‘Reportedly’ is your friend for unverified imaginary girlfriends

It doesn’t have to be that exact word, of course, but some such indicator has to be included so that readers know what they’re reading. They need to be told the truth about whether they’re being told This Is What Happened or they’re being told This Is What We’ve Heard Happened, which is not at all the same thing.

Do we have a superstitious belief in widespread superstition?

If it turns out that, in fact, that tens of millions of your potential customers do have a superstitious dread of the number 13, then renumbering the floors or the units of your business would be a rational business decision. But it might also be that this widespread dread of the number 13 is, itself, a baseless and irrational belief.

‘Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows’

“On the biggest political story of the year, the conservative media just got its ass handed to it by the mainstream media. And movement conservatives, who believe the MSM is more biased and less rigorous than their alternatives, have no way to explain how their trusted outlets got it wrong, while the New York Times got it right. Hint: The Times hired the most rigorous forecaster it could find. It ought to be an eye-opening moment.”

Brian Moritz on the death of newspapers

At Scholars & Rogues, Brian Moritz shares his story of “Why I left newspapers.” Moritz used to be a beat reporter. I used to be a print and online copyeditor. At this point that’s about like saying he used to be a blacksmith and I used to be an elevator operator. At one point we both loved those jobs, and then, gradually, they became a lot harder to love.

Mitt Romney tells 533 lies in 30 weeks, Steve Benen documents them

I’ve written about or linked to a great deal here “chronicling Mitt’s mendacity” — to borrow Steven Benen’s phrase. Mitt Romney says many, many things that are not true. He says this despite being in possession of the correct facts of the matter. Which is to say that Mitt Romney lies. A lot. He lies [...]

Such a lonely word

Jamelle Bouie: “Why Romney keeps lying about Obama and welfare” It’s been three weeks since Mitt Romney first took fire for asserting that the Obama administration “gutted” work requirements in welfare. When the first ad was released, PolitiFact took the lead in debunking its claim that under Obama’s plan, “they just send you your welfare [...]

Progressive religious voices not irrelevant, just ignored

So yesterday, more than 60 Christian leaders released a statement “expressing their strong opposition to any legislative proposal that fails to extend the 2009 improvements made to refundable tax credits such as the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit.” I’m quoting there from Nick Sementelli of the progressive Christian group Faith in [...]