Hugh Hewitt strikes PolitiFact

PolitiFact executive director Aaron Sharockman appeared for the first hour of Hugh Hewitt’s syndicated Salem Radio show this morning. Hugh invited Sharockman on to explore PolitiFact’s drive-by on Hugh himself, noted by us yesterday here and here. Hugh has now posted the audio along with the transcript of his interview.

PolitiFact found Hugh falsely to have asserted that Obamacare is in a death spiral. I think this is a matter on which reasonable minds can disagree. I’m not sure Sharockman is the guy I want to turn to for the adjudication of this question (even less so Sharockman’s young colleague Allison Graves, who wrote the post in issue on Sunday in a great hurry to call Hugh out). I think Hugh landed a telling blow early in the interview:

HH: Are you familiar with the term adverse selection?

AS: Adverse selection? Sure.

HH: How do you define that?

AS: Well, I mean, to me, adverse selection, in the context of fact checking or the context of, you’ve got to help me out, Hugh.

HH: In the context of health care.

AS: Oh, in the context of health care? I don’t, I don’t necessarily know if the definition is based on, so help enlighten me, sir.

It is astounding, if not exactly surprising, how much Sharockman doesn’t know, and he isn’t even the guy who wrote the piece. He is the guy who runs the whole show.

If this were a fight, Hugh would have been awarded a technical knockout in his favor as he turned Sharockman’s face into a bloody pulp. Sharockman, however, hung in there till the end. On my scorecard Hugh won every round of this illuminating interview.

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