Michelle Malkin And The Anatomy Of The 2 Million Protester Lie

Blame it on a tweet.

It turns out that's what kicked off the right-wing blogosphere's comically inept misinformation campaign last weekend to try to swell the size of Saturday's anti-Obama protest in the nation's capital, to jack the crowd size up to the wildly inflated -- and erroneous -- number of 2 million people.

For most sane observers, what transpired over the weekend resembled a comical bout of telephone tag -- the game schoolchildren play when they whisper something into a friend's ear and then get a big laugh when, six or seven friends later, they hear how distorted the original message has become via garbled repetition. (Two million protesters!) The sad part is that right-wing bloggers are serious. They think they're engaging in some bold new era of citizen journalism. Instead, they just, you know, make stuff up.

It's just the latest example in a string of unforgettable whoppers from online conservatives who rarely let the facts get in the way of a good story. And, yes, irony abounds in that right-wing bloggers hate the press and that they hate the practice of journalism. They lecture reporters about accountability and fairness all the time, yet whenever amateur conservatives try their hand at reporting, they just produce guffaws for the rest of us. (Did I mention they miscalculated the size of the crowd by 1,930,000 people?)

On Saturday, facts didn't matter because right-wing ringleader Malkin was helping to spread a sprawling (and illogical) lie, and her dutiful followers knew just what to do: spread it hard and fast. Perhaps Malkin's only regret was she didn't aim higher; she could have claimed there were news reports of 12 million people protesting in D.C., and I'm sure every one of her willingly gullible devotees would have linked to her.

They really are shameless. And they really do inhabit their own parallel political universe where everyone's allergic to facts.

Read the entire Media Matters column here.

Follow Eric Boehlert on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EricBoehlert

Comments

[joktu]

"...Typical conservative extremist sheep. Believe whatever they're told, no fact checking, no reasonableness checking. Very sad..."

We can say the same about Sheep-like supporters of this administration who have NO QUALMS about turning taxpayer's checkbooks over to a gluttonous government. No fact checking on the government's ability to manage cost. No fact checking on the nation's trillions of unfunded liabilities. Certainly no willingness to acknowledge that Congress has become a cartel of corruption and waste. Michelle admitted posted the error. How does this negate the legitimacy of the protest? Can we say the same about the JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY, selective reporting and witless cheering by the corporate media on Obama's wasteful bailout of Wall St? Isn't it our tradition to applaud citizens who have the courage to critique their government. Your willingness to become FLEECED and continual scorn of our basic Checks and Balances will only compelled Indie Voters like me (who wasted their vote on Obama) to turn the Dems out in 2010.

[GarryK]

Ever seen the aerial photos of the 500,000 people at Woodstock? And this was 3 times larger?

What about the buses? Where would they have parked 30,000 buses? Or the highways? Roads leading into Woodstock had to be closed with all the traffic and abandoned vehicles.

Typical conservative extremist sheep. Believe whatever they're told, no fact checking, no reasonableness checking. Very sad.

[Snowball]

Every little disinformation campaign by the right wing is calculated and dreamed up in the corporate back rooms of Public Relations companies. It's a deliberate strategy. Facts are irrelevant, they know that a lie will travel around the world three times before the truth catches up with it, if it ever does.

[RexOzone]

For sure it's all part of the Republican heritage (foundation.) A look at the signage indicates sullen think tank one liners from a dick army.