The Trib's McNickle Misrepresents. Again.

But that it's a surprise.  What is a surprise is that he's misrepresenting while accusing the Post-Gazette of misrepresenting.

It's called "projection" Colin.  Look into it.

Here's what McNickle wrote:

The Pittsburgh Obama-Gazette (aka, The Toledo, Ohio, Block Bugler) misrepresented the facts in a poorly executed smear-itorial against Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday.

It wrote that Mr. Romney’s “mishandled response to the killings Tuesday in Libya of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans calls into question his ability and that of his team to perform their foreign policy responsibilities if he were to reach the White House.”

But Romney’s response was to the odoriferous news release issued from the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, that was shockingly empathetic to the Cairo chapter of Anarchists for Allah while sucker punching free expression (a release issued before the violence erupted but also reiterated after). It was a statement that even the Obama administration disavowed — eventually. [emphasis added.]

See the part I bolded/italicized?  That's the part that's just simply, brazenly wrong.

This is the Romney response that the P-G criticized:

I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.

It was issued at 10:09 ET that night but embargoed until September 12.  The embargo was lifted at 10:25 that evening.

McNickle says it was in response to the "odoriferous news release" from the embassy.  Well, here's that release:

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims - as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

It was issued at 6:17 ET that morning, well before the attacks a half day before Reuters confirmed the death of a State Department official.  This confirmation was about 3 hours before Romeny's odoriferous statement.

Romney's statement says that the Administration's first response (meaning the Embassy statement issued well before the attacks) was done in response to those attacks.

And that was the problem, Colin.  You're misrepresenting the facts when you're accusing the P-G of misrepresenting the facts.

As the man said, you're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts.  The chronology of events can be found here - posted on Wednesday, September 12.

Your smear was posted Friday the 15th.  If you didn't know the facts you should have and that's bad.  If you did and you went ahead with your smear anyway...well that's worse.

Which is it?  Incompetence of dishonesty?