Republicans Anonymous

It Only Counts If You're Not A Republican.

CNN's Robert Novak told the following Howard Dean story:

CNN'S ROBERT NOVAK: "[T]hey've got to really get Howard under control. He spoke at Cornell University last week, and the only paper that covered this was "The Cornell Daily" student paper, and he said, yes, Social Security has a big problem. Over the years it's going to lose about 80 percent of the benefits. That, Judy, is not the Democratic line. The Democratic line is there is no problem."
(Source: GOP.com post dated March 1, 2005
In Case You Missed It: CNN's "Inside Politics," 02/28/05)
(Thank you for spotting this, Atrios.)

Performing a simple task called "checking the source" tells a somewhat different story, though. What The Cornell Daily Sun really reported was:

Dean began by speaking on what he thought was the most important issue today: the proposed privatization of Social Security. He said that President George W. Bush was trying to appeal to 20- and 30-year-olds through privatization, but claimed that in fact that generation would end up having to pay the $2 trillion bill for it.

"I think that privatizing Social Security has much more to do with the enormous amount of money that corporate Wall Street poured into the President of the United States's campaign than [helping] senior citizens," Dean said. "[Social Security] was a response toward [overcoming] abject poverty...it is not meant as a retirement program...it was meant as a social safety net for people who had reached the end of their working careers and did not deserve, after a long lifetime of dignified work, to live in poverty. ... It's not supposed to be a pension."
(Source: Julie Geng, Staff Writer: The Cornell Daily Sun Dean Speaks to Cornell Community Feb 24, 2005

Anyone waiting for a Rathergate-II scandal to sweep the airwaves and force Robert Novak to quit CNN is probably also waiting patiently for the SS Titanic's triumphant arrival in New York's harbor. Why isn't Robert Novak treated like Dan Rather? IOKIYNAR!

Click on the link to CNN's complaint department for "Inside Politics" and tell them you'd "Rather" see Novak face consequences for his lies.