Good Debunking By The WSJ

The Wall Street Journal debunks a phony stat introduced by conservatives opposed to gay adoptions.  This notion that the conservative media can refute conservative disinformation prompts a raised eyebrow at World o' Crap.

Well, we understand that the concept is unusual - we are still waiting for anyone on the left to take up the mystery of the silly Sojourner study purporting to demonstrate that abortions went up under George Bush.

Let's name some names:  Matt Yglesias made reference to this "abortions rose" meme last fall, and Kevin Drum nodded approvingly.

John Kerry made the point on Meet The Press.

Nick Kristof used it in a column on March 16.

And Hillary actually seems to have a staffer who read the study, and tried to make sense of it, but Michelle Malkin wacked her anyway.

Well.  We have made these points before, to no effect.  And Nick Kristof actually offered a (deeply unconvincing) defense of the study in his reply to Ms. Malkin.

So, hats off to the Journal.  If Diogenes passes by, we will point him that way while we await word from the Reality Based Community on this "abortions rose under Bush" question.

Comments

[John Thacker]

And the World O' Crap person also repeats the incorrect, often-debunked Democratic meme about pollution laws getting easier and pollution going up under Bush. Reality-Based Community, eh?

No one should doubt that the Democrats favor quicker and greater pollution reductions than the Republicans (though there are cases where the Democrats oppose market-based trading systems that would bring equivalent reduction for a cheaper cost to the economy). But, as things like the particulate and diesel regulations have shown (and the unfairly maligned Clear Skies-- I believe you linked to the Washington Monthly article), the Republicans have also consistently favored continued emissions and pollution reduction. (There are a few cases where existing law has sudden massive cuts phased in at a later date, and the Republicans have voted to delay them or change the phasing in scheme. This tends to be called voting for more pollution, even though the amount of pollution allowed never goes up, merely doesn't go down as quickly as an old plan hoped for.) No wonder so few people know that the environment has steadily gotten better.

[Jor]

The abortions going up meme really didn't go too far (although correction never hurts). Even if the Sojourners article was correct, the magnitude of change could have still been noise.

[tm]

Jor, if memoory serves you ought to be taking a bow - IIRC, I had no idea what lefties were going on about until you produced that study.