Patterico's Pontifications

11/30/2007

Meanwhile, Over at MSDNC — Chrissy Matthews Decided The GOP Debate Needed To Be “Truth Squaded” By David Shyster. The Dem. Debate from Vegas?? Not So Much.

Filed under: 2008 Election,Media Bias,Politics — WLS @ 7:21 pm



Posted by WLS:

 Well, I sort of give away the post in the caption. Last night on hardball over at MSDNC, Chrissy Matthews decided that David Shyster would be a one man “Truth Squad” on claims made in the CNN YouTube Debate:

Plus, HARDBALL‘s David Shuster will “truth squad” the debates.  Who was telling the truth and who was telling some tall tales

Well, well, well, we can always count on the Shyster to find the “truth” — as he sees it.  So, what did he find?  Well, only this:

Welcome back to HARDBALL. 

In last night‘s Republican debate, two of the front-runners, Romney and Giuliani, were hit on an issue, illegal immigration, where neither seemed to have a strong record to defend.  That‘s what makes it all interesting.  They are not always ready with the tough ones. 

Here‘s HARDBALL‘s David Shuster with his report on the truth and the non-truth of last night‘s debate. 

DAVID SHUSTER, NBC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over):  It was a contentious debate right from the start.  And the disputes began on the topic of immigration. 

ROMNEY:  The mayor actually brought a suit to maintain its sanctuary city status.

GIULIANI:  It‘s unfortunate, but Mitt generally criticizes people in a situation in which he‘s had far the worst record.  For example, in his case, there were six sanctuary cities.  He did nothing about them.

SHUSTER:  So, what is the truth?  And what exactly is a sanctuary city?  Sanctuary city means a local government that has a don‘t-ask/don‘t-tell policy, whereby city employees are not required to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities. 

Two years ago, the Congressional Research Service identified New York City as a sanctuary city.  But these cities in Massachusetts have been identified as sanctuary cities as well.  

SHUSTER:  … the lawsuit was to not uphold a label of New York as a sanctuary city, as Romney suggests, but, rather, to make sure children of illegal immigrants could go to school and get health care. 

As for this personal charge about hiring illegal immigrants…

GIULIANI:  You did have illegal immigrants working at your mansion, didn‘t you?

ROMNEY:  No, I did not.

SHUSTER:  Actually, Romney did.  However, the illegal immigrants working on his home were hired not by Romney, but, rather, by a company he paid to do the work. 

The debate also featured a sharp exchange over torture…

MCCAIN:  This is a defining issue. 

SHUSTER:  … and whether this tactic defies international and U.S.  laws. 

MCCAIN:  Well, Governor, I‘m astonished that you haven‘t found out what water-boarding is.

ROMNEY:  I know what water-boarding is, Senator.

MCCAIN:  Then I am astonished that you would think such a—such a torture would be inflicted on anyone in our—who we are held captive and anyone could believe that that‘s not torture. 

SHUSTER:  The Bush White House has refused to say whether water-boarding is torture, though top Justice and military officials back up McCain, and say it is. 

Romney dodged. 

ROMNEY:  But I do not believe that, as a presidential candidate, it is wise for us to describe precisely what techniques we will use in interrogating people.  I oppose torture.  I would not be in favor of torture in any way, shape or form.

SHUSTER:  But, in a previous debate, Romney seemed to express a different view. 

ROMNEY:  But enhanced interrogation techniques, yes.

SHUSTER:  Several candidates last night boasted about their records of reducing crime. 

According to Giuliani, when he started as mayor:

GIULIANI:  … at a time in which New York City was going through a massive crime wave, averaging 2,000 murders a year, 10,000 felonies a week.

SHUSTER:  That‘s true, but the average was going down three years before Giuliani took office in New York, and the trend continued nationwide.  

I’m David Shuster for HARDBALL in Washington. 

You might look hard for a similar segment in this transcript for such a “Truth Squadding” of the CNN Dem. Debate Nov. 15 from Vegas, but you won’t find one.

Over at MSDNC, apparently Democrats tell no tales, tall or otherwise.

