Anti-Fred Hit Piece du Jour

This one's a classic.

From Scott Martelle, writing on the L.A. Times "Top of the Ticket" blog:

Thompson's got a plan for Social Security. Sort of.

Fred Thompson offered a proposal today for dealing with Social Security's anticipated meltdown, and it includes a plank likely to draw fire from the conservatives he has been courting since before he made it official (though he has banged this drum before).

The plan: Provide a federal match for private investments in an ancillary 401(k)-style savings account. Individuals could contribute up to 2% of their monthly income and receive the federal match. Thompson offered no estimate of how much that would cost. But it would not allow workers to opt out of the Social Security program itself -- a linchpin for those advocating independent retirement accounts.

Thompson also called for indexing future benefits to changes in the price of goods rather than to wages, though he offered no estimates of what sort of savings that might lead to. But he said it would not affect people age 57 or older (he earlier put that level at 60).

Significant here is the general lack of details. [...]

Um...no.

Significant here is the fact that Mr. Martelle seems to have based his entire synopsis of Thompson's Social Security proposal on the press release announcing his proposal, and not the actual, four-page proposal.

Reesurch iz yur frend, dood.

Here's the comment I left on Mr. Martelle's sad excuse of a blog post. Needless to say, I won't be holding my breath waiting for it to survive his moderation process. [UPDATE: My comment was just posted there.]

You wrote: Significant here is the general lack of details.

Um...no.

Significant here is the fact that you based your entire synopsis of Thompson's proposal on the press release announcing his proposal, and not the actual proposal.

I'd be looking for a tuition refund from whichever institution was charged with teaching you the basics of journalism, if I were you.

Thompson's proposal is over four pages long. There's simply no way you read it all.

Not even close.

UPDATE: Compare and contrast.

Amy Schatz (Wall Street Journal):

WASHINGTON -- Although former Sen. Fred Thompson entered the presidential race late, he ventured Friday into an area few rivals have tread: advocacy of a fundamental overhaul of Social Security.

The Republican candidate laid out a detailed, four-page proposal calling for the creation of voluntary personal retirement accounts and a change in the formula for future retirees that would result in lower Social Security benefits.

Was that too tough for ya, Scott?