Associated Press
I wonder if Hagel's laughing at the quality of the smears against him.
As the smear campaign against Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel intensified, it reached a rather comical level when the right tried to tie the former Republican senator to a group called Friends of Hamas. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggested the association was yet another reason to oppose Hagel's confirmation.
The problem, of course, is that there's no such thing as Friends of Hamas. The right invested quite a bit of energy into a connection that doesn't exist.
But there's been a lingering question: how in the world did conservatives come up with this silliness in the first place? I mean, really, "Friend of Hamas"? Are we living in a poorly-written Republican comic book?
As it turns out, the New York Daily News' Dan Friedman thinks he knows how this mess got started. In fact, Friedman's pretty sure he inadvertently got the ball rolling.
...When rumors swirled that Hagel received speaking fees from controversial organizations, I attempted to check them out. On Feb. 6, I called a Republican aide on Capitol Hill with a question: Did Hagel's Senate critics know of controversial groups that he had addressed?
Hagel was in hot water for alleged hostility to Israel. So, I asked my source, had Hagel given a speech to, say, the "Junior League of Hezbollah, in France"? And: What about "Friends of Hamas"?
The names were so over-the-top, so linked to terrorism in the Middle East, that it was clear I was talking hypothetically and hyperbolically. No one could take seriously the idea that organizations with those names existed -- let alone that a former senator would speak to them.
Or so I thought.
Literally the day after Friedman jokingly referenced the made-up group with a GOP staffer on the Hill, Breitbart.com ran its first report on "Friends of Hamas," citing "Senate sources." And just like that, thanks to the incestuous, self-reinforcing nature of Republican media, the bogus meme spread like wildfire.
Wait, it gets worse.
Dan Friedman's report added:
On Monday, I reached my source. The person denied sharing my query with Breitbart but admitted the chance of having mentioned it to others. Since the source knew we spoke under a standard that my questions weren't for sharing, that's a problem.
But there was another fail-safe. Since the "Friends of Hamas" speech was imaginary, it was not like another reporter could confirm it, right?
Not quite. Reached Tuesday, [Breitbart.com's Ben Shapiro] acknowledged "Friends of Hamas" might not exist. But he said his story used "very, very specific language" to avoid flatly claiming it did.
"The story as reported is correct. Whether the information I was given by the source is correct I am not sure," he said.
In theory, a reaction like this from Shapiro should cause real harm to his and Breitbart.com's credibility -- not to mention the bloggers, pundits, and activists who helped spread this around without considering the story's veracity -- but it would appear the standards in conservative media don't play by the usual journalistic rules.
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if something gets reported enough it becomes "true"
Unless it's the weeks-long meme that Benghazi was a response to a movie.
funny...no one ever mentions what happened the same day in Cairo...
The whole thing in Libya comes down to there not being enough guards or security...which as I recall were requested but denied by Congress
Give it a rest it won't stick no matter how many times you throw it at the wall
Come on you're not even trying. Congress has nothing to do with security arrangements at individual consulates, and Ms Lamb of State specifically said money was not the problem.
This was a executive branch coverup and misinformation campaign.
misinformation campaign????you're trying to equate this tradgedy to the "misinformation campaign" that got us into the vietnameese or iraquai war????
WHAT A STRETCH....
So what was Iraq then Shooter? You right wing lunatic fringe whack nuts are so hypocritical its literally sickening.
The fact that you are still hung up on Benghazi is becoming farcical to the point of irritation. I hold you and people like you responsible for the sad, pathetic state of this country.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/jason-chaffetz-embassy_n_1954912.html
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/10/rep-chaffetz-says-he-absolutely-cut-funding-for-embassy-security/
Now...you were saying?
Yeah, Blanks, you are losing your audience. The Republicans don't give a wit about dead Americans in Libya or they would be asking different questions. They care about getting on the teevee and puffing out their feathers and preening for their constituents. These kinds of stories just show how desperate you right wingers are for a second act and how unwilling you are to actually do the work.
Still with the Benghazi BS, eh? What a one-trick pony of nonsense.
However, be reminded that MaddowBlog allows crazy conservatives to post their conspiracy theories, whereas Right-Wing Blogs won't allow even a hint of truth on theirs, if they think there's a Liberal among them.
So which is the adult in the room? Or rather, which room has more adults? That's an easy question.
aw, and lying again Shoots. How nice to see it done and out in public even.
Dragoon, did you not know about Ms Lamb?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/19/us/state-benghazi-report
Yeah I did and I also know they got busted.
It seems to me that you and everyone else who is still trolling the old "Benghazi is a coverup" shtick are actually looking for two things and neither of them involve concern for the people who died.
No instead what you are looking for is 1) an excuse for why Romney lost and 2) anything that you can try and smear the President with just to make him look bad.
