Journal Sentinel Etch A Sketching Tommy Comment

John Nichols makes an excellent point in the Capital Times today.  He specifically lays out how the larger media simply wont allow us to address Republicans real desire to end Medicare.  They force everyone to qualify the statement with things like "end Medicare as we know it".  But Nichols points out that now we have Tommy Thompson actually caught on tape talking about how he would "do away with Medicaid and Medicare."

So even though we actually have a Republican candidate coming right out and saying exactly what he means on this issue, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel seems bound and determined to endlessly qualify those comments. In doing so they are over complicating the comments and essentially changing the meaning of the words that he actual said. They did this in a blog posting yesterday on the subject and they did it back in June via the obnoxious hairsplitting by PolitiFact Wisconsin.  In the latter example they seem to downplay his actual words while at the same time inserting things that they admit "Thompson didn't say at the event". What gives?

I'm sorry but sometimes a direct statement needs to stand on its own and there is no reason for the media to go out of their way to couch it as something else or re-contextualize it.  We've heard about Mitt Romney employing an Etch A Sketch strategy but in this case it seems that the Journal Sentinel itself is trying to employ the very same tactic regarding Tommy Thompson's Medicare comments. Put down the Etch A Sketch, that isn't your role.