The supposedly liberal mainstream media spent Saturday morning reporting the latest Republican myth, that Standard & Poor’s downgraded U.S. Treasury bonds because enough programs didn’t get cut deeply enough.

ABC’s expert du jour was from Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, not exactly a bastion of political neutrality. Surprise, surprise, he also said the cuts weren’t deep enough.

Actually, S&P says on its website that the problem is with Mitch McConnell’s newly announced policy of political brinkmanship, “of taking vital decisions hostage in order to get his way on other decisions.” S&P’s site says it feels this does not make for economic stability.

But the media are parroting, as though fact, the right-wing story that it’s all Barack Obama’s, Nancy Pelosi’s and Harry Reid’s fault. If only they’d done what Eric Cantor and John Boehner wanted — slashed obligations such as Social Security and Medicare, and increased tax cuts for “the job creators.”

I expect Republicans to make up stories to “prove” they are right. But, I wish that journalists would take the time to check out what they’re saying before reporting offal as though it were fact.

In this case, reporters really needed to Google S&P’s statement to find out what was actually said. The U.S. bond rating was downgraded because of the potential that “political brinkmanship” would become the norm should the tea party strategy become the Republican strategy.

There is also S&P’s own brinkmanship — a threat to further downgrade if fiscal policy and the political process that makes it don’t change.

Tony Nazar, Wilton