Topic: NewsBusters
NewsBusters' Warner Todd Huston continues his Fred Thompson sycophancy by using a Dec. 26 post to promote a Human Events column by Jed Babbin making a dubious claim about the purported bias of the Associated Press.
The AP's crime, according to Babbin? Reporting the news -- specifically that Tom Tancredo, upon his quitting his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, endorsed Mitt Romney, which the AP described as a "stinging setback" and "a disappointment to Thompson." Babbin countered:
There is a small problem with the AP story: the facts. Tancredo did endorse Romney, but Thompson actually benefited from Tancredo’s withdrawal, possibly more than Romney did.
Why? Because Tancredo's state chairman in Iowa joined Thompson's campaign. Not reporting this, Babbin insisted, was "the functional equivalent of an attack ad directed at Thompson." Babbin offers no evidence to support this claim other than calling the chairman "the sort of worker bee a campaign likes to have on its side."
But, worker bee or not, Tancredo never polled more than 2 percent in Iowa. Why would Thompson benefit from this guy when Tancredo apparently didn't?
Such specious evidence, of course, didn't keep Huston from using Babbin's column as evidence that the AP is "an unpaid arm of the Democrat [sic] Party."
