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Thursday, December 29, 2011

READER'S POST #1 - Did Media Matters Mislead its Readers?

By: 32slim32

I came across this while researching Bush’s vacation days:

“Bush Spent 5 Times More On Flights To Texas Than Obama‘s Christmas Vacation Costs”


First, I just love the rationale and the defense they use. “You can’t be upset about a $4 Million vacation when Bush spent $20 Million in 8 years flying to Crawford”.

Second, let’s look at how they arrive at that $20 Million figure. From the fourth paragraph of the article linked to above:

“During Bush’s two terms, the cost of operating Air Force One ranged from $56,800 to $68,000 an hour. Bush used Air Force One 77 times to go to his ranch in Crawford, TX. Using the low end cost of $56,800, Media Matters calculated that each trip to Crawford cost taxpayers $259,687 each time, and $20 million total for Bush’s ranch flights.”

By “Media Matters calculated” they mean they took the number published by CBS’ Mark Knoller of 77 trips and multiplied that by $259,687 (a CBO number they reference). Mr. Knoller always gives the grand total of “vacation days” for Bush vs Obama every couple of months or when Obama goes on vacation, whichever comes first. I have searched for his “official list” but all I find are the “summary reports” he gives us. I did however find a nice list at:


KWTX is located in Waco, TX, which is where Air Force usually flew in and out of. They do say the list is UNOFFICIAL, but it lines up with Mr. Knoller’s numbers on trips. While the list does not provide where the President flew in from or where he departed to every time, it does list several. Upon reviewing the list (which is no means complete) I have found at least 27 times that Bush went to the ranch in which he did not fly from DC and right back to DC like Media Matters number reflects.

Trips where Bush was going west and stopped at the ranch en route or returning from the west and stopped do not add $259,687. One trip, Bush flew to a ceremony in Little Rock, AR for President Clinton, went to the ranch for two days, then went on an official POTUS visit to Santiago, Chile. That trip didn’t cost $259,687. The return flight from Chile they stopped at the ranch and that didn’t cost $259,687. Several of Bush’s visits to the ranch were from official visits or campaign stops in Houston and Dallas, which again didn’t really quite fall into the parameters of the Media Matters conservative estimate.

Anyway, it is very possible that the Media Matters $20 Million could be off by as much $7 Million just based on these 27 trips. Please note, I am not saying that Bush NEVER flew from DC to the ranch and back. I just think the number that Media Matters published is a tad bit on the over inflated side, just because of their basic assumption that all 77 trips were for the sole purpose of going to the ranch. 

List of GWB flights (2002-2008):

Arrival Date
Departure Date
Arrive From
Depart To
4/24/2002
4/29/2002
Unknown
New Mexico
6/14/2002
6/17/2002
Houston
Atlanta
9/26/2002
9/30/2002
Houston
Unknown
10/24/2002
10/26/2002
Campaign
Los Cabos
11/4/2002
11/5/2002
Dallas
DC
10/29/2003
11/4/2003
Dallas
DC
1/9/2004
1/12/2004
Unknown
Monterey, Mexico
8/3/2004
8/4/2004
Dallas
Davenport, IA
8/10/2004
8/11/2000
Florida
Arizona
8/18/2004
8/26/2004
Wisconsin
Las Cruces, NM
10/8/2004
10/11/2004
Unknown
NM, CO
10/23/2004
10/25/2004
Florida
CO, IA
11/1/2004
11/2/2004
Dallas
DC
11/18/2004
11/19/2004
Little Rock, AR
Santiago, Chile
11/22/2004
11/28/2004
Santiago, Chile
DC
3/22/2005
3/28/2005
Western States
Unknown
3/31/2006
4/3/2006
Cancun, Mexico
Cincinnati, OH
6/16/2006
6/18/2006
NM
DC
7/21/2006
7/23/2006
CO
DC
8/3/2006
8/13/2006
South TX
DC
8/29/2006
8/30/2006
New Orleans, LA
AR, TN
11/4/2006
11/7/2006
Greely, CO
DC
4/5/2007
4/9/2007
LA
AZ
8/22/2007
8/27/2007
Kansas City
NM & WA
11/8/2007
11/12/2007
Houston
Unknown
5/2/2008
5/4/2008
St Louis, MO
Greensburg, KS
7/18/2008
7/20/2008
Houston
Unknown



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9 comments:

  1. Congrats 32slim32! I follow this blog. Nice piece. The only question I have is; do you think there is a distinction/discrimination between Media Matter's handling/reporting on this for Bush versus Obama? Are they favoring Obama? I never really picked it up to a "T"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel, thank you and no, my point really is that Media Matters did no research other than dig up a CBO estimate of what it costs to operate AF1, google the miles from DC to Crawford, and multiply miles times $56,800 (low end cost per hour to operate AF1).

    I spent about an hour googling, found a partial list of Bush's travel and debunked about $7 Million of their $20 Million figure.

    It's just a sad attempt to take focus off of 0bama's lavish $4 Million vacation by overstating the cost of Bush's travels over an 8 year period. Pretty lame argument even at $20 Million though. That's like $2.5 million per year for Bush vs $4 million for two weeks with 0bama.

    32slim32

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes! Slim. The left doesn't seem to get (or they intentionally mislead) RATES! They say things like "Bush added 5T to the national debt... but they don't look at the RATE. Obama has added a greater RATE of debt. Your point of

    That's like $2.5 million per year for Bush vs $4 million for two weeks with 0bama.

    gets at that. Very conservative of you! like it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a joke. Bush drove us into debt with 2 unpaid for wars. Obama has saved the economy. Let him take a 4 month vacation. After working day and night to pull us out of Bush's mess, he deserves it.

    Obama/Biden - 4 more years

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Saved the economy???" "Working day and night???" Are you even alive??????

      Delete
  5. The real "joke"here is the joke the gop plays on the American people. Bush traveled and laughed and partied and got drunk and we got our houses taken from us.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Steelers: Typical liberal. Drop in on a blog, make a statement, don't give facts, don't back it, and just bounce.

    LME, I see why you're pissed (I have read that you loathe un-backed statements numerous times.) I'm with ya. Libs live in this world where they just make a statement or a claim or an accusation without backing it. Oy

    ReplyDelete
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