Surfing Facebook's new interface I came across a note that one of my friends had liked a link submitted by "Conservative". Curious, I had a look. Turns out the conservative blogosphere has it's collective panties in a twist over a 'report ' that Ford pulled an ad at the behest of the White House and are screaming "Chicago thuggery!! Oh NOEZ the brown man iz coming for our freedumz!"
At first blush, to an undiscerning reader, it seems it could be a damaging story. At first blush... but, if you dig a little deeper you find something much different. Join me below the fold for shaky Youtube footage of the ad in question and what I found after scratching the surface.
First the video:
It's one of Ford's "man off the street" series ads where a "real person" walks into an "ambush press conference" to be quizzed about why they chose Ford. In this example a man called "Chris" pulls up in an F-150 and states (in part):
"I was going to buy from a manufacturer that's standing on their own: win, lose, or draw. That's what America is about is taking the chance to succeed and understanding when you fail that you gotta' pick yourself up and go back to work."
From this statement and the subsequent disappearance of the ad from rotation Detroit News' Daniel Howes leaps to the conclusion that it was "pulled in response to White House questions" because of the upcoming campaign without providing a single shred of evidence. And from this a conservative meme is born. If you Google "Ford ad pulled" you get page after page of conservative outrage over the White House's strongarm tactics. Only it isn't as simple as that (is it ever?).
You see, the observant reader will note that at the top of the page just above the video you can see the word "Columnists" in bright red letters. "Columnist? Isn't that normally reserved for opinion pieces?" that same observant reader may ask. The answer is yes because in the address for same article one will see this (emphasis mine): www.detroitnews.com/article/20110927/OPINION03/109270322/1148/Ford-pulls-its-ad-on-bailouts. Detroit News has Howes' screed listed as an opinion piece, which apparently means "no fact checking required". But, if you are reading this diary on the Big Orange you are aware that most conservative readers aren't the most observant.
As to the meme of the ad being pulled due to White House pressure Mediaite did some actual research and reports "An industry source stressed that there was not any pressure to take the ad down". A worthy rebuttal of the echo chamber but alas Faux News will never report it.
Which leaves us with my rhetorical question from the title, when did opinion become fact? Are there so few critical readers left in the US that people can just copy and paste without consequence if what they are copying is complete crap? I weep for our future as a democracy.