If Newsweek’s goal was to spark some conversation, Niall Ferguson’s new cover story is a smashing success — it’s generating far more interest than the magazine’s pieces usually do.
If, however, Newsweek’s goal is to strengthen its reputation, and gain new respect as a major news outlet, Ferguson’s new cover story marks an ignominious low for the once-great magazine, tarnishing the publication’s reputation in ways likely to do lasting, irreparable harm.
The broader point of the piece is pretty straightforward: Ferguson disapproves of President Obama and wants him to lose. That, in and of itself, would make this rather unremarkable, and hardly worth making a fuss over.
The problem, however, is that in the course of launching his lengthy, 3,300-word attack, Ferguson publishes a series of claims with no foundation in reality. I’m not talking about errors of judgment, I’m referring to transparent errors of fact — Ferguson wrote easily-checkable claims about health care, the stimulus, China, job creation, Paul Ryan, and taxes, all of which completely fall apart after minimal scrutiny.
Remember, this isn’t some randomly-published piece of commentary, featured on an obscure conservative website; this is the cover story of Newsweek — which ostensibly has editors.
I’ve seen several detailed fact-checking pieces published over the last couple of days, and I don’t intend to reinvent the wheel. Matthew O’Brien, James Fallows, and Noah Smith have all published worthwhile takedowns, and they’re worth your time.
But there’s one problem in particular that helps capture why Ferguson’s piece represents political journalism at its most atrocious.
Ferguson argues that President Obama promised the Affordable Care Act wouldn’t add to the deficit. In reality, this is a promise Obama has kept, but Ferguson cites CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation reports showing that extending coverage and benefits “will have a net cost of close to $1.2 trillion over the 2012–22 period.”
If you’re thinking, “Oh god, I know where this is going,” keep reading because it’s worse than you think.
Paul Krugman explained the problem with Ferguson’s half-cocked nonsense.









