Upset that members of the media sought “anything potentially embarrassing to fling at conservatives” (the digging wouldn't be hard if this were true) in its coverage of CPAC's annual gathering in Washington last week, Newsbusters' Candance Moore is up with a post attempting to make the case that the press ignored the “left-wing tone of Netroots Nation in 2009."

Moore's examples of loony-left-wing panels the media failed to cover is quite absurd:

The archive section of the official site of Netroots Nation revealed shocking material largely ignored by the national media. Below is a list of some of the ridiculous discussions that took place:

• Tearing down the wall between church and state to advance “faith based” progressive agendas.
• Stacking SCOTUS with progressive judges to circumvent the Constitution.
• Why Democrats are not pro-abortion enough.
• A panel sponsored by the United Nations Foundation to criticize America for taking the world's food supply.

[...]

• Using the EPA to bypass Congress.
• Coaching teens on how to educate their parents.
• Fighting “science denial” on the right.

Did you hear about any of those topics last year from the mainstream media.

All of the above subjects were covered in official panel discussions, not just obscure information booths from fringe attendees. Readers are encouraged to watch the archive footage to see how rationally such things were being discussed.

Wow, how did I not hear about these discussions last year? And when did Netroots Nation start letting Jason Mattera and the XPAC brigade name its panels with such colorfully nutty right-wing rhetoric?

It would be funny if it weren't so sad and intellectually dishonest. Moore's framing of these discussions don't appear to bear any resemblance to what actually transpired because -- I assume from reading her post -- she didn't actually attend Netroots Nation.

Mark Leon Goldberg points out the way Moore portrays one panel in particular - a panel that he actually moderated:

For the record, I moderated the panel sponsored by the United Nations Foundation. Needless to say, the panel did not “criticize America for taking the world's food supply” (whatever that means). Rather, the panel was called Global Solutions for Global Poverty and was a discussion of ways the United States and the world can come together to fight extreme global poverty. At no point did any panelist criticize American for taking the world's food supply. Candance Moore seems to have made that up out of thin air.

Making things up “out of thin air” is nothing new for the folks at Newsbusters and this one misses the mark entirely like many of its other sloppy attacks.