The sad part is that basically Romney lost because he was "Romney" and not even Republicans liked him very much and most voters liked the Republicans Policies even less and they voiced those opinions by Reelecting Barack Obama who much to your eternal consternation and discontentment it turns out is a genuinely honest responsible Executive.
You can moan and wail all you want and you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. The conservative movement is drowning in it's own bile and you are just trying to take the President with you, looking for a scandal searching for the damning Blue Dress or anything else you might be able to use to tarnish his image in history and there just isn't one.
Fin.
Heh.
For most of the protestors there, the attack on the Benghazi consulate WAS a response to a movie. Repubs conveniently forget how much discussion there was about that film, the motives of its producers, and the Constitutional rights surrounding it that occurred in the days immediately preceding the attack.
Isn't short term memory syndrome a sign of senility, Shooter?
Some people will believe anything they hear. Is that what Obama told you to believe?
The Blank resorts, as usual, to the PeeWee Herman defense.
No. Unlike you, I stick to those little things we like to call facts.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/sam-bacile-in-hiding_n_1876044.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_Innocence_of_Muslims
Go back and look at the discussions taking place on September 10 and early on September 11. The problem with revisionist history, especially that with a political motive, is that it's almost always wrong.
it would appear the standards in conservative media don't play by the usual journalistic rules.
As Basketball Boy demonstrates every time he takes a shot from the free-throw line and misses.
If a CEO is given a budget by the board of directors and then asked do you want more conveyor belts, if those belts would take out of the funds available for say running water, the CEO is likely to say "no." Now if the embassies, consulates, et. al. are asked do you need more security and that would take out of the funds for secure links to the U.S. or the budget to pay the security already pressent, the person in charge is going to weigh the options and quite possibly say "no." So holding the people in charge accountable for giving an answer that the ones holding the purse strings is forcing upon the people in charge is a bit like, well, being a Republican.
I think the story would have been more fun with "Junior League of Hezbollah, in France." What this story shows is that even in death Breitbart's flawed character still lives in the "journalism" of Ben Shaperio, what a professional, what a man.
Ben Shapiro, fiercely and tirelessly working every day to disprove the ancient anti-Semitic slur that all Jews are really smart.
Such a 'journalist' is Ben Shapiro,
His integrity turns out to be zero...
To report on an inferno,
He'd supply the Sterno,
Then fiddle like Emperor Nero...
I knew a guy whose cousin told me that he met a stranger in bar...THIS is journalism?? Please...Ben Shapiro is a walking joke, and I will make it my mission in life to laugh at his emissions. I wonder if it leaves a big stain on his sheets...
I wonder if the folks at superiorpolitics.com have this as one of their blog entry discussion points since they love to get stuff from bribert
If I were still allowed there I could inform them that this wasn't true (but they wouldn't believe me. They would say I got this info from Maddow and it's not my own digging.)
Ben Shapiro and I are rivals! He does a morning radio show in L.A. that I call into all the time to correct his lying kiester. He has gone daily bonkers over Hagel, he is the one who called me a JINO because I dispute that Hagel is an Anti-Semite! Little Ben is now undoubtedly the Single Worst "Journalist" In America, calling him a hack is way too soft. The only comfort in the Ben Shapiro story is that God gave him a voice that does not bode well for a radio career, he makes Mark Levin sound like Sam Elliot...
JINO?
That's funny, in a you'll-never-believe-this-sh1t kinda way.
LOL Yeah... Getting lectured about religion from a daily liar is rich indeed...
Lebowsky, you should have challenged him to a Circumcision Comparison Contest.
would that work out to..."Mine is shorter than yours is"?
JINO?!
LMAO! That's freaking amazing! You're my new hero!
JINO: Journalist In Name Only. A perfect description of little Benny.
So a story is in fact true, even if the source lied or fudge most if not all of the details? Well who needs concrete facts to say a story is true, as long as you have a confidential source to back it up.
Maybe I can call up a Right Wing Reporter and tell him that the President has a set of 3 year old twin boys, living in Libya from a devote Muslim woman, whose brother is tied to al-Qaeda; which is why the Benghazi incident happened and the inadvertent cover up that fallowed. Of course I just made that up and there is no proof, but as a Source do I really need any?[/s]
Can I quote you? The boys on the hill are going to eat this up! Wow. 3 years old you say? He's going down!!!
;)
And then there's this (Gawker)
http://www.friendsofhamas.com/
Wow, I just tried to access that link and it said it was disabled do to too much traffic at the site.
I'm laughing so hard that tears are rollling down my cheeks.
That Friends of Hamas cover story was created to distract the media from the real story. Hagel is really an alien replicant.
sssshhhhhhhhh!!!!
You can't harm what you don't have.
Those Republicans are so gullible: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/01/23/1485661/rand-paul-conspiracy-theory-libya/
You would think a quick Google Search could happen by a staff member before they spread this type of rumor or "lie created to make the GOP look stupid".
