Howler from the NYT (yeah, dog bites man, I know)

This Martin Eisenstadt thing is getting interesting. I talked very briefly about it the other day and now the NYT has an article about it.

"They say the blame lies not with them but with shoddiness in the traditional news media and especially the blogosphere.

“With the 24-hour news cycle they rush into anything they can find,” said Mr. Mirvish, 40."


Emphasis added. I read the rest of the article to find out exactly why the bloggers were especially to blame. What did I find:

"But most of Eisenstadt’s victims have been bloggers, a reflection of the sloppy speed at which any tidbit, no matter how specious, can bounce around the Internet. And they fell for the fake material despite ample warnings online about Eisenstadt, including the work of one blogger who spent months chasing the illusion around cyberspace, trying to debunk it."

OK, let's see who those bloggers are:

"An MSNBC spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, explained the network’s misstep by saying someone in the newsroom received the Palin item in an e-mail message from a colleague and assumed it had been checked out. “It had not been vetted,” he said. “It should not have made air.”

MSNBC's audience is so small they must be considered a vlog or something. Clearly not MSM, just a blog. Got it.

"In June they produced what appeared to be an interview with Eisenstadt on Iraqi television promoting construction of a casino in the Green Zone in Baghdad. Then they sent out a news release in which he apologized. Outraged Iraqi bloggers protested the casino idea."

OK, this one actually is bloggers.

Next?

"Among the Americans who took that bait was Jonathan Stein, a reporter for Mother Jones."

Blog? No.

"A Los Angeles Times political blog, among others, retold the story, citing Eisenstadt by name and linking to his blog."

OK so now we have an LAT blogger. LAT = MSM not bloggers. They guy is a professional reporter. Not simply a blogger.

Next?

"Among those taken in by Monday’s confession about the Palin Africa report was The New Republic’s political blog"

*sigh*

Next?

"Last month Eisenstadt blogged that Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, Joe the Plumber, was closely related to Charles Keating, the disgraced former savings and loan chief. It wasn’t true, but other bloggers ran with it."

Really? Which one? Can I have one link? Just one?

How do they wrap the article up?

"And then there is William K. Wolfrum, a blogger who has played Javert to Eisenstadt’s Valjean, tracking the hoaxster across cyberspace and repeatedly debunking his claims. Mr. Gorlin and Mr. Mirvish praised his tenacity, adding that the news media could learn something from him."

To sum up: Hoaxster fools MSM outlets from coast to coast and a few unnamed bloggers and somehow bloggers are mostly the rubes and deserve most of the blame.

If there is another, more perfect, explanation for the stock price of the NYT, I have yet to see it.

Comments

Mike W. said…
All this proves is that the MSM is laughably gullible when the lies / falsehoods fit their agenda.

They don't even begin to fact check. Then again, as a gun blogger I'm not surprised. The MSM will often print flat out lies and misrepresentations when doing anti-gun pieces. Things that show they did absolutely no research whatsoever.
Great post, Duffy. I was following this story kind of half-a** and it didn't dawn on me that those who were duped were the MSM and it took a blogger to track it down.

Interesting....
The Last Ephor said…
Mike,

Using a blog is assault speech. You can deliver thousands and thousands of words at millions of people in seconds. Clearly this is beyond the intent of the First Amendment.

Shirley,

My crack staff of editors, fact checkers, lawyers and beat reporters worked tirelessly for weeks on this and were finally able to point out glaring inconsistencies in their own report. It's that level of editing and fact checking that sets us at Pencader Days apart from mere bloggers.
knowitall said…
Exactly, when it fits their agenda. We all know that's when it's in favor of the liberal illuminati.

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