The blaring headline a the top of tonight’s Drudge Report reads:
I SAW THE CLIMATE CHANGE
just below an unflattering photo of Nancy Pelosi.
The headline is obviously intended to read like a quote, or perhaps a close paraphrase. And it sounds like a nutty thing to say. However, as you might have already guessed if you're familiar with right-wing smear tactics, nothing like Drudge’s headline appears in the linked article. It’s a report on Pelosi’s visit to Greenland in which she was shown evidence of climate change. She didn’t say anything that sounded remotely stupid or ditzy, as Drudge’s headline implies.
This is no different than the infamous "I invented the internet," Gore slur. It’s an insidious technique -- intentionally misquoting a Democrat, then disseminating the distortion in a long-term effort to build a false narrative. Gore is a serial exaggerator because he said all those things that, well, he actually never said. And Nancy Pelosi -- she’s obviously a ditzy San Francisco liberal.
Here are the only relevant quotes from the AP article Drudge links to:
Pelosi: Climate change is a reality
BERLIN - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday she led a congressional delegation to Greenland, where lawmakers saw "firsthand evidence that climate change is a reality," and she hoped the Bush administration would consider a new path on the issue.
[...]
The California Democrat pointed to her delegation's weekend stop in Greenland, "where we saw firsthand evidence that climate change is a reality; there is just no denying it."
"It wasn't caused by the people of Greenland — it was caused by the behavior of the rest of the world," she said.
Scientists have noticed that Greenland's output of ice into the North Atlantic had increased dramatically, doubling over the decade that ended in 2005.
One banner headline on Drudge may not seem that significant, but that’s how the right-wing does it. They conduct long-term smear campaigns that rely on many small bits of false data to build misleading narratives. I don’t know how to combat it other than pointing it out each time it happens, and trying to make sure that hapless journalists and pundits are at least aware of how they’re being manipulated -- and, yes, a Drudge headline is a very effective technique for influencing the many mainstream journalists who start their day worshiping at the porcelain alter that is the Drudge Report. Today the Drudge Report, tomorrow Politico and FOX, next week CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and Washington Post.
Beware the right-wing smear artists. They won’t ever stop.