Monumentally dumb, even for The American Spectator. Or, more from the Kevin Jennings Witch Hunt

Written by Eric Boehlert

Published

It's to the point where you can't even make it through the first paragraph of one of the fringe pub's posts without running into massive, skyscraper-like misinformation:

Here's the Spectator's latest installment, courtesy of Jeffrey Lord, in the official Kevin Jennings Witch Hunt:

Why is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so quiet about Kevin Jennings? Jennings is in the news because he is the Obama administration's Safe Schools czar, in bureaucratese the assistant deputy secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools inside the Department of Education. And because he has now admitted that when, as a teacher, he was sought out by a 15-year-old boy asking for advice about an affair with an older adult male, Jennings suggested wearing a condom.

As anybody who's been following the Kevin Jennings Witch Hunt knows, the boy in question was at least 16 years old, the legal age of consent in Massachusetts where the incident occurred. This has been known for days. The Spectator however, just doesn't like that fact, so it opts for its own version of the truth.

Meanwhile, love that opening line:

Why is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so quiet about Kevin Jennings?

The Spectator pretends the radical right's Kevin Jennings Witch Hunt demands the attention of our nation's leaders. Interesting notion. Let's turn the tables and ask, why is Sen. Mitch McConnell so quiet about Kevin Jennings? And why is Rep. John Boehner quiet about Kevin Jennings. Indeed, why is the entire GOP leadership so quiet about Kevin Jennings? (Could it be because they just don't care?)

I'm sure the Spectator, with its ace reporting skills, can get to the bottom of this political whodunnit.

UPDATED: Parallel Universe Alert! In the comment section of the Spectator piece, a reader notes that the boy is question was 16 years old, not 15, and wonders if the Spectator ought to correct the story.

Ha!

Here's what author Jeffrey Lord wrote back:

Remember that the source for this story is Kevin Jennings himself. He has, as noted, said he should have handled this differently. Something he presumably would not believe if the student were of legal age. I am aware of no statement by Jennings that the boy was of a legal age. If Jennings provides that fact and can document it we will be happy to correct.

We're through the looking glass here, folks. And that's how the Spectator, and the right-wing blogosphere, likes it.