I wonder where the Taibbi fact-checkers were when our President made the following errors

During his education speech in March, where he tried to paint a gloomier picture than the real one, as a way to boost the charter schools to the detriment of public school teachers:



The first two are errors although in his defense, the last item is just a case of "being slick".


http://www.factcheck.org/2009/03/education-spin/

Let's make errors standard practice. Who needs nitpicky crap like facts?

Long live Taibbi and his fact-free rants.

:rofl:

"So where did Obama’s figure come from? A White House spokesman pointed us to a report by the College Board, which said: "The rate at which American students disappear from school between grades nine and 12 has tripled in the last 30 years." But the College Board’s report included a mistake, which it later corrected: The rate really refers to what happened between grades nine and 10. More important, however, it is not really a "dropout rate." The College Board report in turn cites a 2004 study by the National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy, which actually shows a tripling of the attrition rate between grades nine and 10, not the dropout rate. In other words, the difference between the number of students enrolled in grade nine in one year and the number enrolled in grade 10 the next year has increased threefold. At the same time, there has been a corresponding threefold increase in grade nine enrollments relative to grade eight. The report shows more ninth-graders failing that grade, not dropping out."

and

"While Bush boasted last year that "eighth-graders achieved the highest math scores on record," Obama said their math scores had "fallen to ninth place" in the world. Which is it?

Well, Bush was basing his claim on tests of only U.S. students by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also called the Nation’s Report Card, which started testing math skills in 1990. And he’s correct. Obama’s stat is an international measurement by the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from the U.S. Department of Education, which does show U.S. eighth-graders in ninth place, behind places including Chinese Taipei, Korea, Singapore and Hungary. But the president was misleading when he said our eighth-graders had "fallen" to that ranking. As our colleagues at PolitiFact pointed out, in 1995, U.S. eighth-graders were in 28th place and in 2003, they had jumped to 15th place. Now, they’re even smarter, comparatively speaking."

While they may have been unintentional errors, they probably should be corrected by Obama.

Some people believe every thing he writes and some don't. Some believe some of things he writes. I personally take every thing everyone says about everything with a grain of salt. I know for some that is hard to deal with as most people want concrete things to stand on so life is a bit easier but no one is perfect. Trying to make anyone so is impossible, whether a journalist or a President. No one is above criticism, although everyone seems to have their sacred cow.

Mathew Truth Taibbi!

errors? From March??

Jeeze, that's one way to dig up negative info, but could you try to be a bit more current? :hi:

I assume you were here in March (a date you paint as prehistoric in your sarcasm). If I am right, can you tell me what you said about these errors? Did you observe the errors?

and you can search the entire site and archives. Or, try google. ;)

And yes, you seem to be reaching way-y-y back to find fault, yet the man was only prez for about a month, and seemed to have quite a bit on his plate. I find that curious, but have a ball!

Another one: In June, he said "If you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world," which is absolutely false as we would be one of the bottom Muslim countries, according to statistics compiled by Politifact.com: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jun/04/barack-obama/obama-claims-america-one-largest-muslim-countries/

Was June still too early to fact-check Obama, who had oh-so-much in his plate?

March isn't so long ago. After all, Obama didn't hatch out of an egg on January 20th. He was involved in local community activities and had a history in public office long before he ran for the presidency. It's what qualified him in many eyes for the presidency.

In terms of education data - if the president embraced charter schools based on erroneous data about our public schools, then I'd say it's important to bring it up.

Lots of discussions on DU about charter schools. No doubt you've seen them, too. Charter schools have their own problems as discussed in this thread. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7120588

So I think that the data that anyone uses is important especially when it's used to promote public policy.

(Edited to fix clunky sentences.)

.

So Obama is a politican, just like all of them. What else is new?

time to research everything that is in his speeches. He has several meetings a day that take up the bulk of his time and he has to review executive orders and reports for much of the rest. He didn't exactly have time to do a research paper on education statistics. Matt Taibbi is a journalist, supposedly. His standards are different.

If we take serious your claim that the staff should be held responsible.

Let's not just stop talking about his staff. Did his staff take heat from the part-time fact-checkers? And trust me. Many more millions watch Presidential speeches than read Taibbi's pieces. Therefore, speeches must be as accurate as they can be.

on him as it is on Matt Taibbi to ensure that his articles are actually factual. Taibbi writes more like a political hack than a serious journalist.

mcablue - mcCAINblue, is that you? Slack times.

Big fucking deal.

:bored:

DU is becoming more and more like that other place where they love ann coulter, limbaugh, hannity and beck.

I thought those brain-dead idiots who glued themselves to every word by limbaugh did NOT check anything told to them.

Some might be foolish enough to take everything a politician says at face value, but that changes with experience of politicians.

:rofl:

You come up with this shit for what reason?

plate than the fact challenged taibbi.

But, unlike the progandist taibbi..the President corrects his mistakes.