Making things up: Salon attributes phony quotes to Sarah Palin

The faked Salon quotes were picked up by other sites
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There they go again. The lamestream media is making things up by falsely attributing quotes she never uttered to Gov. Palin:

In an article published Tuesday entitled “Casey Anthony: The Candidates Respond,” Salon Magazine smeared Sarah Palin and several Republican presidential candidates with faked quotes reacting to the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial. The faked quotes, especially those falsely attributed to Michele Bachmann and Palin, made their way around the Internet this week, adding to the media-driven campaign of hatred against leading Republican women.

[...]

Palin was smeared as a separation-of-powers ditz, accusing President Barack Obama of not getting involved in the Anthony case:

“Once again we see, with our nation in crisis, President Obama stands by and does idly nothing while an injustice is committed here in this glorious nation of ours … Why the strange silence, Mr. President?”

[...]

Alex Pareene, who is described at the end of the article as “Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon,” made up the quotes in apparent frustration that Republican candidates had not waded into the Anthony murder trial controversy. The new media standard now seems to be if a Republican won’t say something outrageously foolish, the media will make up the quotes they want and destroy the candidate anyway.

The article is so poorly-written (and without further clarification) that the author’s attempt at satire is lost upon the reader. The quotes are presented as sourced quotes and transcripts.

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Come to think of it, this sounds oddly familiar. Oh yes, it was just one month ago when Politico got caught red handed, so to speak, doing pretty much the same dishonorable thing. In Politico's case, the authors blamed some anonymous editor for their journalistic crime. In Salon's case, the author, though he presented the quotes as real, now claims his piece was "satire." The left wing media always has some lame excuse for their smear jobs against Sarah Palin, don't they?

- JP

Media Matters Caught Lying About Sarah Palin (Yet Again)

"Boehlert fails to note the story exploded on major news sites on the Web"
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Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King have caught Media Matters Red-handed telling yet even more lies about Gov Palin:

Responding to Palin’s “57 states” comment, Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert wrote “Palin Concocts More Media Sins.” Boehlert uses a search of Nexis to make Media Matters’ disingenuous case that Palin has overblown media coverage of her “We have to stand by our North Korean allies” flub made during the interview with Beck on his radio show last Wednesday.

Boehlert smears Palin, describing her as being nuts in some manner or form, “self-obsessed” and imagining things.

“Fox News’ Sarah Palin is now so consumed with every real or imagined media wrong against her that she’s to the point where she’s attacking the press for stuff they don’t even do.”

Even though Palin’s slip was reported in headlined stories by American and international wire services, as well as major news sites across America and around the globe, Boehlert claims “major American newspaper(s) did not turn the Palin/North Korea gaffe into a “major political headline,” did not treat it as news, and did not even mention it as news when it occurred .” Boehlert changes Palin’s assertion of major political headlines to major newspaper headlines, a sleight of hand that allows Boehlert to use Nexis to list major American news outlets that supposedly did not report on Palin’s slip:

“New York Times; Wall Street Journal; Los Angeles Times; Washington Post; New York Post; Houston Chronicle; Philadelphia Inquirer; Newsday; Denver Post; Arizona Republic; Minneapolis Star Tribune; Dallas Morning News; Cleveland Plain Dealer; Seattle Times; Chicago Sun-Times …”

Boehlert also claims broadcast media did not cover Palin’s slip:

“What other news outlets ignored Palin’s verbal gaffe when it occurred? All three major networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC–as well as CNN, Fox News, PBS and NPR.”

However, Boehlert fails to note the story exploded on major news sites on the Web within hours of Palin’s slip.

Boehlert also conveniently fails to note that the faux scandal was initiated by his fellow Media Matters writer Oliver Willis.

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As Kristinn and Andrea point out, most people are now getting their news from online sources, so the Nexis search, which identifies only reports in the media’s dead tree editions, is an obvious trick which is disingenuous, at best. The pair did a Google search which provided numberous wire service, television network news, newspaper and political sites which headlined the same coverage that Madia Matters says does not exist. Then Kristinn and Andrea back it all up with links to those websites.

In conclusion, the authors state the obvious, that "reporters relying on Media Matters for accuracy are setting themselves up to be played for fools." Sadly all too many reporters are not just willing -- but eager -- to play the fool, proving Lenin's point about "useful idiots."

- JP