The home page of AOL.com flashed the erroneous headline: “Clintons receive staggering federal tax payout”
The heading on the actual article is “Hillary and Bill Clinton earn nearly $142M between 2007-14”
What the article actually says is:
“In a statement released by her campaign, Hillary Clinton said the couple has paid nearly $44 million in federal taxes on $141.9 million in income since 2006, and donated nearly $15 million to charity.”
So in three steps, we transit from the Clintons ripping off the tax payers to the factual report that they not only paid taxes at the highest brackets but also contributed $15 million to charity!
To what do we attribute such scandalous misrepresentation? After all, AOL is hardly a right wing outlet.
The web site is probably administered by an intern or a new employee earning about what they would receive selling hamburgers at McDonalds.
We see this more and more as journalist compensation and competence shrink. (Most would be shocked by how little reporters are paid.) ‘By-lines’ don’t pay the rent so, after enjoying their association with the celebrity press, the abler among them move on.
