Does the Liar Jay Carney Even Read His Own Crap Magazine?

I wouldn't blame him if he didn't (who does?), but it might be a good idea to at least peruse his fellow Time staffer Karen Tumulty's digest of the "whitey" rumor.

According to campaign officials, what finally launched Obama into a full rumor counteroffensive was a story that apparently first made a big splash on the Internet in late May in a post by pro-Hillary Clinton blogger Larry Johnson. Quoting "someone in touch with a senior Republican," Johnson claimed that there was a video of Michelle Obama "blasting 'whitey' during a rant at Jeremiah Wright's church." (Later versions of the rumor had Michelle's "rant" happening at a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition conference.) No such videotape has surfaced.

First of all, Johnson's credibility is awful, as conservative bloggers have repeatedly, well nigh gratuitously, pointed out in mentioning his rumor.

Second, his claimed source of "senior Republican" pretty much scotches the idea that he got this from "conservative bloggers," unless Time.com think that "senior Republicans" are also spending their days blogging.

Sure, Fred Thompson. Sure, Tom DeLay. Gets pretty thin after that. Is LJ claiming he got it from either man?

Third, of course -- LJ cannot be trusted on this point because he has an obvious partisan interest in dishing the rumor about his secondmost hated enemy while claiming it came from his most despised enemy: Republicans.

...

Obama's new rumor shredder makes it easy to find both the "lies" and the "facts" behind the "mystery tape rumor." Secondary pages note that "even some conservatives don't buy it" and list two well-read conservative bloggers who have debunked the tape tale. And in what is likely to be the most read part of the new site, the campaign cites the probable sources of the stories in a section called "Who's behind the lies?" As the Obama sleuths explain it, the "Michelle Obama Mystery Tape Rumor" appears to be a work of fiction lifted "almost word for word from a novel published in 2006."

The article doesn't give credit where it's due for that last bit, but that came from conservative blogger Jim Geraghty, debunking the rumor.

So: Time Magazine notes that even Barack Obama's "fact-check" website says that "conservative bloggers" don't buy it. Time Magazine notes that pro-Hillary liberal blogger Larry Johnson pushed the rumor into the mainstream.

So who does Time Magazine staffer blame for the rumor?

Conservative bloggers, of course!

posted by Ace at 06:01 PM

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