Oh, My! PolitiFact's Damaging 'Lie of the Year' Turns Out to Be True

PolitiFact, fact-checking vehicle of the liberal Tampa Bay Times, awarded its No. 1 "pants on fire" of 2012 to Republican Mitt Romney (of course -- PolitiFact's 'Lie of the Year' awards invariably go to Republicans). Romney said Jeep was moving its U.S. production to China.

"(The "lie") originated with a conservative blogger, who twisted an accurate news story into a falsehood," said PolitiFact. "Then it picked up steam when the Drudge Report ran with it. Even though Jeep's parent company gave a quick and clear denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.

"And they stood by the claim," appalled PolitiFact continued, "even as the media and the public expressed collective outrage against something so obviously false."

Really?

These are Romney's exact words, spoken in Ohio days before the end of the campaign:

"[Mitt Romney] says Barack Obama 'sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China' at the cost of American jobs."

OK. Now check out what Reuters reported earlier this week under the headline, "Fiat sees at least 100,000 Jeeps made in China in 2014:"

"Chrysler, in which Fiat has a 58.5 percent stake, said on Tuesday it had agreed to make Jeeps in China with Guangzhou Automobile Group. ... 'We expect production of around 100,000 Jeeps per year, which is expandable to 200,000,' (Fiat's Chief Executive Sergio) Marchionne, who is also CEO of Chrysler, said on the sidelines of a conference, adding production could start in 18 months."

So Jeeps will get built in China. A lot of them. Just as Romney said.

PolitiFact hinted with a note of pride in its year-end story that its discovery of the "Romney lie" and the wake it made throughout the media were major reasons the former Massachusetts governor lost Ohio.

The Weekly Standard was first to call PolitiFact on its own inaccuracy.

Mainstream mischief of the lowest kind. Let's see if PolitiFact can man-up and give itself a "pants on fire."
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