Can someone say "PUHHH---lease?" The LA Times today published "story" about the problems Fred Thompson may have in a presidential election because he once played a racist anti-Semitic on a television show two decades ago.
As Erick (RedState) put it: "I think we have a candidate today for dumbest "serious news story" ever."
Tina Daunt writes:
Thompson played a white supremacist, spewing anti-Semitic comments and fondling an autographed copy of "Mein Kampf" on a television drama 19 years ago.
...How does a performer eyeing a presidential run deal with a video history that can be downloaded, taken out of context, chopped into embarrassing pieces and then distributed endlessly though cyberspace? Some conservative political blogs are already considering the problem.
...If Thompson's old TV roles do play a part in his presidential campaign, then the long relationship between Hollywood and politics will have entered a new era — an actor's dream and a candidate's nightmare — a world where nothing you ever said is forgotten.
Daunt references conservative blogs as a main source for the conception of this question. Specifically,
Patterico's Pontifications, who responded by saying, "I’m happy writer Tina Daunt has seen my website and saw fit to cite it in one of the paper’s articles. But next time, she should make the citation more accurate — even if doing so tends to undercut a storyline she is promoting."
Daunt was clearly hurting for a report and in trying to fill her quota, created a story that was, well, not. This could have been a ranting blog post but the LA Times deemed it worth the status of "news."
I'll stick with my Wall Street Journal.
