A couple of days ago Ashley Todd, a John McCain campaign worker, reported to the police that she had been beaten and robbed by an African-American supporter of Barack Obama because of her political affiliation. The story was widely disseminated throughout the media with the help of the McCain communications team. There was just one problem with this story – It wasn’t true. Within 24 hours Todd confessed that she had fabricated the entire affair.
Before the truth was revealed, Fox News Executive VP John Moody published this on his blog:
“If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.
If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.”
Moody doesn’t explain why voters would suddenly feel a lack of knowledge about Obama because a criminal unconnected to him was alleged to have done something horrible. But his remarks do confirm Fox’s obsession with associating Obama with all manner of evil, from radical preachers to domestic terrorists. The only real reason someone would revisit their support for Obama under these circumstances would be the reason Moody explicitly discarded. They are racist.
This is not the first time that Moody has demonstrated a gift for the ridiculous. He has previously said that terrorists were “thrilled” at Democratic victories in Congress. And there’s more.
Two days have elapsed and Moody has not posted anything to his blog since the article above. Therefore, we must assume that he is standing by his prediction that McCain’s campaign is over and is forever linked to race-baiting. I think the same thing can be said of Fox News, who eagerly promoted the false story when it broke.
Yeah, I blogged on Ashley Todd. First when the “unconfirmed” report popped up on Fox & Friends as part of a minor theme that morning Obama supporters are violent. Then when the whole house of cards came tumbling down.
Funny that a news organization like Fox News that obsesses in mocking the rest of the media was duped in a story so easy vetted. Ms. Todd wasn’t even in the ATM surveillance video where she claimed the incident occurred plus she’s a McCain campaign worker.
The powerful far right base of the Republican Party has been arm twisting McCain to take the low smear road and fire with both barrels these sorts of guilt by association smears.
However, as I blogged on today, if you watch the Michelle Bachmann debacle over calling Obama “anti-American” and calling for investigations of “anti-Americans” in Congress, you’ll see why McCain is smart to minimize that approach.
http://www.eyesonfox.org/?p=382
BTW, it’s really fun to watch the clip of Bill ‘No Spin’ O’Reilly data-mine the Matthews’ interview to rehabilitate Bachmann.
“Fair and balanced” to the core. 😉
I’m not so sure Fox was duped. They wanted so badly to smear Obama that they jumped on the story without regard to its validity. They may have even known that it was false but didn’t care. How could they not at least have been suspicious? The “B” was backwards, as if done while looking in a mirror. I noticed that in 2 seconds, and I’m not a professional detective.
Mark,
Good points.
There’s no doubt Fox News ran with an “unconfirmed” report to bash Obama. We’ll never know if they’re deliberately lying or just kept their eyes intentionally shut for plausible deniability.
There’s no denying their angst over McCain’s recent nosedive in the polls has Fox News cranking up the propaganda to a comical pitch.
Michele Bachmann is a nutjob, is linked to James Dobson, and hates rail transit, that last thing of which I support (and she’s against light rail).