Selena Zito Does It Again.

Take a look at this "straight news" piece from a few days ago:

The conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity will begin airing ads on Wednesday in Pennsylvania and 10 other states, spending $6.7 million on a weeklong TV buy to criticize President Obama for the nation’s escalating debt.

And here's how she characterizes the ad:

The 30-second ad, airing on Pittsburgh stations WPXI, KDKA and WTAE, shows a clip from a 2009 NBC interview with Obama in which the president pledged to cut the deficit by half by the end of his first term in office.

“I will be held accountable,” Obama said at the time. “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” The ad concludes with a rolling debt counter and urges voters: “Let’s make this a one-term proposition on Nov. 6.”

This is the ad she's talking about:


By the way, for those checking the details on the "I will be held accountable" part, (and you might want to pay attention to this, Salena) Obama was not talking about cutting the deficit when he made that statement.  It's two separate issues sewed together by our partisan friends at AFP.  ABC has already fact-checked the "one term proposition" part.  Take a look:

But while there is no doubt the U.S. economy continues to struggle, an examination of the context of Obama’s 2009 comments to NBC’s Matt Lauer suggests his “proposition” might not have been as sweeping as Republicans make it out to be.

Obama was responding to specific questions about the Troubled Asset Relief Program and whether its economic benefits would merit the costs, then estimated at $700 billion.

“At some point will you say, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve spent this amount of money. We’re not seeing the results. We’ve got to change course dramatically?’” Lauer asked Obama.

“Look, I’m at the start of my administration. One nice thing about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable. You know, I’ve got four years. And, you know, a year from now I think people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress,” Obama said. “But there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”

Not only did AFP cobble together the "deficit" part with the "accountable" part, they omitted the "Tarp" part, but they sliced out some more context from Obama's answer.  You can read the full transcript here.

And Selena Zito's letting them get away with it.

But that's not all - guess what else she left out?

Ever wonder where Americans for Prosperity came from?  Koch Industries has an answer:

In 1984, Dr. Richard Fink, Charles Koch and David Koch and Jay Humphreys co-founded Citizens for a Sound Economy and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation. Over time the participants in CSE and the CSE Foundation developed different visions. In 2004, CSE became FreedomWorks and the CSE Foundation was renamed Americans for Prosperity Foundation. AFP Foundation created a 501(c)(4) organization, Americans for Prosperity. AFP and AFP Foundation have grown to more than 2 million members in all 50 states and 34 state chapters and affiliates.

And guess, just guess who also gave a ton of money to Citizens for A Sound Economy Foundation:

• $175,000 in 2001
• $175,000 in 2002
• $175,000 in 2003

That's right, her boss Richard Mellon Scaife.