If you watch FOX News, you may have been punked by this story...

Nevada man punks right-wing conspiracy theorists with fake Harry Reid story

byJoan McCarter

How stupid is the right-wing media?

Stupid enough to circulate a ridiculous story about how the mob beat up Sen. Harry Reid.

That was pretty insane, but a Nevada man just proved that there really aren't any depths to which they won't plunge.

Meet the guy who totally fabricated the much-repeated story that Reid was really beat up by his alcoholic brother, Larry.

Larry Pfeifer, a 50-year-old former consultant in the nightclub and entertainment industry, said he fabricated the story after becoming appalled that right-wing political blogger John Hinderaker published a rumor that Reid's injuries stemmed from an assault by a Mafia enforcer.  

Pfeifer said he pitched his fake story about the Reid brothers’ supposed fight to Hinderaker, author of the Power Line blog, to test whether the blogger would publish it, as well.  

When Hinderaker reported it and the rumor was subsequently spread by others in conservative media, Pfeifer says he began plotting to self-report it as a lie to show the lack of credibility and journalistic standards among partisan media figures.

"It was just so outrageous," he said.  

"The fact that someone can say something completely false that can destroy somebody's life, it's just wrong. Where's the moral compass?"

Moral compass? Hinderaker?

Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Breitbart, and Laura Ingraham all gleefully picked up the story.

Pfeifer, using the name Easton Elliott, said that Larry Reid had shown up at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on New Year's Eve in Henderson, Nevada, drunk and claiming to have gotten in a fight with a relative.

None of the media figures he talked to after leaking the story to Hinderaker, he says, demanded proof of his identity or in any way tried to corroborate the story.

"Can I set off a domino effect where people say, 'We're sick of this,' and start turning away from this kind of media or maybe boycott their sponsors?" he said.

Sadly, no.

The latest breathless reporting about Hillary Clinton from far more reputable outlets based on the utterly disreputable Peter Schweizer proves just how hard that's going to be.

Since the last vestiges of accountability in American society were carefully dismantled during the last Bush administration, it's up to us to fact-check what we read.

Politifact--home of the Truth-o-meter--and Snopes are great places to start.

So are foreign media, like BBC, Der Spiegel, and (surprisingly) Pravda (I know--shocking, right?).

When you hear a story, ask yourself a few pertinent questions: "Who paid for this story? Who benefits from its message? Does it pass the fish test (does it stink like week old fish)?" 

If we just blindly suck down the Kool-Aid the media try to feed us, the fault is ours.

We've already lost our democratic republic to oligarchy; our fascist state could devolve into theocracy, too (google "dominionism" if you need convincing that this is a clear and present danger).

If you want better for yourself and your children and grandchildren, and if you value science, technology, and social progress, then fight and fight hard--NOW!