Check out conservative strategist Dan “The Saddest Clown” Proft at about 2:50 into this Chicago Tonight interview with WTTW’s Carol Marin.
Ms. Marin had asked Mr. Proft and Chicago legal eagle and Daily Kos contributor Georgia Logothetis about the effect of the blogosphere in relation to traditional media. Ms. Logothetis stated that the left blogosphere had acted as a fact-checking foiling the traditional media’s meme that the Democratic presidential race was somehow close when, in fact, it was mathematically near impossible for Sen. Clinton to overtake Sen. Obama’s pledged delegate count.
Here’s Mr. Proft’s response to the notion that the blogosphere was playing the part of fact-checker to the traditional media’s meme that the Dem primary season was ‘a close race’:
I mean Barack Obama? Until last night, he hadn’t won a primary in about three months. Err, yeah. Since… since Super Tuesday.
He was trying to say that the media got it right because Clinton was indeed somehow “close”… But perhaps Mr. Proft needs his own fact checker.
Some facts…
Super Tuesday was February 5th, 2008.
This Chicago Tonight interview was May 7th, 2008.
Barack Obama won the delegate count in 13 primaries and caucuses in the three months since Super Tuesday.
What’s that? Thirteen wins?
“…Err, yeah. Since… since Super Tuesday.”
(You want to get uber-technical and point out that Mr. Proft said only that Obama hadn’t won a “primary”? Fine. It’s still a a fallacy since among those 13 states he won there were several primaries, including one right next door in Wisconsin a full two weeks after Super Tuesday.)
Either the man was lying or he’s a complete dunce.
Watch Mr. Proft for yourself:
Why did well-respected Chicago telejournalist Carol Marin not call him out?
Surely she knew about the primaries and caucuses in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state, the US Virgin Islands, Maine, Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Hawaii, Wisconsin, Vermont, Wyoming, and Mississippi…
And will Mr. Proft be asked back to Chicago Tonight … or any other self-respecting media outlet for that matter?
Only time will tell.
But one thing is for certain. No matter how poetic Mr. Proft’s spin and fibs, nobody’s “fearful” of such dim-wittedness.
PS Dan: the garden’s doing fine, thank you very much. 
How are your cats and sock puppets?
(h/t Illinois Review “Conservative vs Liberal on Chicago Tonight”)
6 comments
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May 8, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Aaron
Carol almost seemed ticked at Georgia for saying the blogosphere acts as a fact checker. And why didn’t Georgia correct Dan on his horribly erroneous comment?
May 8, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Rob Nesvacil
On that, you’ll have to ask Georgia. The camera wasn’t on her but I wonder if her face lit up with surprise at such a whopper.
Agreed on Carol Marin’s tone. Traditional Media Syndrome?
May 9, 2008 at 4:03 pm
McCain’s home on the range « Illinois Reason
[...] …and PPS: Proft lies again (he told a different lie earlier this week on Chicago Tonight). [...]
May 10, 2008 at 7:00 am
Linda
Dan Proft’s obviously too busy raking in cash from his contract(s) with the town of Cicero, for doing who knows what. The mayor there owes him. That’s one of the few races Proft’s won.
May 16, 2008 at 7:14 am
Dan Proft
I get it…”Illinois Reason” is like one of those reverse nicknames, like when you call a short guy “stretch”. It’s intended to highlight what someone it not. Clearly, reason is a stranger to this blog. It is little more than a vanity page for misanthropic green thumbs and arrested adolescent left wingers to see who can throw the biggest temper tantrum.
Yes, I misspoke when I said Obama had not won anything since Super Tuesday. However, if you weren’t so hyper-charged to prattle on about distinctions that fail to eluidate differences, you would recognize that in context what I was responding to and, in effect defending, was the idea that Clinton had up until Indy/NC been making a legitimate case that she should continue her campaign and that she could be the nominee.
While it is certainly true that Obama won primaries between Super Tuesday and NC, it is also quite clear that the big state primaries where the nation’s attention was focused (you’ll note that PA, for example, generated a bit more attention than Mississippi), Clinton was winning and thereby furthering her case.
The irony of a Republican being criticized for a misstatement in defense of Clinton, a former idol of yours I presume, and the electoral legitimacy of her campaign up until NC (and you’ll also note that I said the race was over and Obama is the nominee) is clearly lost on you all as I suspect most other matters of relevance are.
Some day I hope to be given the same consideration for mis-statements that you all give Obama and his “mis-statement of the week” campaign.
Congratulations on “catching” me making a technically inaccurate statement while missing the central points of the entire discussion.
Regards,
Dan Proft
May 16, 2008 at 1:35 pm
robnesvacil
You presume much and offer little, relevant or otherwise.
The central point of the discussion was the same point Gov. Huckabee made up until McCain earned enough delegates, yet after it became mathematically decisive.
That the press has operated in a completely different and opposite manner in light of those same circumstances is a matter for the media’s own navel-gazing to discuss.
As for your fib … my assertion — plain as day — is that it speaks to the character of your person. As does your ‘relationship’ to Ms. Johnson, and her shilling on your behalf. As does your other fib, later in the week, in your column.
After a certain number of “misstatements” it becomes clear there’s a consistent problem.
You may complain and whine about my pointing these things out to your heart’s content. But it doesn’t change the pattern you’ve created for yourself.
Cheers,
Rob Nesvacil