It's Nancy smearin' time! Yee Haww!

This flattering picture of Nancy Pelosi, the (hopefully!) future Speaker of the House, appeared on The Drudge Report today, with another ham-handed attempt at a smear. Read on...

This one's got my blood boiling a bit. As any reader of my blog knows, I'm a fan of Media Matters, a Web-based, non-profit progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. So basically, it debunks conservative bullshit in the media. It's a big, tough job - there's a lot out there.

MM is headed by David Brock, a former conservative media talking head who played integral roles in the smearing of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings (Brock opined that Hill might be "a bit nutty and a bit slutty") and also the Troopergate story that led to Paula Jones filing a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton. In short, Brock had some making up to do, and he's done just that. He's authored a must-read for people interested in what he calls the Republican Noise Machine called Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative. (Confession, I have it, but am yet to read it - too many other books keep getting in the way, but it was a NYT best seller, and I've heard and read nothing but good things.) Okay, back to my boiling blood...

I caught this one today and it just had me laughing. It's a revealing journey that reveals how hacks like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Lielly and worst of all, Matt Drudge, plant exaggerated stories, half truths or outright lies in the media, and they get picked up and reported as news. Drudge is the biggest offender of all; he's been doing it for years, and shows no signs of slowing down.

Normally, I don't like to cut/paste stuff to my blog, but this one is worthy. It'd be more entertaining if so many people didn't obediently hear/read this stuff and believe it without questioning it.

Anyway, there it is - my comments are in (italics).

Where is Nancy Pelosi? A 'How To' Guide for Advancing Conservative Misinformation
How a Bogus Claim from a GOP Organization Ended Up on MSNBC

From Media Matters, November 3, 2005

Washington, DC -- The Republican noise machine is at it again. In a last-ditch effort to distract voters, Republicans are playing pickup game of "Where is Nancy Pelosi?" It began with a widely distributed email, obtained by Media Matters for America (See it Here), claiming that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is almost entirely absent from the campaign trail. The email landed on the Internet gossip site Drudge Report, and the story reached a peak today when MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell asked NBC correspondent Mike Viqueira where Pelosi has "been in the last week."

In fact as the blog ThinkProgress.org noted, on November 1, "Pelosi appeared at a sold-out rally at the Warfield Theater with former President Clinton. Portions of the rally were broadcast on television." On the same day CNN aired a feature interview with Pelosi.

Jamison Foser, Managing Director of Media Matters for America, called the media out for participating in the GOP's election-year stunt.

"This is a textbook example of a journalist mindlessly repeating false Republican spin designed to muddy the waters and distract the public. The media have a responsibility to check the facts instead of simply parroting GOP operatives," Foser said. "Better yet, they should focus on substantive issues that matter to real people instead of these increasingly absurd efforts to change the subject."

The Freedom Project sent out the email, titled "Where is Nancy Pelosi?" on October 31, claiming that Pelosi has been absent from the campaign trail and posing possible reasons why. It wasn't long before the claim was picked up and mentioned in the mainstream media. Internet gossip Matt Drudge posted a report on November 2 repeating the Freedom Project's false claims. Drudge wrote: "The woman who would be speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has oddly stayed out of the national spotlight in the week leading up to the big vote." The following morning, on the November 3rd edition of MSNBC News Live, O'Donnell brought up the issue with Viqueira. (Watch it below)



Three Easy Steps to Advancing Conservative Misinformation
1. Write a scathing email or press release. Resist the use of facts. Rely heavily on buzzwords and spin.
2. Distribute the email or press release far and wide. Pray that someone in the mainstream media picks up the story. If that doesn't work, make sure you get a copy of your hit piece to the Drudge Report.
3. Watch and smile as the mainstream media report on Drudge Report items as legitimate news. 4. Complain about a liberal bias in the press.

Thankfully, Viqueira shot down O'Donnell's question by refuting the blatantly false idea, forwarded by "Republican operatives," that Pelosi is "trying to run out the clock instead of engaging in the issues that matter to the American people." Viqueira went on to note that Pelosi has continued to do fundraising and media interviews.

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So, there you have it - I guess O'Donnell's idea of doing legwork for political stories is to simply read Drudge's Website.

A few thoughts on this...

1. Hey GOP blowhards, um, wasn't Pelosi just on 60 Minutes recently? (Which, by the way, was an outright disgrace, where Pelosi had to suffer the indignity of Leslie Stahl's remarks about her clothing, what she ate, as well as Stahl's blatantly misogynistic and provoking questions. Watching the interview, I thought she was working for the Bush White House, but I digress.)

2. For those of you reading who think I'm full of it about Matt Drudge being in bed with the Republican Party, think again. One, if you read his site, you know it's true, but, most importantly, GOP leaders have acknowledged as much in interviews. Ken Mehlman, the head of the RNC, feeds talking points to Drudge regularly. Knowing that, you don't think that some misleading and/or false material finds its way into those updates? You'd better believe it. Drudge has had to publish several retractions for things that were outright lies.

Funny how that never gets much press.