November 9, 2015

Politico’s Leftmedia Hatchet Job on Ben Carson

Targeting Ben Carson for being conservative while black.

Here’s a case study in Leftmedia charades: Find something a conservative black candidate said that can be twisted into something he did not say, and run with it as an exclusive, hoping most of your readers are too stupid to discern the difference.

On Friday, Politico posted a hit piece on the surging GOP presidential candidate entitled, “Ben Carson Admits Fabricating West Point Scholarship.” The essence of the piece was that Politico conflated Carson’s story in his book, “Gifted Hands,” about being offered a scholarship to West Point by Gen. William Westmoreland with Carson claiming he applied or received an appointment to the academy.

In fact, Carson has always been clear that he neither applied nor received an appointment. “As overjoyed as I felt to be offered such a scholarship, I wasn’t really tempted,” he wrote in his book. “The scholarship would have obligated me to spend four years in military service after I finished college, precluding my chances to go on to medical school. I knew my direction — I wanted to be a doctor, and nothing would divert me or stand in the way.”

After taking heat from all quarters about the inaccuracy of this piece of yellow journalism, Politico’s Kyle Cheney quietly corrected the title to read, “Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied.” In effect, Cheney admitted that the Politico story was the real fabrication.

As The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel notes, “[T]aking ‘fabrication’ out of that headline is like taking uranium out of an A-bomb.”

Criticism of Cheney’s charade ranged from the Columbia Journalism Review’s “Ben Carson exposed? Not really” to The Weekly Standard’s “Politico’s Shoddy Hit on Ben Carson.”

By way of disclaimer, I like Ben Carson, but I think he is unprepared for the office of president of the United States. That said, Carson’s intellect, ethics and values stand head and shoulders above those of Barack Obama.

More to the point, as the parent of a young man who received appointments to multiple service academies and will graduate from one this year, I have not been concerned about how Carson has framed his remarks about being “offered a full scholarship” to West Point. I have heard Carson’s repeated narrative about this, which I interpreted to mean he was qualified and encouraged to go to West Point. All West Point cadets have a “full scholarship” in the sense that they don’t pay for tuition or room and board. Or, rather, they pay with military service rather than money.

I have never heard Carson say he was offered an appointment to the USMA, which would be quite different, and I never interpreted Carson’s words to mean he had an appointment.

For what it’s worth, unlike the Politico author, I have met both Carson and Westmoreland. I know how they both communicate.

The “full scholarship” story is typical of Carson’s casual style of writing and speaking. I am confident he did not deliberately intend to deceive anyone or suggest that Gen. Westmoreland’s telling him he could get a scholarship was tantamount to his having a service academy appointment.

If Politico really wanted to break a scandalous story, perhaps they should’ve started back in 2008 with this headline: “Barack Obama’s First Political Fundraiser Held at Home of Rich Leftist Radicals William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.” Ayers was co-founder of the Marxist Weather Underground terrorist group. Or they might have headlined about Jeremiah “G-D America” Wright, “Obama’s 20-Year Relationship With Black Supremacist Guru Raises Questions.” Indeed, they simply might have questioned what Obama meant by “our shared values.”

Of course, Carson is a much softer target. Oh, and a black conservative.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.