The Washington Post fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, has given a “Four Pinocchios” rating – the worst possible — to the anti-Mitt Romney film, “King of Bain,” which was financed by a well-heeled Newt Gingrich supporter.
The first sentence of Kessler’s story certainly sets the stage: “Newt Gingrich, meet Michael Moore!”
Kessler found that the “King of Bain” 60-second ad and 29-minute video are both fraught with factual inaccuracies and, in at least one case, interviews of ordinary citizens appear to have been conducted under misleading pretenses and have been selectively edited to leave a false impression.
Here’s how Kessler summarizes this video hit piece: “It is such an over-the-top assault on former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney that it is hard to know where to begin. It uses evocative footage from distraught middle-class Americans who allege that Romney’s deal-making is responsible for their woes. It mixes images of closed factories and shuttered shops with video clips of Romney — making him look foolish, vain or greedy. And it has a sneering voice-over that seeks to push every anti-Wall Street button possible.”
The attempt to portray Romney as a ruthless corporate raider fails, according to Kessler, in three of the main examples offered by the film: the closure of the UniMac washing machine manufacturing plant in Marianna, Fla.; the bankruptcy of the KB Toys chain; and the temporary bankruptcy of dot-com firm DDi in southern California.
To view the ad and the film and to reach the fact-check story, click here.
negative is very effective,