Send In The Clowns
by digby
ABC has hired Andrew Breitbart and his lying little helper Dana Loesch to do election night coverage. Seriously.
I don’t think I have to spell out all the ways in which it is an insult to its viewers and to its journalists to do this. There are many examples of his grievously bad judgment and disgusting behavior, many of which are listed here. But my personal favorite of his “journalistic” top ten screw-ups has to be this one:
And then there was the stellar work produced by Andrew Breitbart, the self-styled leader of today’s conservative “journalism.” His site last week claimed to have uncovered a video of community organizers praying to Obama. Talk about “buzz”! Obedient right-wing bloggers such as Malkin, Atlas Shrugs, RedState, Stop the ACLU, HotAirPundit, Sundries Shack, along with cable TV talkers Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs, immediately piled on, openly mocking a group of mostly African-Americans activists as they gathered in prayer. (If second-graders aren’t off-limits from being called “Obama-worshiping drones” by members of the right-wing media, why would people amidst prayer not be ridiculed, right?) One right-wing site accused the organizers of “blasphemy,” and lots more shrieked as loud as they could about how the devastating video confirmed that loony liberals were falling for the Cult of Obama. RedState: “Speechless.” Hot Air Pundit: “Difficult to watch.” Stop the ACLU: “It’s a cult.” HotAirPundit: “Shocking Video.” Slight problem: When some sane people outside of Breitbart’s (hate) circle actually watched the video, they realized that the community organizers who gathered weren’t saying “Obama.” They were saying “Oh God,” which is typical when people are in prayer. So, yeah, that was a hiccup. Meaning, the only reason Breitbart posted the video was in order to smear liberal activists in prayer because he thought they were saying “Obama.” That was the whole point of the video. But Breitbart bungled the audio, which meant the smear collapsed, even some right-wing bloggers, such as … well, pretty much all them, never bothered to correct their original posts in which they called the organizers out as creepy cult members.
ABC must know that the Shirley Sherrod or ACORN stories aren’t the only examples of his mendacious ways. He’s made his career out of these racist video hoaxes. It isn’t a coincidence. So I think we have to assume they think having a lying racist on the air will bring in some ratings. Whether they foolishly see this as adding “edge” to their allegedly hip “Facebook” program or whether they are making a pitch for Fox’s white supremacist audience, it’s a journalistic travesty to allow this man and his lying lieutenant anywhere near a legitimate news organization.
But then these news outlets are all making huge profits from the right wing buy out of our democracy, so maybe it’s just the price of doing business.
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