Op-Ed Columnist:  Too Good to Check
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

This tall tale just had to be repeated. And repeated. And repeated. The facts
had to wait till Anderson Cooper checked them out.

On Nov. 4, Anderson Cooper did the country a favor. He expertly deconstructed
on his CNN show the bogus rumor that President Obama’s trip to Asia would cost
$200 million a day. This was an important “story.” It underscored just how far
ahead of his time Mark Twain was when he said a century before the Internet, “A
lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its
shoes.” But it also showed that there is an antidote to malicious journalism —
and that’s good journalism.

In case you missed it, a story circulated around the Web on the eve of
President Obama’s trip that it would cost U.S. taxpayers $200 million a day —
about $2 billion for the entire trip. Cooper said he felt impelled to check it
out because the evening before he had had Representative Michele Bachmann of
Minnesota, a Republican and Tea Party favorite, on his show and had asked her
where exactly Republicans will cut the budget.

Instead of giving specifics, Bachmann used her airtime to inject a phony story
into the mainstream. She answered: “I think we know that just within a day or
so the president of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that
is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day. He’s taking 2,000 people
with him. He’ll be renting over 870 rooms in India, and these are five-star
hotel rooms at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. This is the kind of over-the-top
spending.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/opinion/17friedman.html?_r=1&emc=eta1  -- for
the rest of the column.

See also:
http://www.politifact.com/georgia/article/2010/nov/07/elections-are-over-truth-o-meter-abides/


U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.: "The president of the United States will
be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200
million a day."

This price tag has been echoed by conservative pundits across the land.

Bachmann told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday that it was the latest example
of excessive spending in the Obama administration.

But is it true? No way, the White House said.

Bachmann said the number came from news reports. But only a news agency in
India ran with the figure, citing an anonymous Indian official. 

Experts questioned how an Indian official would know. No one tells them. They
also said the estimate is way, way off.

A report by the nonpartisan General Accounting Office backs that up: A trip to
India by President Bill Clinton, then regarded as perhaps the most expensive in
history, cost about $10 million per day.

We wish we could find the true cost. But the White House won't release it,
citing security concerns.
 
Still, we think Bachmann has a responsibility to prove what she claimed. She
didn't.

False.


ENJOY!!!

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