Hacks Have to Stick Together

Do Fred Hiatt’s fact-checker and FactChuck.org both endorse the ridiculous Politifact Lie[sic] of the Year?   Oh, yes.   Why does FactChuck think that claims that Ryan’s plan would end Medicare are lies?  Well:

But the plan would have continued the present Medicare system indefinitely for those now getting benefits, and also for all those who reach age 65 during the next decade.
 

So the fact that Ryan’s plan would alter Medicare so radically that he won’t make changes for people currently receiving or about to receive Medicare is an argument against the proposition that Ryan is ending Medicare? Right. But that’s one nice racket the Republicans have going; as long as whatever harebrained scheme you have to destroy the New Deal and Great Society doesn’t take effect immediately, apparently it’s impossible to criticize it honestly.

Meanwhile, in a post very much in the PolitiFact ethos, Ann Althouse implies that Paul Krugman’s criticisms of PolitiFact are purely partisan. Omitted, of course, is any argument as to why Krugman is wrong or PolitiFact is correct. So, anyway, if Wisconsin relieved Althouse of her current teaching duties and offered her a position teaching 8 hours of LSAT prep a day for the equivalent of $8/hour in 2-for-1 Big Mac coupons, I assume that she would say that it’s a “lie” if you said she was fired as long as she would still be called the Robert W. & Irma M. Arthur-Bascom Professor of Law? Perhaps her employers should try that for a year and see if she still agrees.