Breitbart's site invents more facts. Or, so much for conservative "journalism"
October 01, 2009 8:02 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Here's the Big Government headline [emphasis added]:
Massive Voter Fraud in NY Linked to ACORN
Wow, sounds like a big deal. And Big Government even linked to a legit news org for the details, the Albany Times Union. Here's the newspaper's excerpt that Big Government posted:
Dozens of forged and fraudulent absentee ballots from people registered to vote on the Working Families Party line were filed in the Sept. 15 primary elections in Troy. Documents at the county Board of Elections show the fraudulent ballots were handled by or prepared on behalf of various elected officials and leaders and operatives for the Democratic and Working Families parties. There may be as many as 50 absentee ballots that were forged, according to people close to the case. Countywide, there were 126 absentee ballots applied for on the Working Families Party line. Okay. A) In the world of Big Government, 50 questionable absentee ballots qualifies as "massive voter fraud." Good to know. And B) What does any of that have to do with ACORN, which we're told is "linked" to the case? Well, according to the Times Union, the fraud case has nothing to do with ACORN. In fact, ACORN is never mentioned in the article; an article Big Government flagged as proof of a massive ACORN fraud case. The "link" only came when Big Government rolled out its right-wing attempt at guilt-by-association. It only worked when Big Government linked to partisan GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone, that paragon of good taste, to spell out the supposed link.
Andrew Breitbart seems to be upset that Media Matters keeps picking apart his online reporting. Apparently Breitbart wants to be a player in conservative "journalism," he just doesn't want anyone else to point out the gaping holes in the stuff that gets posted on his sites.












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ACORN as an organization isn't involved though, but without that link, Breitbart wouldn't be interested.
So take your pick. Personally, I think he satisfies the burden of proof for malice (lying) however.
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Just my take
I don't think Breitbart is upset with you're picking apart his reporting. I think he's more upset at your inability to pick apart his reporting, and then pretending you've done so.
Media hasn't Mattered for quite some time, and that includes this column.
MMFA has said the same in regards to disclosing conflicts of interest. It's not enough to say in some column three weeks ago that you're married to some guy who's now connected to a case that you're now writing on, you need to say that up front in the piece where it's directly relevant.