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!

Word of the Day

 

Homophobia

ho·mo·pho·bi·a

/ˌhōməˈfōbēə/

Definitions:
1. The fear that people might start treating you the way you treat women.
 
2. The fear that you might be gay.

From "If You Only News":
a piece on racism from a Texas county commissioner.
(It lists the innocent, unarmed black men killed by police in 2014, so Freddie Gray is conspicuously absent.)

John Gradberg is a Panola County, Texas, Commissioner. On Tuesday, he found himself in a bit of hot water when he posted about the protests and riots surrounding the Freddie Gray death in Baltimore.

The rant read like something from a white pride leaflet, not a Facebook post of an elected official.

The post is gone, but Burnt Orange Report managed to get screen grabs.

 

Here is my counter to each and every one of his points:

There are also Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans but only one type of American was brought here en masse and by force. The rest came voluntarily.

Poverty leads to crime. White poor people commit crimes as well. Of course, the biggest crimes are perpetrated by white men wearing suits. A poor black man might take a car or a TV but rich white men take homes, jobs and entire livelihoods.

As for the this day this organization, every day throughout history has been for white people. Almost all the history taught in school is white history. Nearly every organization throughout America’s history has been white. It’s relatively recent that black people have been allowed to go to college or enter Miss America pageants.

Here’s a list of unarmed black men who died at the hands of police officers in 2014 – they were innocent at the time of their deaths.

Rumain Brisbon, 34, Phoenix, Ariz.—Dec. 2, 2014
Tamir Rice, 12, Cleveland, Ohio—Nov. 22, 2014
Akai Gurley, 28, Brooklyn, NY—Nov. 20, 2014
Kajieme Powell, 25, St. Louis, Mo.—August 19, 2014
Ezell Ford, 25, Los Angeles, Calif.—August 12, 2014
Dante Parker, 36, San Bernardino County, Calif.—August 12, 2014
Michael Brown, 18, Ferguson, Mo.—August 9, 2014
John Crawford III, 22, Beavercreek, Ohio—August 5, 2014
Tyree Woodson, 38, Baltimore, Md.—August 2, 2014
Eric Garner, 43, New York, N.Y.—July 17, 2014
Victor White III, 22, Iberia Parish, La.—March 22, 2014
Yvette Smith, 47, Bastrop, Texas—February 16, 2014
McKenzie Cochran, 25, Southfield, Mich.—January 28, 2014
Jordan Baker, 26, Houston, Texas—January 16, 2014

Gradberg has since apologized, in a non-apology sort of way. He claims he is a victim of the liberal media. Here’s the screenshot because I’m afraid that he’ll probably end up deleting these words soon as well.