If you, like me, were wondering whether the Romney/Bain story was getting play outside the left-hand side of the media spectrum, you might have gone over to CNN yesterday and read an article by John King, CNN Chief National Correspondent and general Steve Kroft-wannabe. Depressing, huh?
King's reporting, which was widely circulated under the title "When Romney left Bain: Here are the facts" (now under the banner "John King: Why is 1999 so important in 2012?") is a piece that attempts to whitewash Romney by incorrectly defining the issue as being whether Romney was in Massachusetts from 1999-2001, and then quoting a bunch of former Bain insiders (he keep repeating that some are Democrats!) saying Romney was not in Massachusetts at the time. But he paints this as a definitive debunking of the story.
And then I realized every story on CNN must accept as an article of faith that Romney is a viable candidate. If you follow me below the fold, you will see that the "fact-checking" on this story only makes sense if you assume that the for-profit media needs the election to be a close one for financial reasons. They need it to be a horserace because they are the ones who own the concession stands at the racetrack.
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