Fact Check

For thee, but not for we:

It is telling that so many people who claim to be speaking on the side of Truth, Justice, and the American Way of Journalism have consistently focused their outrage-o-meters at individual townhall attendees, political broadcast entertainers, and the lesser lights of a lame (if resurgent-by-default) opposition party, while letting walk nearly fact-check-free the non-irrelevant occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If calling out lies and misrepresentations about a significant policy proposal is such pressing journalistic business—and it should be!—you'd think the watchdogs might start with the guy doing the proposing.

As with all their other standards, The Movement, which includes the responsible press, is very consistent. They have one for themselves and their mascots, and another for their opponents and targets.

So it is not outside of their norms that they "fact check" one side to niggling detail, and elide over - indeed rationalize and put the best face upon - the other. It's only natural to favor one's own side, giving it the benefit of the doubt, while searching for fault (even where there might be none, putting the worst of all interpretations upon it) in what one's opponents say.