Truth to power? Give me a break.
Mark Levin mentioned a report by McClatchy's Steven Thomma tonight on his show. When I heard Levin read from it, I assumed that when I went to the web page that McClatchy would label it as "analysis," or "background," or something similar.
Nope. Apparently, it's supposed to be a straight news story.
Thomma writes as if world peace and civility were salvaged because President Obama supposedly brokered an agreement on an important matter. It wasn't a treaty, which would require ratification by the Senate. It was a (non-binding) pact, "calling for" certain things. And the thing that was the hang-up was (I'm not really typing this, am I?) whether or not certain tax havens, which everyone who needs to know about already is fully aware of, should have their names published in an attempt to shame them. Not the names of the people taking advantage of the havens, just the havens themselves.
As fellow NewsBuster Noel Sheppard would say, "I kid you not."
Shake your head in amazement as Thomma actually treats the naming of well-known tax havens as important and takes dictation from the White House:
G-20 reaches accord after Obama steps in to broker a deal
The G-20 economic summit reached a final agreement to restore the world's economy Thursday only after President Barack Obama personally intervened and negotiated a compromise between France and China, White House officials said.
It was a remarkable stroke of personal diplomacy by a new president who's making his debut this week on the world stage.
Heading into the summit's final hours, however, it appeared that the group would fail to reach a consensus, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed to have the G-20 spotlight offending tax havens based on a list published Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and China objected, largely because it doesn't belong to the OECD.
That was when Obama, long a champion of ending or curbing tax havens, decided to float a compromise and pulled Sarkozy aside, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as a matter of policy.
"The president thought he could be helpful in resolving the differences," the official said.
Obama proposed that the G-20 merely "take note" of the OECD list, thus opening the door to implicit but not direct endorsement of that list.
What a guy.
What a waste of ink and bandwidth.
Thomma's tripe isn't as bad as "Everything seemingly is spinning out of control," which was put forth by the Associated Press's Alan Fram and Eileen Putman in June of last year -- but it's close. Though with a slightly messed-up title, Fram's and Putman's effrontery is still carried in its entirety at China's Daily (hmm .... I wonder why?). The report is unaffectionately known to yours truly as the "Worst. AP. Report. Ever" (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog).
Obama's loyal apparatchiks must be thrilled (and snickering behind Thomma's back) that they actually convinced an establishment reporter to carry a story that wouldn't even have passed the laugh test had it been issued as a press release under their name.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
