Right Wing Smear Machine Moves Into Operation
Here is an all too typical example of the utter indifference to common decency which characterizes the right in this country. Consider the following rather distasteful photo:
This photo was published by Andrew Breitbart Saturday morning. He alleged it to be a picture of the penis of Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, which, Breitbart claimed, had been sent by Weiner via Twitter to a 20 year old college girl in Washington.
Now, remember that, though Breitbart has established an extensive record of spreading false, malignant smears against Democrats and pro-Democratic organizations, he is still regarded as an acceptable news source by Fox, CNN and others in the mainstream media.
By this morning, two days later, it had been determined that the above photo had neither been sent by Congressman Weiner, nor received by the girl in question. In other words, it is a blatant forgery, by a well-known forger.
Nevertheless, this story was picked up and spread through the right wing world with lightning speed. Here are a few of the wingnut websites, some of them among the most read online sites in existence, which reported it as proven fact:
Red State
Confederate Yankee
Power Line
Pajamas Media
Gateway Pundit
World Net Daily
Freak Out Nation
Angry White Dude
Human Events
The Spectator
Right Condition
Free Republic
American Spectator
Business Insider
And believe me, I could go on and on- I'd had enough by this point. So this thoroughly sickening story has now been spread throughout the right wing world, and will remain an established fact among Republicans, like the death panels, the fact that Obama is a Muslim, and a thousand other such smears. And you know perfectly well that not one of these websites will have the decency to admit that they were wrong or publish one word setting the record straight.
And by the way...the totally innocent girl who is a victim of this smear? She has been subjected to a vicious campaign of abuse and threats by anonymous right wingers online.
Your Republican party at work.
Now, remember that, though Breitbart has established an extensive record of spreading false, malignant smears against Democrats and pro-Democratic organizations, he is still regarded as an acceptable news source by Fox, CNN and others in the mainstream media.
By this morning, two days later, it had been determined that the above photo had neither been sent by Congressman Weiner, nor received by the girl in question. In other words, it is a blatant forgery, by a well-known forger.
Nevertheless, this story was picked up and spread through the right wing world with lightning speed. Here are a few of the wingnut websites, some of them among the most read online sites in existence, which reported it as proven fact:
Red State
Confederate Yankee
Power Line
Pajamas Media
Gateway Pundit
World Net Daily
Freak Out Nation
Angry White Dude
Human Events
The Spectator
Right Condition
Free Republic
American Spectator
Business Insider
And believe me, I could go on and on- I'd had enough by this point. So this thoroughly sickening story has now been spread throughout the right wing world, and will remain an established fact among Republicans, like the death panels, the fact that Obama is a Muslim, and a thousand other such smears. And you know perfectly well that not one of these websites will have the decency to admit that they were wrong or publish one word setting the record straight.
And by the way...the totally innocent girl who is a victim of this smear? She has been subjected to a vicious campaign of abuse and threats by anonymous right wingers online.
Your Republican party at work.
Comments
Afterall, it IS gray and lumpy.
Seriously, think about the sort of people that read those malignant rightwing blogs that publish this sort of sewerage, then think about the sort of people who read them.
*shudder*
May I offer as an excuse for that poorly written comment the fact that when I ready anything about the righties in blogistan, a little bit of my brain throws up?
Great post, GE. This guy is a slimy snake and very poisonous. I don't expect anything else from Fox but I'm getting more than a little disgusted with CNN.
I don't know if it's any consolation to you, but when I find myself reacting to the same disgusting outrages over and over again, I've noticed myself making spelling mistakes, etc. a lot more than I used to- I just have a lot of trouble these days focusing enough on things.
wannabee...
Thanks for linking to the entire statement.
May I point out that the article to which you linked had the following headline:
"Statement from Gennette Cordova, student who was sent lewd Twitter photo from Rep. Weiner's account"
In fact, as she made perfectly clear, she was never sent this photo from Rep. Weiner's account, and in fact only heard about it from the perpetrators of this lie:
"I saw that it was a picture that had supposedly been tweeted to me by Congressman Anthony Weiner.
The account that these tweets were sent from was familiar to me; this person had harassed me many times...Annoyed, I responded with something along the lines of "are you f***ing kidding me?" and "I've never seen this. You people are sick."
The headline, of course, ignored her explicit statement only a few sentences later, in order to repeat the smear that this photo came from Weiner's site.
Your mainstream press at work.
True, and I would have noted that had I not been under pressure of time when I posted the comment. Too bad a lot of people just read the headline on an article (which is often misleading) and only skim the article itself.
What is truly amazing is you leftards have ignored the evidence and timelines that show Weiner (aptly named) actually sent the photo to a 21 year old coed! Because he's a leftist, you blame the right.
Conservatives make our scumbags resign. Leftists defend theirs!
Angry White Dude
You are lying. This picture did not originate from Weiner's twitter site, not was it sent to this girl.
It was a total fabrication by Andrew Breitbart, who has a long history of such fabrications. You know this perfectly well, yet you continue to help vicious demagogues like this, in their campaign to reduce the United States to a third world dictatorship.
It is about time you face your personal responsibility for the degradation of our country.