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Memo to MSM:
Examine charges on left-wing blogs before reporting them as fact

December 16, 2011 by B. Daniel Blatt

On Tuesday, several left-of-center Facebook friends linked posts from a left-wing blog contending that Mitt Romney had adopted a Ku Klux Klan slogan to guide his presidential campaign.  Quickly as charges leveled against conservatives and Republicans on such blogs are wont to do, that allegation was soon repeated unexamined on such news outlets as The Washington Post and on MSNBC.

By Thursday, even the New York Times was reporting that Mr. Romney had not indeed repeated the KKK slogan:

MSNBC apparently did not contact the Romney campaign for comment before it briefly reported on Wednesday morning that  “you may not hear Mitt Romney say ‘Keep America American’ anymore, because it was a rallying cry for the K.K.K. group.” The anchor credited AMERICAblog; the graphic on the screen read, “Romney’s KKK Slogan?”

Conservative blogs called out MSNBC for the report, and when executives at MSNBC and NBC News saw that, they were disturbed that the blog’s observation was reported as fact, without any added reporting. In a statement on Wednesday evening MSNBC said its report was “irresponsible and incendiary” and “showed an appalling lack of judgment.” A Romney campaign spokeswoman said it was pleased that MSNBC had “issued a correction and apology.”

The Washington Post also issued an apology on Thursday for factual mistakes in its blog post about the phrase. The correction stated that it “should have contacted the Romney campaign for comment before publication.”

Via Instapundit.  Emphasis added.  Fascinating the alacrity of such supposedly non-partisan purveyors of the news to pick up stories from left-wing blogs — and to repeat them without contacting the conservative criticized.

Filed Under: Media Bias, Misrepresenting the Right, New Media

Comments

  1. ILoveCapitalism says

    December 16, 2011 at 7:37 pm - December 16, 2011

    Wapo didn’t even call the Romney campaign for a comment? How are the mighty fallen!

  2. V the K says

    December 16, 2011 at 8:02 pm - December 16, 2011

    Cue ‘Some Lefty Twit’ to proclaim that it is ‘whining’ and ‘playing the victim card’ to note the very real and consistent left-wing bias of the MFM.

  3. EssEm says

    December 16, 2011 at 8:46 pm - December 16, 2011

    And “keeping America American” –regardless of who says it– is wrong because…? WTF else should it be?

  4. Sonicfrog says

    December 16, 2011 at 10:58 pm - December 16, 2011

    Fake but… Oh… Well…

  5. davinci says

    December 17, 2011 at 8:37 am - December 17, 2011

    While liberal papers in the past did show bias, their news coverage had fact checks and had fewer errors. Now the newspapers seem like National Enquirer with salivating gossip and innuendo. The hard work seems to have been tossed aside.

  6. Ted B. (Charging Rhino) says

    December 17, 2011 at 10:13 am - December 17, 2011

    This sort of crap is a major reason many sensible conservative potential-candidates will not even consider running in this environment.

  7. EssEm says

    December 17, 2011 at 1:36 pm - December 17, 2011

    #5. But to be fair, it was the Enquirer which broke the John Edwards story when the MSM wouldn’t touch a coiffed hair on Breck Boy’s head.

  8. Sean A says

    December 17, 2011 at 2:10 pm - December 17, 2011

    #2: Hey, V the K, forgive what may be a stupid question but what is MFM? I think I’ve seen it more than once, so pretty sure it’s not MSM w/a typo. Thanks.

  9. Heliotrope says

    December 17, 2011 at 9:26 pm - December 17, 2011

    I know MFM as being Mainstream Fantasy Media, but I may be wrong.

  10. ILoveCapitalism says

    December 17, 2011 at 9:42 pm - December 17, 2011

    When I read it, I mentally hear a different “F” word.

  11. TGC says

    December 18, 2011 at 3:02 am - December 18, 2011

    This sort of crap is a major reason many sensible conservative potential-candidates will not even consider running in this environment.

    And the Florida liberals were in high dudgeon because Rick Scott wouldn’t speak to the editorial boards of our leftist propaganda rags. Given that they were keen on spreading misinformation on the whole Columbia-HCA kerfuffle (free advertising for Alex Sink), it’s no wonder. Why would anybody bother?

    I kept asking why a candidate should have to. Nobody would say why.

  12. TGC says

    December 18, 2011 at 3:02 am - December 18, 2011

    #11 During the campaign, that is.

  13. TGC says

    December 18, 2011 at 1:27 pm - December 18, 2011

    Google 1924 Democratic Convention and Klanbake.

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