The Daily Caller's headline: “Holder blames Americans for gun-running”
The Daily Caller's lede:
Attorney General Eric Holder scolded The Daily Caller's reporting on the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal shortly after government officials and reporters heard him admonish Americans for funding gun-runners.
What Holder actually said, as reported by the Daily Caller:
Holder appeared Tuesday at a White House event to showcase a new media campaign that is intended to stigmatize the selling and buying of knock-off videos and counterfeit fashion products.
Holder recorded one critical radio ad, which is titled “You can help.” The clip was played to the audience in the White House auditorium.
“This is Attorney General Eric Holder. We are working hard to protect our communities by reducing gang violence and organized crime and there is an important and simple way that you can help. Some street gangs and organized crime groups are selling counterfeit products, such as fake watches, DVDs and purses, as an easy way to make money. And they use that money to fund other crimes, like trafficking in drugs and guns.”
“When you buy knock-offs on the street or online, although it may not be obvious, you could be supporting gangs, putting money in their pockets and helping them to engage in other illegal activities that put our communities at risk,” said Holder in the radio ad.
So an alternate, accurate headline would have been: “Holder asks Americans to help prevent gun-running.” But that doesn't make the attorney general look bad. And it doesn't conform to the Daily Caller's editorial policy of manufacturing controversies over Eric Holder and Fast and Furious.