MSNBC Taken In By Right-Wing Smear Machine

It took me all of 30 minutes of roaming the internet before I determined that "Clintons4McCain.com" was a product of the Right-Wing Smear Machine.

Yet, despite the repeated warnings from Chuck Todd that the media were over-hyping the story of a battle between Hillary supporters and Obama supporters, MSNBC's "Hardball" crew took the bait -- hook, line, and sinker -- ending its show Monday by visiting the crowd and interviewing representatives of Clintons4McCain.com.

You can watch the video for yourself, but in short, Hardball host Chris Matthews allowed a woman named Cristi Adkins to proclaim that Obama should not be president because he was a "registered Muslim" in Indonesia. Matthews, smelling something fishy, at first pressed Ms. Adkins and finally walked away in disgust because it was clear Ms. Adkins could not only not support her claims, which amounted simply to untethered religious-cultural bias, but was also citing dodgy "official-sounding" sources for her smears.

Now, maybe MSNBC and the Hardball crew were looking for a fight and wanted to recreate another "Kevin James Beatdown," but if that were the case, then Matthews would have asked Ms. Adkins why "Clintons4McCain.com" is so eerily similar to "ClintonsForMcCain.com", which never took flight because on June 5th Wired reported that the website was registered by the Republican National Committee. ("Clintons4McCain.com" was registered on June 4th...perhaps someone knew about the article that was to come out the next day?)

Matthews could have also asked about the fact that Clintons4McCain co-founder Cristi Adkins is married to a media strategist named Bruce Allen of Allen Media Strategies, a firm with clients that include Fox News Channel employees, and Allen Media Stations, which owns several radio stations, including one that broadcasts The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly.

The Clintons4McCain.com blogspot page, offers a link to the American Issues Project -- yes, the group funded by the SwiftBoater Billionaire Harold Simmons that is trying to tie Obama to the acts of William Ayers when Obama was 8 years old.

Now, the Hardball crew had to have been setting up to shoot for quite a while, and Matthews did not go down to interview the crowd until the end of the hour-long program. Why didn't anyone bother to look up anything on Clintons4McCain.com? After all, they had a huge banner with the Clintons4McCain.com logo on it, and should have had plenty of time.

The truth is, the Right-Wing Smear Machine is ever evolving. More than just a group of conservatives that send out false emails, they are taking advantage of the increasing ratings found on cable news television and jumping at every opportunity to be seen.

There's no telling where the smears are going to show up next, but if the liberal media at MSNBC weren't quick enough to catch it, the Obama campaign will continually be spending more time on the defensive than it would like.

Comments

[blatham]

Edward

It's satisfying to see someone at Huffington address this aspect of contemporary RNC covert propaganda efforts. Thanks. I've been yelling hither and thither regarding Cristi and all the related groups/activities that have arisen (Just Say No Deal, PUMA, etc etc) beginning around early June. Here's an interaction I had with Cristi and Jack Kashinsky (co-founder of clintonsformccain) back in June... http://www.alan.com/2008/06/10/on-tuesdays-radio-show-20/

The websites run by these folks all forward boilerplate RNC/conservative talking points, quite regardless of (and contrary to) their claims to being Dems or prior Dem voters and Hillary supporters. You will absolutely not run into liberal/progressive policy notions of the sort Hillary represents, an odd circumstance given these folks' claims to "life long" support of Hillary. One gets the feeling they are frightened that if they were to mouth a liberalism their soul might immediately burst into flame.

Further, their websites pretty universally either ban posters who voice contradictory views or they erase such posts quickly. For example, the moderator on one of these sites had claimed her/his goal was to teach the DNC a lesson by electing McCain this year and then getting Hillary elected in 2012. I responded and pointed out that the logical entailment here would have to be that McCain would prove such an incompetent that voters would boot him out first chance they got. That post, though completely reasonable and mannerly, disappeared really quickly.

blatham

[jayburd]

It took me all of 30 seconds of watching that vile woman spew her hate to realize that she wasn't a Hillary supporter and never could be. She was obviously a Republican Smear Machine Operative. What's worse, she made it onto The Daily Show last night with her fellow "members" of Clintons4McCain in a segment by Jon Oliver. Obviously, they were lampooned but the fact that these disgusting cretins are getting any media recognition at all as true Hillary Clinton supporters is troubling.

Chris Matthews should do right and inform his viewers the truth about Clintons4McCain on his next show.

[mpalm 1]

I agree. I can't imagine that the producers did not spend a fair amount of time setting the stage for Matthews. The must have known the three women were impostors. The question is: did the producers set Matthews up and not tell him or did he know in advance about the McCain supporters? If his own people punk'd him, that is pretty laughable. If he knew in advance, that is rotten reporting.

Of course it could just be incompetence all around. Considering the network is partially owned by Microsoft, you just know that they need to do this kind of thing several times before the come close to getting it right. Maybe MatthewsOnTheStreet V3.0 will work out better.

[bwilder]

Matthews called her a whacko at some point later in the evening and it would be
beyond wonderful if tonight he would revisit the story and out the Clintons4McCain for
who and what they truly are. They are and never have been for Hillary. They are
frauds and liars.

I to visited their website and realized in about 15 seconds what the truth is. Hope
Chris Matthews did or does likewase and addresses it on air.