Don't Look Now but Rep. Darrell Issa is Taking the New York Times to the Woodshed

When New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau submitted his final version of the article published with the intent of smearing Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight on Government Reform committee, it wouldn't actually be his final version. Issa's office maintains that the August 15th article had 13 factual errors in it and has been on offense ever since. The initial demand for a complete retraction seemed to be a bit much to ask but thanks to three official corrections to the article, a retraction may not be too far off. All you need to know is that Lichtblau appears to have relied on the work of a Think Progress writer for most of his material. Think Progress is a George Soros-funded group.

Last week, I posted Issa's smack down of the Times, which chronicled all 13 errors. The first correction in Lichtblau's article afforded the Times some plausible deniability due to an 'honest' mistake. Instead of writing that Issa's holding company consisted of several 'multi-million dollar companies,' the original article said, 'multi-billion dollar companies.' Based on the latest two official corrections from the Times, that plausible deniability is dissipating quickly. Another one of Lichtblau's claims, that Issa's office overlooks a golf course has already been debunked with video. Even the POLITICO reported on this.

Now, when you go to Lichtblau's article, it consists of three official corrections at the bottom of the article. Courtesy of an email from Issa's office, I was made aware of these latest corrections:

Correction: August 16, 2011

An article on Monday about the business empire of Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California, misstated the worth of the companies involved in his splitting up of a holding company. The split entailed separate multimillion-dollar companies, not multibillion-dollar ones.

Correction: August 26, 2011

An article on Aug. 15 about Representative Darrell Issa’s business dealings, using erroneous information that Mr. Issa’s family foundation filed with the Internal Revenue Service, referred incorrectly to his sale of an AIM mutual fund in 2008. A spokesman for the California Republican now says that the I.R.S. filing is “an incorrect document.” The spokesman, Frederick R. Hill, said that based on Mr. Issa’s private brokerage account records, which he made public with redactions, the purchase of the mutual fund resulted in a $125,000 loss, not a $357,000 gain.

And the article, using incorrect information from the San Diego county assessor’s office, misstated the purchase price for a medical office plaza Mr. Issa’s company bought in Vista, Calif., in 2008. It cost $16.3 million, the assessor’s office now says — not $10.3 million — because the assessor mistakenly omitted in public records a $6 million loan Mr. Issa’s company assumed in the acquisition. Therefore the value of the property remained essentially unchanged, and did not rise 60 percent after Mr. Issa secured federal funding to widen a road alongside the plaza.

Of course, the argument that the New York Times is state-run is only bolstered by the fact that Lichtblau's story appears to have been lifted from Think Progress and falsely reported as fact. The Obama administration does technically have a motive when it comes to the smearing of Issa; the Oversight committee chairman is getting extremely close to the truth about Operation Fast & Furious.

Even the POLITICO's Mike Allen conceded that Issa's office doesn't overlook a golf course. Yet, the New York Times is sticking by that particular claim, despite this video recorded from both inside and outside Issa's office, which catches Lichtblau's hand inside a fourth cookie jar: