Mitt's media enablers

I wrote a longer post about Mitt's latest ad falsely attacking Obama about the waivers for welfare work requirements at the Detroit News but Steve Benen brings up a good point about media complicity in Mitt's lies:

The Republican nominee for president is working under the assumption that he can make transparently false claims, in writing and in campaign advertising, with impunity. Romney is convinced that there are no consequences for breathtaking dishonesty.

The test, then, comes down to a simple question: is he right?

The cynical response to an ad like this is that the lies are routine -- it's just something "everybody" in politics does. That's wrong. An ad this dishonest is a genuine scandal and it's time for political observers treat it as such. Reporters within earshot of the candidate shouldn't ask, "What about the gaffes?" They should ask, "Why are you lying about welfare policy?"

Yes they should but they're too busy dogging Harry Reid for using an unnamed source to suggest Mitt may have paid virtually no income taxes for a several years. Which is pretty freaking comical considering our media's own business model. As I said on the twitter, if using unnamed sourcea to make a claim equals "pants on fire" then the smoke detectors in every national newsroom in U.S. would never stop beeping.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]