation actually took place. And yet I don't doubt it did.
— Charles DeGlopper (@bronzebarbarian) November 4, 2018
"That's the beauty of twitter" says guy who was shocked once he figured out how to turn off his quality filter. #MuhBubble
— 100 Proof (@ChampionCapua) November 4, 2018
Kinda curious how else Brian could have interpreted that tweet given the rest of the thread. pic.twitter.com/bAdTYYxbn3
— BT (@back_ttys) November 4, 2018
CNN is fucking hot garbage…. pic.twitter.com/3yve3sbHbk
— EducatédHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) November 4, 2018
Be sure to tune into Stelter and “Reliable Sources” this weekend for more of his interpretations!
Related:
Hey look! CNN’s president agrees with Ted Koppel about net’s Trump coverage (Brian Stelter hardest hit) https://t.co/ZbzOrmnxIM
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 2, 2018
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