Kudos to Paul Farhi of the Washington Post (3/2/12) for talking about the obvious deceptions and inaccuracies in right-wing publisher Andrew Breitbart's work:
News organizations found, for example, that the ACORN videos–which purported to show a young Mr. Breitbart ally named James O'Keefe posing as a pimp seeking advice from the organization about how to establish a brothel and evade taxes–actually presented a heavily edited account of what had happened.
An investigation by the California attorney general's office concluded that O'Keefe had added footage of himself and an ally dressed in flamboyant costumes that they had not worn to ACORN's offices. By then, it was too late for ACORN: Outraged conservatives in Congress stripped the organization of federal funding.
Andrew Breitbart (cc photo: Gage Skidmore)
The Sherrod and NPR videos also misrepresented key parts of those stories. In the former, Mr. Breitbart presented only a brief clip of a speech in which Sherrod acknowledged that she had discriminated against a white farmer when she was a state agriculture official in Georgia. The subsequent uproar in 2010 prompted the Obama administration to seek her resignation. By day's end, however, the full video of Sherrod's speech emerged, revealing that she had gone on to condemn her own actions and to seek justice for the white farmer. An embarrassed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized and offered Sherrod her job back.
The NPR "sting" showed two fundraisers for the media organization making disparaging comments about conservatives during a lunch in Georgetown. Among other things, the edited tape presented one of the NPR executive's more incendiary comments as his own when, in fact, he had been quoting others. NPR's chief executive, Vivian Schiller, resigned a day later as conservative lawmakers intensified efforts to deny federal funding to public broadcasters. (That effort failed.)
As many have pointed out, these lies live on. An ABCNews.com piece on Breitbart–since corrected–referred matter-of-factly to how he "broke the ACORN child sex trafficking scandal."
Which brings me to a weakness in Farhi's piece–his explanation of Breitbart's ability to get his work into the mainstream media:
He exploited a flaw of the contemporary news media: that in the rush to attract online traffic, news sources sometimes cast aside context and basic fact-checking. Many outlets reported Mr. Breitbart's "revelations" only to discover that the story was not as it had initially seemed.
Attributing Breitbart's success in getting media attention to a desire for "online traffic" is strange. Old media outlets like the Post and the New York Times gave his work a huge boost. If there's a media flaw here–and there most certainly is–it is the willingness to let a right-wing activist get a free pass. It might be the fact that media outlets who are relentlessly, falsely battered for being "liberal" feel compelled to disprove the bogus charge by giving right-wing voices more ink and airtime.
The most interesting admission in the piece comes from Rich Lowry of the National Review:
Lowry said Mr. Breitbart "wasn't a journalist in the traditional sense of dotting every i and crossing every t." As such, his journalistic lapses "didn't damage him on the right. He wasn't playing by the traditional media rules."
That's a fairly damning assessment of the right, from the right.
About Peter Hart
Greg hysterical input.Rush says he let himself act like a lib by sounding personal and you one up him by……..acting like a lib and being far worse.Get your apology out.Or wait Libs never apologize do they?Truly timely and funny.
PeaceBrother Your nemesis is dead.His days of hurting the left are over.I read your blog and I get it.You didnt like the man.What is the point?What future fears?
Boy, that Brietbart really hurt the left, no? Whew! Thanks for that, Greg. As I said above, Limbaugh's fraudulent apology was backed up by the lies essential to the whole mess–he comes off as a petulant five year old who doesn't understand a goddamn thing about the most basic stuff in adult life. He's not always pretending so he can put it over on rubes and hicks and dopes like the average troll who comes in here to actually defend him.
Tim let me help you.TURN…….THE………..DIAL!No one forces you to listen pal.Aint freedom of speech grand?
Rush is a hoot.Three hours a day …five days a week he kicks liberal balls about the room.Uncovering the insanity.Hey one of those balls caught a garage window.Window is fixed.We will live.So will she.Moving on.Ya big old cry babies.Weep weep weep
Man do i know these people or what.Always said Obama would foster his army of activists to bring on discord so he could avoid his record.Its always the same with you lot.The great pee party revolt should be ramping up again soon.And now this young lady with Rush.Seems she aint all that young,and is not the weeping little innocent she pertains to be.Obama starts this whole thing by trampling Religious rights under foot.Then he and his aids scramble to save us all.What an absolute joke.Then this woman who is a 30 YEAR OLD professional activist… steps forward with the same template.Save us save us.Only the government can do it.I must say Obama does use this community activist rot to his political advantage.Smart move my dir shmere of Chicago politics.But really is this all he has?Tell everyone the sky is falling because of some booger man, and only he with the full weight of the government can save us?Create one dirt storm after another, then step in as if he is the great healer?Activist of the world unite.Create panic then ask the President to step in.You must see this right?This election is turning the same way the last did.The game is to nail this jello to a tree.His record people….his record.Keep saying it.You were right to judge Bush on his.You must do the same with Lord BAM.
Obama derangement troll continues his Obama derangement trolling even though the subject continues to be Rush Limbaugh.
You wanna waste time ignoring the real stories by talking about Rush Limbaugh?You think Rush is a jerk cause he was being sarcastic and insulted a professional agitator?Well I hope you don't waste this amount of time saying the same about Bill( from mars) who does it every day.Because that too is a waste of time. We all must home in on one thing.Has Obamas record given any reason to re hire him?Don't anyone right or left let yourself be smoke screened away from that discussion.
"a professional agitator?"
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Way to blame the victim there, michael e.
