David Paul Kuhn, chief political writer for CBSNews.com, has made what appears to be a call for the regulation of blogs, which he described as “providing a new and unregulated medium for politically motivated attacks.” As we know, however, Kuhn’s own unregulated employer, CBS News, is hardly a paragon of accuracy.
As was shown again in Kuhn’s “Year in Politics” roundup, posted earlier today. Reader David Ragsdale pointed out a couple of glaring factual errors in Kuhn’s account of the 2004 elections. Kuhn writes:
Only by redrawing Texas House districts to their own benefit, resulting in five new Republican seats, was the GOP able to hold the House.
Let’s do the math: there are 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Prior to the election, the Republicans held a 229-206 advantage (I’m counting Bernie Sanders, a Socialist, as a Democrat). In last month’s election the Republicans gained three seats and now hold 232. In order to fail to “hold the House,” they would have had to lose twelve seats. So the five-seat swing in Texas helped the Republicans to extend their margin, but was hardly necessary to keep a majority.
Kuhn continues with this quote from Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia:
“Every election we see these articles about realignment and it
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