The Associated Press and other fact-checkers are insisting that the line about the Janesville GM factory in Paul Ryan’s speech last night was inaccurate — and once again, the fact-checkers are wrong. Here’s the AP’s allegation against Ryan:
RYAN: Said Obama misled people in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wis., by making them think a General Motors plant there threatened with closure could be saved. “A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: ‘I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.’ That’s what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year.”
THE FACTS: The plant halted production in December 2008, weeks before Obama took office and well before he enacted a more robust auto industry bailout that rescued GM and Chrysler and allowed the majority of their plants — though not the Janesville facility — to stay in operation. Ryan himself voted for an auto bailout under President George W. Bush that was designed to help GM, but he was a vocal critic of the one pushed through by Obama that has been widely credited with revitalizing both GM and Chrysler.
The AP might want to check back on its own reporting on the plant closure, starting with this article from April 19, 2009, headlined “GM plant in Janesville to close for good this week”:
Production at the General Motors plant in Janesville is scheduled to end for good this week.
GM spokesman Christopher Lee says operations at the southern Wisconsin plant will cease Thursday.
About 1,200 employees were let go just before Christmas when GM ended SUV production at the plant.
Some 100 workers were retained to finish an order of small- to medium-duty trucks for Isuzu Motors Ltd.
Lee says most of those workers will be laid off Thursday. He says others will be kept on to help guide the plant’s shutdown.
The Janesville plant ended its SUV production line and laid off over 1,000 workers in December 2008, but the plant didn’t officially close. It continued to churn out an order of Isuzu trucks until April 2009, while the local union lobbied GM for a lifeline. In May, GM put the plant onto standby, meaning that it wasn’t completely shutting the door on it. There was some hope the plant would be able to resume production — and Wisconsin’s bipartisan congressional delegation, including Paul Ryan, scrambled to find a way to keep it alive — but it never happened.
To simply say that the plant “halted production” in December 2008, like AP does, is both inaccurate and misleading. It was more complicated than that. If the media wants to criticize Ryan for not being “nuanced” enough and failing to praise Obama for brilliantly saving GM, that’s fine. But Ryan’s comments weren’t inaccurate.
As usual, Commentary is a right-wing shill. The plant ceased all but very minor production, before Obama came into office. If the right wing wants to blame someone, blame itself for allowing the plant to cease 99% of its production during the Bush administration. n nOne day Fact Checker will check Commentary, but that would require a many-pages article.
One day people like you will learn to read for comprehension, and not to frame the issue to fit your partisan shill narrow frame reference point.
Roger, UAW workers make the equivalent of $100 an hour. That's wages, Cadillac health care, vacation, sick leave, personal time, etc. Plus retirement and retirement health benefits. How many years until the UAW bankrupts GM again? Oh, it will take a while since GM got $40 billion in tax credits which has never happened before in US bankruptcy cases. n nMost of my relatives live in northern Ohio near the Apollo plants where the workers lost ALL their pension in Obama's GM bankruptcy restructuring. What? Why? Oh, they weren't unionized. Could that be why? n nRoger, do you happen to be saving for your retirement out of your take home pay? n nMany taxpayers must do this because they are either self-employed or work for a small company which doesn't have a retirement plan. I am one of those who saved for retirement in a 401K and, at age 63, am glad I did so. n nHowever, Roger, I had the misfortune to invest in GM, secured bonds. After Obama's lawyers got done restructuring the "new" GM, I got 10 cents on the dollar, even though secured bondholders like me were first in line under US bankruptcy law. n nWho owns 40% of the new GM? The UAW, whose claims in bankruptcy law were behind mine. I ought to have received 80 cents on the dollar, and would have if a real judge had handled the case. n nDo you like government a la Hugo Chavez? I hope you do, because this is what we have. n
Touchy, touchy! The same legalism you deploy on the President's behalf can be used by Ryan, too. nIf Ryan lied, Obama lied. If Obama gets a pass, Ryan gets a pass. Let's try to have one standard.
Apparently Rodger wants the facts to fit his ideology; either the plant was in production or not. Either Obama said: ‘I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.’ In 2008 or he did not. Should the government save auto plant i.e. Citron is an open question of policy. Once you save one company, whose is not worthy? While is can be argued that this matter was settled by the bailout of Lockheed or Chrysler due to their defense divisions, the lack of integrity of President Obama or Mr. Mitchell is not open to dispute.
Just like the Washington Post insisted that Obama did not eliminate the work requirement from welfare. What they don't say is that Obama changed the definition of what constitutes work. Who will check the checkers?
Fact-checking is the latest internet fad. It turns out that some of these fact-checking organizations are not so factual. WSJ and Weekly Standard have been calling them out on some left-wing biases of late. n nPerhaps the fact checkers need fact checking. In fact it pretty much warrants an update to the old warning, Who will guard the guards themselves?
Problem with fact checking is that it just doesn't work when you apply it to what are opinions. Mind you, this is just my opinion …
I find it interesting that Commentary Magazine lauds the accuracy of the "Fact Checkers" nwhen they find fault with something Obama or his campaign stated but squeals loudly when they find fault with the Romney campaign. So to be clear, you assert they only get it right when they find inaccuracies on behalf of Obama but the Romney campaign has never issued an inaccurate statement in your unbiased opinion – of course!
Dear Troll, n nThis article is about the GM bankruptcy. I am glad you are here and defending it. n nThis regime did an amazing sleight of hand operation (Chicago-style) and rewarded their "friends", the UAW, and did not recognize the legitimate claims of others: the secured bondholders were robbed , the Apollo workers retirement was taken away. n n Think for a minute about the effect of this misuse of power on future needs of ANY U.S. industry for capital funds. n n Who in their right mind will ever lend money by buying corporate bonds issued by a unionized industry? Answer: I know. I know who will: BIG CONTRIBUTORS TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
AP will lie, distort and create "facts" in order to help Obama win re-election. I'll be watching to see how critically "fact checks" Obama's speech…
Does anyone honestly believe that the people building Izuzu trucks weren't being paid green money?