Fox News VP: If McCain Worker 'Mutilation' Story Is a Hoax His Campaign Is 'Over'

It had drawn wide local and national -- even political attention, with the McCain and Obama campaigns weighing in -- but now the Ashley Todd story has fallen apart. Police in Pittsburgh have now declared the tale a hoax and the woman, who has confessed, now faces charges for her deed.

Earlier today, John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, commented on his blog there that "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.

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

He titled his posting: "Moment of Truth." Indeed.

It started yesterday afternoon with Matt Drudge screaming at the top of his site this afternoon in red type -- but no siren -- that a Pittsburgh campaign worker for McCain, age 20, had been viciously attacked and the letter "B" carved into her face, presumably by a Barack Obama fan. Her name, it soon emerged, was Ashley Todd and she had come to Pittsburgh from College Station, Texas, to help out.

It started to appear overblown (Drudge downgraded it to smaller, black type) as the police noted that it seemed to be a robbery ($60) and she did not seek medical attention. But later press reports said she would visit a hospital, Sarah Palin and maybe John McCain had reportedly called her and Obama has condemned the alleged assault, although McCain/Obama angle to story not yet confirmed.

Still later, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, and some others, grew skeptical. For one thing, the "B" was carved a little too lightly and perfectly -- and backward, as if done using a mirror. Smoking Gun probed a too-pat "Twitter" angle and Gawker and Wonkette looked at her MySpace page.

Now police say that evidence from the ATM that she reportedly visited did not match her account. And it turns out she changed her story, admitting that her assailant did not see a McCain bumper sticker and adding to her account a sexual assault and losing consciousness. Liberal bloggers poked all sorts of holes in the story, including the fact that the attack allegedly took place in a very public place. Drudge added a link titled "B...or B.S."?

Finally, early this afternoon, came word that she had made it all up. Here is full update.
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Greg Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher and its hot new blog The E&P Pub. His latest book on Iraq and the media, hailed by Bill Moyers, Arianna Huffington, Bruce Springsteen and others, is titled So Wrong for So Long.

Comments

[Mike169]

Well it's fake - what's the verdict?

[ron ray]

I doubt this has any impact on the mccain campaign but it does show how desperate fox news is to find a winning issue for mccain, to the point of going all in on a specious report that turns out to be bogus.

[fhlinn]

The story is gone from Fox News website. I searched all over! Unreal. They push this story, but now act as if it never happened.

[bongogirl]

THEY EVEN BLAMED OBAMA FOR THE INCIDENT. THE REPUBLICANS WILL DO ANYTHING TO WIN.

[Strepsi]

Oh my God you're right! A search for "Ashley Todd" yields... nothing. That's not journalism! A news organization that has been hoodwinked issues a Retraction, a Correction, or an Apology. They don't ERASE their archives!

Of course, now their election main page story is "Obama's Education Groups Funded Controversial Organizations"
*sigh*

[anetgroup]

Did anyone else hear about the Obama volunteer who was leaving a thrift store and was robbed of her second-hand boots by a short, pudgy balding white man who, upon seeing her Obama button carved a backwards dollar sign on her cheek and pierced her nose with a flag pin?

[lwilkerson50]

RReitz .... I agree with you about "what do you need to know about someone you are not going to vote for anyway."

Why doesn't he talk about his plans. To me, if I were still undediced I would not vote for him because he wants to a-ttack his opponent and not the issues.

Furthermore, I agree that this should not be reflective negatively on either candidate, but the issue of the hate mongering that is going on. That this was a unfortunate thing that has happened and that the person will prosecuted. I mean could you imagine what would have happened if she had not come out with the truth. New rules need to be applied to campaigning. Also, there are a lot of homes, etc be vandalized. This needs to stop also. I take my Obama/Biden sign in when I am not home. I only put out when I am home and my front door is open (screen door is closed).

[BigDifference]

Ashley Todd is a symptom of what McCain & Paulin campaign and, sadly, the whole Republican party has become: a party run on promoting fear, suspicion, and ultimatelly, hate. This is a cancer that has been eroding our country for way too long. I will vote for Obama&Biden and pray we can eventually come out of the mess that the Republicans have created.

[ConstitutionCrusader]

All I can say is... we have yet to come across any notable and SANE McCain supporters... does this tell you anything?

[RealityCheck101]

Yeah, were all a bunch of loonies. Give me a break.

[nimblehuman]

You ARE a bunch of loonies, to remain GOP supporters after all that has happened in the past 8 years, unless you are making millions of dollars a year or have a secret bank account in the Cayman Islands.

Give the rest of us a break!!!!!

