Friday, February 9, 2007

Right-Wing Media: When the Facts Don't Fit, Make Up Your Own Smear

In case you missed this week's fake news flap from the right-wing spin machine, here's a quick recap:

Despite what the Moonie-backed Washington Times reported and the Fox News repeated, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not demand a new, luxurious Air Force plane to fly her back to her home district in California.

How do we know that spin machine got it wrong? Two words: Tony Snow.

We admit that we're not usually big fans of Mr. Snow, former Fox journalist and current the White House spokesman. But to his credit, Snow made it clear this week that the whole flap was highly exaggerated if not fully invented.

Turns out that previous speakers, such as Republican Dennis Hassert, have had Air Force planes take them home too. Turns out California is much farther west than Illinois and that this extra distant called for a different Air Force plane. Turns out that that this is standard security practice for a person in the chain of command.

Turns out too that right-wing "journalists"—and these quotes mean that they aren't much interested in actual journalism—are less interested in facts than in smearing their ideological opponents.

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