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Monumentally dumb, even for The American Spectator, cont'd

September 30, 2009 8:25 am ET by Eric Boehlert

Last time I checked in with the fringe pub's Matthew Vadum I was having trouble detecting anything even remotely coherent  from his supposed blockbuster ("Special Report") about how Obama was going to desecrate the memory of 9/11, or something.  It was lots of ranting about how Obama this year was going "to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche." (How'd that scoop pan out, Matthew?)

Vadum is back for another tumble through the looking glass. And after  trying my best, and re-reading his efforts many times, I'm still not entirely sure what he's talking about. And a a journalist, I'm not sure that's the take-away you want to constantly leave readers. Just sayin.'

But, as best I can tell, Vadum on Tuesday claimed the White House's Patrick Gaspard used to work for ACORN. Why this matters, Vadum never really spells out. (i.e. He never claims any wrongdoing on Gaspard's part.) Readers are simply supposed to react in shock and anger, I guess, because ACORN's a massive criminal enterprise? Right on cue, the right-wing blogosphere reacted in horror. The ACORN scoop was huge news. Of course, it turns it wasn't true. (Pretty much by definition these days, a right-wing blog scoop has be false. That's just the way the game is played.)

Ben Smith at Politico knocked the story down the way journalists traditionally do (with facts), and then the central source in Vadum's story backtracked and conceded Gaspard never worked for ACORN.

So, with his scoop in shambles, what does Vadum do? Same thing he did in September when his Obama-9/11 story was in shambles. He doubles down with more impossible-to-follow fantasy, borderline sci-fi writing. This time, the gist is that ACORN to the Average Joe is such a mysterious and complex and un-knowing entity, that only Vadum, with his year's worth of dedicated ACORN 'reporting,' can really determine the facts. (Mere mortals like Smith aren't up to the task.) Only Vadum, using some sort of special right-wing, X-ray vision glasses, is able to tell the truth about ACORN. Only Vadum can properly connect the dots. And oh yeah, he has secret evidence that's he's not willing to disclose.

Question: Does Vadum still have secret evidence to prove how Obama was going to "erase the meaning" of Sept. 11? Just curious.

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    • Author by walstib (September 30, 2009 9:03 am ET)
      2  
      Walstib| 9.30.09 @ 9:01AM
      This is a joke, right?

      You combine speculation, outright lies and distortions of fact to come to a "conclusion" that does not hold water.

      This is not journalism. This is garbage.

      Next you'll be linking Obama to the Lindbugh kidnapping.

      Sheeeesh...


      Above posted on AS comments... how long till they yank it?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by goesto11 (September 30, 2009 9:43 am ET)
        3  
        Why is Obama refusing to provide documentation that proves he wasn't involved in the Limbergh kidnapping?



        Report Abuse
        • Author by The_Cat (September 30, 2009 10:16 am ET)
          2  
          Because it's secretly encoded into his Kenyan birth certificate. Shhhhh! Don't tell, okay?
          Report Abuse
          • Author by neon desert (September 30, 2009 11:05 am ET)
            2  
            Even if you could decode the documentation hidden in it, do you realize the effort it would take to get past the bigfoots standing guard outside the black panther bunker at area 51 to get ahold of his Kenyan birth certificate in the first place?
            Report Abuse
    • Author by The_Cat (September 30, 2009 9:30 am ET)
      5  
      So, just out of curiosity, I clicked on the link to the second story, the one where Vadum 'doubled-down'? And Michelle Malkin popped up on my computer to claim she was an American Spectator reader, and did I want to give them money? It was just like a porn site, but without anything pleasant to look at.

      What I read was... confused, but entertaining. The bit about the many-tentacled ACORN spreading it's influence throughout the land was a very able re-incarnation of McCarthyism. "I've got a list..." It's worth going, though, just to read how he gushes over the pimp & ho show, and the two inept fools who ran the scam and are now under investigation themselves for violating the law.

      By the way, walstib, your post is still there as of 8:30 CST, but it has been driven to the bottom of a long list of boring spam. Fairly predictable spam. Cut and paste spam, because these cons are just as lazy as they are ignorant.

      Mr. Vadum has apparently extended the 'guilt-by-association' logical fallacy to new and dizzying heights. Is it truly surprising to him that organizations with the same aims would world together? SEIU, ACORN, and local groups trying to help poor people, working people, and immigrants is somehow a conspiracy?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by bilbo_dies (September 30, 2009 9:39 am ET)
      3  
      OK, let's see if I understand this.

      Acorn = Evil
      SEIU = Evil
      All Unions = Evil
      Anything term Progressive = Evil
      Anyone, anything, anywhere who has ever had any type of conversation with Acorn = Evil

      Since Acorn = Evil, and all others mention = Evil then anything termed Evil = Acorn.

      Did I get that right?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by goesto11 (September 30, 2009 9:46 am ET)
        1  
        The equation is actually much simpler:

        Anything that doesn't come from Glen Beck's mouth = Evil

        Report Abuse
    • Author by Midnight Kevin (September 30, 2009 10:35 am ET)
      1  
      If ACORN is so complex, how was Vadum capable of writing his piece in the first place? His story was debunked, yet he continues with the "no one will ever know for sure" garbage.

      When will people realize that these "reporters" are no longer reporters?
      --------------------
      The Midnight Review
      Mum Is The Word
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    • Author by DellDolly (September 30, 2009 11:24 am ET)
      1  
      This is ridiculous. His proof was Wade Rathke's comments. Now Wade Rathke says that what he wrote in a blog post wasn't true. The author of this "expose" should walk his accusations back, but he won't. "Monumentally dumb" is a good way to describe it.
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      • Author by DellDolly (September 30, 2009 12:00 pm ET)
        1  
        Vadum cited Erickson's post about Lewis' Rolodex and further stated that "[e]vidence shows that years before he joined the Obama administration, Gaspard was ACORN boss Bertha Lewis's political director in New York."

        Now he's saying that they worked for affiliated agencies? But he's not willing to admit that what he said was 100% wrong, like he should.
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    • Author by John Paradox (September 30, 2009 12:31 pm ET)
      1  
      Right on cue, the right-wing blogosphere reacted in horror. The ACORN scoop was huge news. Of course, it turns it wasn't true. (Pretty much by definition these days, a right-wing blog scoop has be false. That's just the way the game is played.)

      Quote from Sliding Scales[a Pip and Flinx Adventure] by Alan Dean Foster

      pg 208

      (Takuuna is the villain, the Vssey are another alien race that his is attempting to take over)

      Evdence can be manufactured. It might not be conclusive, but that was not necessary. All that was required would be for Takuuna to produce data that called the human's purported innocence into question. This could, in turn, be laid before the Vssey and the Vsseyan media. It was not neccessary to prove--only to create controversy.

      Emphasis added
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