But, lets put the “Truth Squad” to the Shyster himself.   

Lets look more closely at his takedown of the Giuliani Claims about Crime Rate Reduction during his time as Mayor of New York, since by Matthews set up and Shyster’s takedown, the implication is that Rudy is telling tall tales.  Here’s what Giuliani said:  

GIULIANI:  what I believe is that we have to be very aggressive about enforcing the gun laws that exist. I had a city in which, when I took over, there were 2,000 murders a year, 10,000 felonies a week. And I enforced the gun laws very aggressively.

I enforced all laws very aggressively. And that’s the reason we reduced shootings by 74 percent. We reduced homicide by 67 percent. And we went from being one of the most dangerous cities in the country to being one of the safest.

Shyster says:  

That‘s true, but the average was going down three years before Giuliani took office in New York, and the trend continued nationwide.

Here is what factcheck.org says about Giuliani’s claims:

Giuliani’s tenure began Jan. 1, 1994, a few years after both violent and property crime in the city had begun to decline. The violent crime rate in New York had peaked in 1990 at 2,383.6 reported crimes per 100,000 people, and the property crime rate hit a high point of 7,562.5 in 1988, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics and as shown in the charts below. Both types of crime continued to drop, substantially, under Giuliani, but the trend had begun years earlier.
Giuliani’s ad is correct when it claims that crime was cut “in half” in his term, which ended in December 2001. Furthermore, crime declined in the city at a faster rate than it did across the nation. During his time in office violent crime fell 56 percent in New York but only 33 percent nationally. Property crime also fell 56 percent in New York and 23 percent nationally.

By looking at the chart provided by FactCheck, you can see that in calendar year 1993, the year before Giuliani took office, the violent crime rate had falled to 2090 per 100,000, from the peak of 2384 per 100,000 in 1990.  That’s a reduction over three years of 12.3%. 

During Giuliani’s 8 years in office, it declined from the 1993 figure all the way down to 928 per 100,000.  That’s a 55.6% decline over 1993.

If you had applied a straight line decrease from the high point in 1990, through the point when Giuliani assumed office, and on out to 2001 when he left, there would have been only a 32.8% decline — 4.1% per year over 8 years.

So, whose comments are the “truth” and whose are not?

Looks like Chrissy needs another Squad — maybe a “firing” Squad for Shyster. 

6 Responses to “Meanwhile, Over at MSDNC — Chrissy Matthews Decided The GOP Debate Needed To Be “Truth Squaded” By David Shyster. The Dem. Debate from Vegas?? Not So Much.”

  1. You look foolish when you delete comments without any justification, other than injury to your pride, that is.

    >Hack>

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/us/politics/30truth.html?_r=1&ei=5090&en=3666cd9bac02a769&ex=1354165200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

    Semanticleo (0aaaec)

  2. I deleted your comments because your links were to reports that Giuliani had made inaccurate statements concerning expense payments.

    The thread in question deals with whether or not EJ Dionne’s column was based on wilfull untruths about comments made by GOP candidates having to do with immigration.

    The links deleted were a simple attempt to hijack the thread and cause the discussion to drift off to other topics — which is a common effort by some commenters here. I’m simply going to police it a little more closely in my post.

    Comment on the topic — like you’ve done here — and you’ll get no problem from me. I’m more than happy to debate the link, since its in response to the issue raised in the post.

    But I don’t have time to read it right now as I’m about to change locations and will be away from the net for a few hours.

    WLS (dfa1f1)

  3. Semanticleo, off on a tangent? Say it ain’t so!

    Pablo (99243e)

  4. Miss Cleo calling someone a hack is just rich with, likely, unintentional irony. The pre traumatic stress disorder must have been kicking in again today.

    JD (00210f)

  5. oh dear, drama in the a.m., i love it.

    james conrad (7cd809)

  6. thing is, i remember back in late 2000, matthews had a pretty decent show covering the prez campaign with alot of very good guests. shyster/shuster wasnt around then and matthews had yet to reveal what a fruitcake he actually is.kinda sad actually.

    james conrad (7cd809)


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