Republican, a synonym for liar.
Rand Paul is too stupid to be a terrorist. No fact checking needed with that one!
What if we were to flood the right wing lizard brains like those over at Breitfart and Fux Noise with so many bogus conspiracy theories that they simply can't keep up with them all.
I'm serious, let's start trolling the whacknut blogs and plant some conspiracy theories, the more outrageous the better!
At some point diminishing returns will set in and these whacknuts will be relegated to back page articles in the Weekly World News, right next to BatBoy and Elvis being spotted at the Shoney's buffet.
Unfortunately, I think the Weekly World News has gone out of business. I heard from an unnamed source that the writers for that periodical now work for Fox News.
Just be careful what bogus theories you make up because someone over there is going to believe them.
There's no way you could write something stupid enough or wild enough for it not to be taken seriously by these morons.
The Smothers Brothers - Who's Running the Country?
Tom: You can tell who's running the country by how much clothes people wear, see?
Dick: Do you mean that some people can afford more clothes on, and some people have... less on? Is that what you mean?
Tom: That's right.
Dick: I don't understand.
Tom: See, the ordinary people, you'd say that the ordinary people are the less-ons.
Dick: So who's running the country?
Tom: The morons.
Gets worse again. Ben Shapiro is still pushing forth with his lies, and claiming Friedman had nothing to do with his "sources". And to think, Shapiro somehow has a Harvard Law degree.
Ben Shapiro called the cops on 4/20 on the UCLA campus because he saw students openly smoking pot. They laughed at him. Apparently a Harvard education is just like any other, it depends on what you do with it...
You'll notice he isn't using the degree. I am sure anyone at any law firm would interview him and see the "I am a moron" flashing neon sign on his forehead.
Are we living in a poorly written right wing comic book? Unfortunately it seems like maybe we are.
The hero?
Let's see - taking made-up evidence from a source who had no intention of citing a real entity has lead to such a Senatorial circus?
Yet another WTF moment for our illustrious Republican leaders who dare call themselves elected office holders!
How many pharmaceuticals are in the blood streams of these old Republican men? -Kevo
Ben Shapiro is a joke. His brand of clownish journalism is not only easy to make fun of, but without doubt has zero impact on the serious examination of Mr. Hagel's record by policy makers. Far more insidious and effective attacks are coming from people like Jennifer Rubin and George Will - who spin McCarthyite connections from thin air. This post by Ms Rubin is especially detestable:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/02/19/the-right-to-an-awful-defense-secretary/
So . . . now you see how the "Gitmo detainees get GI bill benefits" story could possibly end up being reported as the truth by RWNJ radio and TV.
The real truth is that Hagel is a combat veteran who has seen the real horrors of war and is not anxious to get us into another war so that American soldiers can go off to fight the glorious fight and come back in body bags or in pieces or with PTSD.
Exactly! Now, if we can get that genius, Ted Cruz, to understand....
"In theory, a reaction like this from Shapiro should cause real harm to his and Breitbart.com's credibility . . ."
WHAT credibility? In any sane political environment, Breitbart.com would have about as much credibility as Wacko Net Daily, which has . . . oh, that's right. They're both mainstream information sources for today's Republicans.
Everyday we put up with Shooters bs about Benghazi. He's soooo into it. Bet you five bucks he can't name any of the dead except the Ambassador. Tyrone Woods was my neighbor in Imperial Beach CA. Just let him rest in peace. He was there by choice. He knew the risks.
Well, Shooter is good for comic relief - as well as a little insight into the fringe, nutcase segments of our society.
But the shooter gop do not have any real governing solutions for america , so gloaming onto the deaths of brave soldiers , to try and score political points , is their only choice
I am wondering if BRETBART advertises as a NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT ? and whether Hagel can sue their ass's off as a result?
And could our $ trillion corporate american msm come up with a basic standard for what is legitimate FREE PRESS / JOURNALISM , and the difference between that , and what is ENTERTAINMENT ? or would that cut into profits and force them into actulay being CREDIBLE?
Rachel - you need to delete that account. All it does is muck up the discussion for no good reason, even on "ignore" it still fills the pages...
Well, Rachel herself doesn't do that sort of work, but I heartily agree that The Blank needs to go.
DANFRIEDMAN lied.....he figured the lie was going to be exposed , so he came up with this BS story.....he and SHAPIRO both knew it was a lie...but went with it to smear HAGEL as being ANTI- JEWISH.........LIES, LIES LIES...........
Always nice to hear the "Horst Wessel Lied" playing in the background of your anti-Semitic b.s. In future, "Please remove head from ass before posting."
Sieg Heil, you nazi nut.
Your name may be "Solomon," but "solomonic" you're not.
Check out what the TPM commenters have done in response to this same story:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/breitbart-nydn-reporter-admits-our-story-is-accurate