It comes as no surprise to learn that the McCain campaign was involved in pushing the now discredited Drudge and Fox News-generated deranged-black-man-mutilates-white-McCain-supporter story. From TPM:
John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."
Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack.
All this while the investigation was still going on and before any of Todd's claims had been verified. Those claims appeared in early versions of the story:
After complaints from the Obama campaign:
...KDKA went back to McCain's Pennsylvania spokesperson, Feldman, and asked if he stood by the story as he'd earlier told it, but he started backing off the story, a source familiar with the talks says. That prompted KDKA to remove the grafs.
Feldman couldn't immediately be reached, and a McCain HQ spokesperson declined to comment.
Check that...the McCain campaign did have one comment:
By the way, we should mention that the Mccain campaign does want us to point out that she was a phone bank operator for the Mccain campaign. She was not a paid worker of the campaign, she was a volunteer for the John Mccain campaign. it is an important point to point out.
That's it. No comment on their role in inciting the Lynch Mob.
Update: Credit to Daily Kos diarist Dartagnan who caught this story first.