Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s facts, especially with the shuttering of a General Motors plant in his home town of Janesville, Wis., are getting much scrutiny by media --- which should be doing a bit more fact-checking, finds Grumpy Editor.
At last week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, Ryan quoted then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at a campaign stop at the G.M. Janesville plant on Feb. 13, 2008, saying: “I believe that if our government is there to support you and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another 100 years."
Ryan added, “Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year."
Democrats immediately attacked Ryan for pointing a finger at President Obama for the plant’s shutdown.
As it turned out, G.M. brass decided to halt SUV production at the Janesville facility (which employed as many as 7,000 workers in 1970) on Dec. 23, 2008
Most media cite December, 2008, as when the plant closed.
But G.M. did not lock the doors that day.
One Washington Post columnist, for example, did not mention that date and backed up six months, writing, “G.M. announced the plant’s shutdown in June, 2008,” making it appear the closing action took place seven months before Obama took office.
Actually, with some checking, media would have learned that production at the G.M. Janesville plant continued to April, 2009, with about 110 workers remaining to complete an order for small-to medium-duty trucks for Isuzu Motors Ltd.
To its credit, today's Wall Street Journal, under "Corrections & Amplifications," noted G.M.'s Janesville plant did indeed halt vehicle assembly in April, 2009, not Dec. 23, 2008, as it reported in an Aug. 31 convention article.
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