[delirium42]

Whether or not this has any impact on McCain's campaign (I personally don't think it should, as no politician should be directly blamed for crazy people's actions) Though the way their campaign has been run can be indirectly responsible for pandering to the more radical fringe and stirring them up, allowing an environment in which this sort of thing could happen.

HOWEVER
I WILL say this should be a HUGE impact on the right-wing MSM that took this unvertified story and RAN with it - right over a cliff. Hopefully this will once and for all prove to people that Faux News and it's affiliates are fully and wholly irresponsible, corrupt and have no credibility.

Yes, they might have reported it as unconfirmed - but they still went off and speculated, which - speculating about the impact of an uncomfirmed story is about as ignorant as you can get.

[SCLib]

yes, delirium, you are so right! And the people who regularly watch Faux (often their ONLY 'news' outlet) are likely to believe this kind of garbage and not bother to make the connection between a 'confirmed' versus an 'unconfirmed' story. These same people are among those who still insist that Obama is of the Islamic faith, long after the fact that he isn't has been proven many times. They will also be easily hood-winked into believing that their taxes are going to go up if Obama wins, though most of them don't make enough money for the govt' not to send them yearly refunds.

[orlfladian]

All taxes are going up, middle income earning will go from 28% to 31%...even low income still pay lower taxes under Bush compared to Clinton. Look it up for yourself.

http://www.economistblog.com/2008/03/06/comparing-income-taxes-clinton-vs-bush/ or see here, theres other graphs, but just tax cuts for rich is misleading.

[RealityCheck101]

OREILLY WAS EXTREMELY SKEPTICAL OF THE STORY!!! YOU GUYS ARE SO CLOSED MINDED. IF YOU WANT TO SEE IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM FLIP OVER TO MSNBC FROM 7-9 PM AND YOU CAN DRINK ALL THE KOOL-AID YOUR HEART DESIRES. AND DON'T WORRY THEY SILENCE ALL CONSERVATIVE VOICES SO YOU WON'T HAVE TO FRET THAT ANOTHER OPINION MIGHT COME ABOUT.

[benz3man]

in all fairness, O'Reilly takes his share of hits, but he was the only one to wait for more details. Wall-to-Go Bill-O

[JimBullis]

I hope the permanent casualty of this trash is foxcism, and we can return to a trace of reason in the media.

Foxcism is a term I made up to suggest the similarity between Fox talk show rants on radio and television, with its word twisting distortions, bullying, self certain style, and the leadership style of Hitler and Mussolini.

I was recently struck with this similarity when I was inadvertently treated to a talk radio discussion where you would have thought Obama had insulted everyone's mother, wife and the sanctity of all womanhood by making a joke about lipstick in connection with a pig. Both the host and the callers were whipping themselves into self righteous rage.

[RealityCheck101]

WHOA!!! FOXCISM, THATS CREATIVE. LEADERSHIP OF HITLER AND MUSSOLINI??? HOW DO YOU TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUSLY?

[formerprosecutor]

""Earlier today, John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, commented on his blog there that "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. ""

I must be missing something here. Why would this attack, if proven real (when it has already been determined a hoax) make anyone think they didn't know enough about Obama...?? somebody get me up to speed. i don't see the connection especially of a "watershed" event..

[sportsjefe]

It's surprisingly simple (at least to those who would have this line of thinking).

"These are his supporters? And Those are his friends? Too Dangerous!"

[NTO08]

You could see that the woman was disturbed.­..politics may have little to do with it...merely an excuse by her to grab attention.

[mamala4]

Is that a promise?

[Huffrage]

Obama's newest ad; hilarious: http://brainrageblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/change-thats-whassup.html

[Horus45]

We cannot let this story die, no matter how hard McCain's campaign tries to make it disappear.

Peter Feldman is the one from McCain's campaign who was pushing this story of "Blacks Gone Wild".

Don't let it be forgotten!

[Intelligentia]

Thank God this happened in Pittsburgh, where you have a diverse police force to do the right thing and flush out the truth! Could you imagine if she did this in one of the rural areas? They would have deferred full investigation until after the election, all the while they would have extracted a confession from any 200Ib, 6'4'' Black man within sight. The media would have ran it 24/7 until election day, to re-enact their Willie Horton image for the perenenially scared White folks who are looking for a reason not to vote for Obama-their world's Big Bad Black Man. Again, thank God it happened in Pittsburgh. This is why the crooks are scared of Obama presidency. They can no longer steal, cheat and destroy our country with criminality and walk away with an award!

[cmarmonhalm]

The tension at the McCain/Palin rallies was brought to a fever pitch. It was just a matter of time before someone got unhinged and decided to take matters into their own hands.

[salidon]

These people seem to crawl out of the woodwork.