Oh man, talk about getting spun! It doesn’t get much worse than this, from The Associated Press.
Earlier this month, I wrote a post pointing out, along with many others, that the Democrats were distorting John McCain’s words by saying he’d called for a hundred-year war in Iraq (he didn’t), and that the press should call them on it. McCain himself even cited that post to argue that Barack Obama was attacking him unfairly.
So far so good. But since then, the Republican National Committee has tried to go further, by declaring that any Democratic reference to McCain’s “100 year” comment is out of bounds. And today, the AP bought it.
Here’s the lede of its story on the controversy today:
The Republican National Committee demanded Monday that television networks stop running a television ad by the Democratic Party that falsely suggests John McCain wants a 100-year war in Iraq.
But the Democratic ad (which can be seen here) never says anything about war. It simply shows viewers McCain’s own words:
Questioner: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years…
McCain: Maybe 100. That’d be fine with me.
No question the ad is misleading. It omits the next part of McCain’s response:
As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that’d be fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day.
By doing so, and by showing violent images of a war-torn Iraq, it gives the impression that McCain is saying he’d be fine with one hundred years of war.
If the AP wanted to note that the ad is misleading, we’d have no problem with that (as long as it was willing to do the same for other ads in the future. After all, what political ad isn’t misleading?) But to unequivocally call the ad false goes way too far.
It’s also worth noting that, in the view of most experts, the idea that we could maintain a presence in one of the most volatile parts of the most anti-American region on earth for the next century, without exposing our troops to danger, is a fantasy. Looked at in that light, the ad, though still misleading, is hardly beyond the pale.
But even leaving that context aside, the AP’s lede is simply incorrect. It should correct the record—and try to be a little more wary of publishing RNC talking points in the future.
Zachary Roth is a contributing editor to The Washington Monthly. He also has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Talking Points Memo, among other outlets.