Every now and again, we’ll get an e-mail from somebody who objects to the reporting of anything “but the facts.” Some people don’t want analysis and they don’t want anything but what somebody says. That would be a bad thing.
It’s a bad idea for journalists to cover a campaign by merely reporting the words of candidates.
It was a fact that Mrs. Bachmann said she’d stay in the race after Iowa no matter what. But it wasn’t the truth, and most every political analyst knew it. Facts vs. truth: Which should be in a headline?
“I didn’t tell you what I knew to be false,” she said today.
How would you headline that?