Malkin, Powerline, RedState, FrontPage, NewsMax Promote False Story: Still No Corrections

Daily Kos Staff

Monday July 03, 2006 · 1:46 PM PDT

2006/07/03 · 13:46

I referred yesterday to one of the most current bugaboos of the far right, the notion that the New York Times had "outed" the St. Michaels, Maryland vacation homes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in a Travel section story about the small town -- a fact that had been reported repeatedly, in the press, including by conservative crank sites such as NewsMax. They were especially incensed at a picture of Rumsfeld's driveway that accompanied the article.

As Glenn Greenwald and others have documented, the supposed "outrage" was completely bogus. That did not, however, stop far-right bloggers from posting the home addresses, home telephone numbers, maps, and other personal information of not just the New York Times figures involved, but also calls for more personal actions to be taken:

Let's start with the following New York Times reporters and editors: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr., Bill Keller, Eric Lichtblau, and James Risen. Do you have an idea where they live?
Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous - grab for the golden ring.

There's still another apparent problem, though, in addition to the obvious horror of the above statement and the simple fact that the original "outrage" was transparently bogus from inception.

Greenwald did something that the entire far-right movement never thought of. He contacted the photographer, and learned an interesting fact:

Ironically, photos were taken with Secretary Rumsfeld's permission.

[Greg Sargent at the Prospect has now confirmed this with Rumsfeld's office -- Hunter]

So it wasn't just an overhyped story. It was false, in premise and in reporting. That Rumsfeld and Cheney owned lavish vacation homes in St. Michaels has been a well-reported story since last year: the photographer took the photo in question with the explicit permission of Donald Rumsfeld.

What do you think has happened since then? Have prominent right-wing bloggers who egged their more thuggish far-right readers on by promoting this bogus and fabricated "story" issued corrections? Have they spoken up against members of their blogosphere who posted personal information or made threats against the photographer, reporters, or New York Times editors involved?

Nope.

Michelle Malkin has so far issued no correction, and is for now ignoring the fact that, once again, a story she hyped and over-the-top actions she incited were based on false information. Again.

Powerline has issued no correction, and is similarly ignoring the episode.

RedState, on the other hand, has posted three responses to being called out for their promotion of a faked story. Twice to be outraged at my naughty words and insolence; once to defend Online Integrity by saying that while they are signatories, it doesn't apply in this case either, so there.

And yet, in all those posts, no correction as to the facts of their puffed-up story. None. And quite notably in the string of posts -- no condemnation of the actions of the conservative bloggers in question.

NewsMax? No correction. No condemnation of the thuggery.

Front Page Magazine? No correction. No condemnation of the thuggery.

Jonah Goldberg? Oh, he's jumped on with both webbed feet. He's so late to the party they're already trying to get the spilled punch off the floor, and he's down there trying to suck it out of the carpet.

More below the fold...

Before the above-quoted blogger and others went entirely and unforgivably off the deep end, one of the first bloggers to jump was Rocco DiPippo, in a now-deleted call for his readers to find and print personal information about New York Times figures involved. It should be noted that Rocco DiPippo, when he is not publicizing the home addresses and phone numbers of photographers in an effort to promote intimidation against them, writes for Front Page Magazine under David Horowitz, a figure that has taken the kind of intimidation and thuggery normally reserved by the right for abortion doctors and driven it on all eighteen wheels into attacks on "liberals" in academia. Horowitz himself was one of the first promoters of this ridiculous faked story and of the original baseless incitements. DiPippo's work can also be found on "Discover the Network", Horowitz's direct mimicking of previous far-right "lists" of individuals charged with liberalism or other apparent thought crimes.

So DiPippo was doing roughly the same as Horowitz always does -- and as usual, they went too far. This time DiPippo singled out a now known to be innocent photographer for a personalized hate campaign, published that photographer's home phone number and home address, and promoted intimidation against her and others. That's not just a little over the line. That's unforgivably over the line. DiPippo wisely pulled the post after it started getting overwhelming negative attention; it was, however, saved by bloggers.

So there's where we're currently at. A story proven to be false in original premise; reporters with online threats against their children's safety; no interest at all in correcting the story or reining in their readers who have used the false story as impetus for armchair jihad.

Will Howard Kurtz, an unabashed fan and constant promoter of Powerline, use this opportunity to explore or demonstrate just how often Powerline has been caught promoting false stories? Will he report on the far-right intimidations and calls for actions against even children incited by those reports?

Will any of the figures on the right -- "Integrity" or no -- condemn Front Page Magazine and demand DiPippo's removal, as a result of his publishing the personal information of a now known to be innocent photographer and oblique incitements for actions against that photographer? Will Horowitz himself, veteran of similar thuggish tactics, feel any pressure whatsoever to fire a staffer who took his McCarthyite tactics too far?

On any given day, each of these blogs, as well as most of the others surrounding them in their extended sphere, promote stories based on false information, fabricated motives, or deep incomprehensions about the basic landscapes of the world around them. But it is necessary, at this point, to pick out certain stories and make them examples of the standard and commonplace tactics of the right, and their standard tactics when, as has been very, very frequently the case, their latest supposed "terrorist" or "WMD find" or "evil reporter" or "evil professor" turns out to be a made-up story dreamed up by overactive minds intent on incitement, not facts.

It's time for the press to see these voices for what they are. It's time for these liars and, in inceasingly common cases, advocates of thuggery to be shown as what they are. un-American McCarthys, looking for a momentary spot in the sun, at the expense of the press, the Constitution, their fellow citizens and generally whoever or whatever might slight their parallel perceptions of unlimited power and constant persecution.

It's time to give them all the sun they can handle.

Will any prominent right-wing bloggers issue a correction on the facts of the story? Will any attempt to condemn, in the slightest, calls for intimidation and thuggery that have exploded as a result of their fabricated outrage? Will their friends in the press report this latest faked story in a string of faked stories? Will DiPippo be reprimanded or fired for his role in the incitement?

We'll find out.

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