Thursday, March 17, 2011

Bachmann May Be Right..... Or Not

On Wednesday we spoke about Rep. Michele Bachmann's slip of the tongue when she said that the first shot at Lexington and Concord was heard in New Hampshire.  OOPS!

According to the media, "oops" is right, as they slammed her for making the mistake. Politico ran an article titled "Michele Bachmann fails political geography 101."  UPI.com opened their story by stating that she "moved the Battle of Lexington and Concord 50 miles north of Massachusetts to New Hampshire..." The Post-Gazette.com ran a story titled "For Bachmann, a pattern of getting facts wrong." 

After these articles made a splash all over the web, Bachmann acknowledged her mistake and said that she wasn't shocked that she got ripped apart, because everyone knows the media is liberal and biased.  After all, she noted that no one picked up on Obama mistaking the US of having over 50 states during his campaign.

I wasn't familiar with Obama's mistake, or Bachmann's for that matter, until it was brought up in class.  Without doing any research on the issue, I agreed with Bachmann's accusation.  I pointed to the fact that the news ate up Bush trying to open the wrong door on his visit to China, as proof of her argument.  If Bush's mistake, which had nothing to do with US history or geography, made it to the front page and above the fold, shouldn't Obama's mistake get some news coverage?

Well, a simple search online proves me wrong.  Firstly, Bachmann's mistake seems to have only been reported on blogs, not in newspapers.  Secondly, Obama's mistake was also reported on by many blogs.  It does seem that Bachmann's mistake was reported on by more upstanding blogs, but reporting is reporting....

 On a separate note, The Huffington Post made a funny crack at her mistake.  Bachmann is a mother to 5 and foster mother to 23 and is a strong believer in homeschooling.  The Huffington Post is worried that now 28 children believe the Battle of Lexington and Concord happened in New Hampshire...


1 comment:

  1. It's interesting that she decided that when it comes to the media being biased, blogs only count when they attack her mistakes, not when they attack those on the Left.

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