In defense of Ben

Politico pulled the same dishonest crap on me in 2011. Let's start with the facts:

• Nearly 50 years ago, Ben Carson had a conversation with West Point officials who were encouraging him to attend the Academy because of his excellent grades and his ROTC accomplishments.
• Ben was presented with an "opportunity" and not an actual scholarship, because that's not how West Point works. If you get in, then you are on a full "scholarship" in traditional academic narrative.
• Nearly 50 years later, Ben used the term scholarship supposedly in his latest book, but definitely in an interview with Charlie Rose. Yes, I saw it.
• After Politico started a media frenzy saying he fabricated the story of a scholarship, others were quick to say Ben lied because he used the word "scholarship" instead of the word “opportunity”.
• Ben then acknowledged in an article on Newsmax that he could have been clearer on West Point narrative. Yes he could have, but he was trying to remember something that happened 50 years earlier.
• And! He did not know he would be running for president with media vultures scrutinizing every word he ever said in his life.

Then CNN’s Dylan Byars, who used to write for Politico, further ripped the Politico piece to shreds. It's worth the read, because Politico does not care about accuracy. Their goal was to do a hit piece on Ben Carson to create doubt and confusion in the media and the court of public opinion.

That's exactly what Politico did to me in 2011 during my presidential campaign. They ran reruns of the same false accusations over 700 times! That fueled the media frenzy, which is what they are trying to do to Ben Carson. Ben Carson did not lie! He used the word "scholarship" instead of the word "opportunity". That was enough for Politico to print a lie that "Ben Carson Admits Fabricating West Point Scholarship". That's a double lie, because he did not admit to anything other than he could have been clearer with the narrative. When the facts started to emerge, Politico changed their headline to "Exclusive: Carson Claimed West Point 'Scholarship' But Never Applied." That's probably more accurate technically, but Politico had already achieved their objective. They posted a lie that he made the whole thing up. Let's see how many times Politico reruns this story, hoping to continue to feed the media frenzy. That's what they do to try and discredit conservatives who happen to be black, and who are leading or rising in the polls. If someone still wants to believe Ben Carson lied, you probably were not going to support him anyway. That's your choice. I just wanted to set the record straight for those interested in the truth, because the frenzied media led by Politico were not interested in the truth in 2011 when I was attacked. They are not interested in the truth in 2015 either! Meanwhile, even though a CNN reporter challenged the accuracy of Politico's story, other CNN reporters spent a lot of time last week trying to disprove Ben Carson's violent past as a youth. Isn't that ironic? They usually try to prove that someone had a violent past instead of the reverse. Here again, the objective is to catch Ben Carson in a lie and make it stick. Stay strong, Ben Carson! The attack dog liberal media will continue to question everything and every word of your inspirational life story. Some of us are not going to take the bait.

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