Wingnutosphere punk'd (yet) again

[ProSense]

Wingnutosphere punk'd (yet) again

by kos

Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 11:05:10 AM PDT

You heard the story -- it was all over the right-wing blogs. Some poor white girl, 20-year-old Ashley Todd of Texas, was mugged at an ATM, but when the mugger (a big black guy) saw her car with the McCain sticker, he beat her and carved a letter "B" in her face with a knife. Apparently it was a dyslexic mugger because the "B" was carved backward, but whatever -- it proved that Obama's supporters were violent and craaazy!

Ever the blowhards, Fox News piled on, and their Executive VP of "news" wrote this:

Part of the appeal of, and the unspoken tension behind, Senator Obama’s campaign is his transformational status as the first African-American to win a major party’s presidential nomination.

That does not mean that he has erased the mutual distrust between black and white Americans, and this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election.

If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.

Rank idiocy, of course. Could you expect anything less from Fox? But there was a caveat:

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

I guess McCain's quest is over.

Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter "B" in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker <...>

Investigators did say that they received photos from the ATM machine and "the photographs were verified as not being the victim making the transaction."

This afternoon, a Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story.

The commander added that Todd will face charges; but police have not commented on what those charges will be.

The story was instantly suspect, as the pictures of her supposed beating, her Twitter account, and her timelines all patently contradicted themselves. But the wingnutosphere, with the healthy assist from Fox News, piled on anyway, letting their ideological blinders get in the way of reality. As usual.

And now they look like idiots. As usual.

As for Ms. Ashley Todd, being a liar and race-baiter is par for the course for College Republicans.

[xchrom]

1. recommend. nt

[SoonerPride]

2. Slam meet dunk

[ProSense]

4. This way this story played out

is an indictment of the RW blogosphere and the media.

[nichomachus]

3. Exclusive photo of College Republicans plotting strategy

[dgibby]

5. In defense of primates everywhere,

I worked at a primate sanctuary for almost four years, helping raise an abandoned baby gibbon (small ape). She is by far and away, much more intelligent than any republican I ever met. And she's a lot cuter, too!