Lying? It's Just a 'Bogus Political Narrative,' So Get Over It

Somehow I missed what must be a deliberate attempt by Buzzfeed's Ben Smith (formerly of Politico) to not be taken seriously for the rest of this year's campaign.  Apparently he is upset that so many in the mainsteam media actually had a problem with some of Paul Ryan's fact-twisting.  In Smith World, in case you didn't notice, this is actually "an unusually honest election on both sides."  After noting some worthless claims about Lyin' Ryan he observes: "a casual read could mistake this for evidence about Ryan's character. It is, in fact, something approaching the opposite: This is how a bogus political narrative gets built."

More:  "The Democrats are hoping to do to Paul Ryan what Republicans so successfully did to Al Gore: To conflate stray real personal exaggerations; rhetorical simplifications; and actual policy differences into an unfair character attack."  Actually, "Ryan comments are self-serving in a way that I have never heard a politician avoid."

Those Romney ads about Obama "gutting" welfare? At worse they don't appeal to our "better angels." The entire GOP convention based on the completely bogus "build that" meme: It "may have caricatured the president, " Smith admits, adding immediately, "a bit."

But thank god we have Smith buzzing around to tip us off to the "new pseudo-science of fact-checks."

The real tip about how even Smith must realize he has gone completely off the rails: He feels the need to hastily interject that he does not believe that "facts don't matter" and does not feel that all fact-checkers are "DNC shills." Now, why would he think he gave anyone that impression?