Friday, July 16, 2010

John Smithson Gets The Facts Wrong

It must be easy to write propaganda because you never have to fact check, and that is evident in John Smithson's latest article attacking the number of President Obama's staffers, claiming the number of staffers is 10 times greater then that of his predecessor. 

According to Smithson, President Obama has 470 staffers on the government payroll while President Bush supposedly only had 48.  Smithson's claim couldn't be any more ridiculous and he even encourages readers to verify the numbers by using a search engine on his own site - I decided to use outside sources to debunk his idiotic claims.

According to this other right-wing blog, Kickin' and Screamin', President Bush had 441 staffers.  Their source - a 2007 Washington Post article by Dan Froomkin.  That shows that Obama's staff is only 5 percent larger then that of his predecessor's.  This author is willing to forgive the small increase in staffers when putting into consideration the numerous problems the current president adopted when he was inaugurated a couple years ago.

Smithson's failure to do any kind of research when writing his posts is interesting, especially when considering his preference to cut-and-paste articles from other sites and make baseless accusations against The Midnight Review.  Smithson's assertion that President Bush only had 48 staffers only make him look stupid and as a suggestion, maybe Smithson should practice quality over quantity - he is proud of claiming to be "one of the largest blogs for content on the Internet," but at what cost?

4 comments:

  1. If Republicans started telling the truth it would end the Party overnight.

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  2. Call me a hopelessly naive, but I believe that one day the conservatives will see the error in their ways and come back to reality...

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  3. Kevin, indeed, I got it wrong. But your claim that I did not research my number is a lie. In fact, I referenced by "fact" clearly. Your decision to lie about that fact is the truly ridiculous circumstance. I have corrected the mistake.

    Understand that you do not deal with the point of the post - that Obama is caught in, yet, another lie.

    Funny how you never deal with real issues. So continue your petty minded ad hom attack on others and ignore the issues we, as conservatives, see as both important and condemning of Obama and his Black Liberation attack on our way of life.

    People do not vote "ad hom" attack. Rather, they vote on issues and the pocket book. Obama promised to keep staff salaries at 100,000 or less. He didn't even try - but that is the M.O. of liberal politicians.

    By the way, one of my readers corrected me, but thanks, anyway.

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  4. "Kevin, indeed, I got it wrong. But your claim that I did not research my number is a lie. In fact, I referenced by "fact" clearly. Your decision to lie about that fact is the truly ridiculous circumstance. I have corrected the mistake." - Smithson

    You fail to understand both "fact" as well as what it means to correct something. I stated you failed to research the subject properly because you incorrectly identified the number of staffers that were in the previous administration - 441, not 48.

    As for you correcting your mistake, I checked your site and as of 1:02 a.m., almost 2 hours after you claimed to have corrected your "mistake," your website still reads as follows:

    "More than this, know that Obama runs his Administration via appointed staff - the cook's advancement gives the Novice 470 staffers (czars and all) on the payrolls. This compares to 48 for Bush."

    I fail to see the correction and I fail to see the point you think your making - that Obama promised to keep salaries at or below $100,000. You seem to be mistaken. The president announced back in January of 2009 a salary freeze, which is a bit different then capping all pay at 100k and doling out pay cuts, as well as ceasing to hire additional staffers...

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