Also, running the Gingrich playbook I see: Talking about Limbaugh is a waste of time and I blame the liberal media for it. Well, when the arguable leader of the Republican Party puts his foot in his mouth and reveals himself as a hateful bully and terrible human being– although that's been his stock and trade for years now, he's just finally getting called out on it– I find that newsworthy. Furthermore, I find the reactions of the Replubican candidates also newsworthy: how are they to distance themselves from the horrible little dickweed without offending the legions of dittoheads he can summon forth?
You think it's a waste of time, but yet here you are commenting about it repeatedly and offering explanations for the guy, huh? Interesting…
This has nothing to do with Rush but something more important.It is about the left trying to silence people.You can't hurt Rush.He is a 400 million dollar contractually bound man who is literally untouchable.You want to hurt his listeners.People who want information from all sides.Name me a time conservatives said attack anyones advertisers.Does not happen.We don't want to silence anyone.I loved Kieth Oibermann and Janeane Garofalo.Let em talk was always my motto.i was sad as hell they went away. My God even the afore mentioned Bill Maher's today said enough….stop the overkill.This is about seeing an opening to attack in a personal way someone you hate who you view as hurting the lefts agenda.This is about being a lib.And as far as him being a leader of the Republican party,he has zero control over your taxes.Sending your boys off to war or anything else.He is a man with an opinion in a land that allows everyone to have one.That might not agree with the liberal mindset but your gonna have to learn to live with it.
@michael e: So first it was about Rush being a hoot. Then it was about Ms. Fluke being a professional agitator and/or otherwise undeserving of any sympathy. Then it was about the time-wasting that the media is engaged in. Now it's about freedom of speech.
What's it gonna be about tomorrow?
Seems to me this episode is "about" whatever, in your judgment, best deflects criticism. How very convenient.
John truly its gonna be about a lot of things.Everyday the left beats this dead horse with a stick while the president and the world affairs is not the top story- the hypocrisy grows exponentially.Rush had a good show today where he barely spoke about this.He has moved on.We have moved on.We know Bill Maher can say this stuff all day long about conservative woman and everybody applauds.No apologies.There is a very different standard that conservatives are held to.We accept that.We get it.But at what point do you guys stop buzzing in everybody's ear like annoying insects your latest affront?My God I turned on a show this evening where Rush was actually becoming a sympathetic figure in all this do to the ridiculous overkill.Get over it my weeping libs.Rush has been called every name in the book this week(no apologies).He put himself out there, and thats part of the game.Water off a ducks back.Now this 30 year old professional agitator also put herself out there.Tough noogies she got called a name boo hoo hoo(and yes an apology).I wish you had one- one hundreth the empathy for Sarah Palins CHILDREN.But again the standard is soooo different.Go find me one attack by the right on Obamas daughters.Moving on…..
[...] late for ACORN: Outraged conservatives in Congress stripped the organization of federal funding. Source Be Sociable, Share! Tweet Tags: andrew breitbart, Big, Breitbart, chappaquiddick [...]
@michael e: So it's about a lot of things, huh? What bugs me is that it's about whatever suits your needs on whatever day. You might have been somewhat believable had you said all these things from the get go. Now, it just seems like you've got no coherent argument and you gotta keep shifting it.
Yeah, Bill Maher called Palin a name. So two wrongs make a right, do they? Furthermore, Maher called Palin a name– at least he took a shot at someone in power. Limbaugh had to pick on a powerless law student. Gee, that sure took guts.
I found your right wing attack on Malia Obama: Glenn Beck made fun of her on his radio show, insinuating she was uneducated and stupid.
I'd note that the right has a long history of calling for consumer boycotts…there's nothing unfair or unusual about using that tactic…For example, The One Million Moms just recently called for people to quit shopping at JC Penney and Toys R Us.
The Beck incident happened on May 28th 2010. He issued an apology…in a far better manner than Rushbo did.
Wonkette attacked Trig Palin in April 2011 which triggered advertisers to pull their stuff off the site. The author of the post apologized and the item was removed.
And, no sooner had Limbaugh issued his non-apology to Ms. Fluke, this week he then attacked woman author tracie mcmillan, asking his listeners "â┚¬Ã…“What is it with all of these young single white women, overeducated â┚¬” doesn\'t mean intelligent."
â┚¬Ã…“You cannot be objective when it comes to right and wrong. And Israel is the right. So, I\'m a biased journalist, and I\'m having a great time doing that,â┚¬Ã‚ Andrew Breitbart speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition event in 2001.
On March 1, the Jewish daily Forward in its editorial proclaimed Andrew Breitbart â┚¬Ã…“A Proud Jewâ┚¬Ã‚Â.
Andrew Breitbart, Republican Jewish media moghul from Los Angelese, collapsed and died while walking near his Westwood home. He was 43. His family and his Jewish lawyer said that Andrew died of natural cause. However, according to the Daily Mail Reporter (March 3, 2012), many Zionist bloggers believe Andrew Breitbart was killed on president Obama\'s orders……
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/who-killed-the-proud-jew-andrew-breitbart/
[...] designated bogeymen, regardless of veracity or consequence. Its icon is Andrew Breitbart, who had no problem with resorting to outright lying if it meant being able to score hard-hitting points against his [...]
[...] designated bogeymen, regardless of veracity or consequence. Its icon is Andrew Breitbart, who had no problem with resorting to outright lying if it meant being able to score hard-hitting points against his [...]
[...] designated bogeymen, regardless of veracity or consequence. Its icon is Andrew Breitbart, who had no problem with resorting to outright lying if it meant being able to score hard-hitting points against his [...]