Think Progress has become the latest victim of a juvenile faux news hoax. Think Progress ran a story about how Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann proposed “Americanization” labor camps for Central American unaccompanied children. It quickly spread from Think Progress to other liberal sites, precisely what the “source” KCTV 7 had hoped. KCTV 7 is one of a number of fake news sites run by adolescent tricksters who relish spreading false stories. I have previously written about these sites and the type of low-grade “gotcha” pranks that motivate such people. It hardly takes a genius to set up a site that looks like a real news outfit and run stories to trick anyone who stumbles by on the Internet. I don’t find these pranks funny or impressive. I cannot understand how companies like WordPress give them a platform for such hoaxes or why the creators have not faced personal liability over their false stories.
The story quoted Bachmann as saying “I’m calling on all of us, Obama and Congress and everyone, to chip in and build special new facilities . . . ‘Americanization facilities,’ if you will. And we’d send these kids to these facilities, in Arizona and Texas and wherever else. And we’d get private sector business leaders to locate to those facilities and give these children low-risk jobs to do. And they’d learn about the American way of life, earn their keep, and everyone wins in the end.”
Raw Story reported that “However, it turns out that interview, often sourced to KCTV7, was plagiarized from an openly satirical site, The National Report. The KCTV7 report lifted large passages of the Bachmann “interview” and accompanying text from The National Report website verbatim.” National Report is the fake news site that I previously criticized. I honestly do not understand why these people find such pranks to be funny or worth so much effort. They degrade both media and Internet users. It is the equivalent to graffiti on the Internet.
Think Progress issued the following statement:
The news site KCTV7 News is a parody. Rep. Bachmann (R-MN) never made the statement. We sincerely regret the error.
The editors of the site relish these juvenile pranks. The site states “KCTV7 is a Kansas City news site that reports local and world news, as well as American politics.”
I am astonished that WordPress tolerates such fraudulent sites or that these people have not been sued for false light or defamation. If a site tricks people into buying false items or harming themselves, WordPress would presumably terminate the site. Yet, here is a group of people who work hard to spread false stories to embarrass people — often attributing harmful stories to people like Bachmann. I am less judgmental toward Think Progress as I am toward these juveniles and, by extension, WordPress that gives them access to victims.
You won’t do it, but others can. The stupid quotes don’t so her justice. Go to YouTube and type “Pelosi idiot.” The Charlie Rose clip is piss your pants funny. Hell, she’s a paisan. I want her to be smart, likeable and engaging. But, she is 0 for 3.
At least this has gotten you and Elaine back together. That’s always nice.
Elaine, her state now has a democratic governor, two democratic us senators, and a democratic legislature. The state has legalized gay marriage, passed progressive environmental legislation , has a statewide obamacare exchange and medical marijuana. Does not look like the citizens of Minnesota pay much attention to her and are glad that she is leaving congress.
Bachmann didn’t even know where the Revolutionary War began.
Michele Bachmann: Lexington & Concord Are In..New Hampshire?
I know you’re sweating when you ask me for links, DIVERSION!
Do you really think Pelosi was Georgetown material???
Google Stupid Pelosi quotes.
Here’s a little verse that I wrote about The Girl with the Faraway Eyes back in 2009 after she said that she wanted residents of her state “armed and dangerous” over President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce global warming “because we need to fight back.”
When Bachmann was asked about the White House-backed cap-and-trade proposal to reduce carbon emissions during a radio interview, she said, “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.”
Michele Bachmann: Armed and Dangerous
By Elaine M.
She’s wild-eyed and packin’ heat—
One congressgal who’s not so sweet.
She isn’t your typical Minnesotan.
She’s militant…warlike—and totin’
A derringer in her Gucci bag…
A Smith and Wesson—40 mag,
A semi-automatic Colt.
She thinks it’s time for an armed revolt.
She’s out inciting insurrection!
(How DID this crank win re-election?????)
She says she’s ready for a revolution!
I say she’s ready for an institution—
An asylum for the politically inane
With padded cells. This gal’s insane.
She’s crazy. She’s possessed. She’s mad!
As a final thought I’d like to add:
She needs a good psychiatrist—
Or, better still, an exorcist!
context
nick, Could you provide links and contest?
Same with Sebelius.
Georgetown become co-ed in 1970. Pelosi is too old to have attended. They kept the catholic girls close to home and in catholic women’s colleges.
SWM – I went to two Catholic co-ed colleges in the 1960s.
“Unemployment benefits are creating jobs faster than just about any other program.” Nancy “Bobo” Pelosi
“Every month we do not have an economic recovery, 500 million people lose their job.” Dumb Nancy Pelosi
maxcat, Then I stand corrected and give you kudos. My bad.
swarthmoremom & Mike A.,
The Bachmann Cookie for Republicans
By Charles P. Pierce
July 20, 2012
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Bachmann_Problem
Excerpt:
In one of his finest routines, Chris Rock asks, incredulously, about people who demand credit for what you’re supposed to do, “What do you want? A cookie?”
Thought about that this week as our old friend, the Girl With The Faraway Eyes, had a major public nutty and went after Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and a woman who’s had enough trouble the last couple of years, what with being married to Anthony Weiner and all. La Bachmann got up and accused Abedin of being in league with the Muslim Brotherhood. She even got four of her colleagues to sign a letter to the State Department demanding an investigation into Bachmann’s latest hallucination, and we’ll get to Congresspeople Larry, Moe, Curly, and Shemp in a minute. Since then, John McCain has criticized her, and so have a number of other Republicans, including Ed Rollins, who, the last time I saw him in Iowa, was trying to make Bachmann the President of the United States. These people — especially McCain, whom Washington reporters would find reason to praise if the man ate puppies en brochette in the Senate dining room — are getting a lot of credit from folks for calling out a McCarthyite lunatic in their midst. To which I respond,
What do you want, a cookie?
Calling out a McCarthyite lunatic in your party is what you’re supposed to do, if you’re at all invested in the national interest, and if you care at all for the job of keeping your political party from becoming the preserve of free-range crackpots. This is a task that the modern Republican Party — and the conservative “movement” that is its only real political energy — has failed at miserably. Michelle Bachmann should have been a marginal figure in the party for four years now, ever since she went on Hardball and called for an investigation into her “un-American” colleagues in the Congress. And even then, it would have been too late.
She should have been written off as a crank in 2004, when she complained that The Lion King was gay propaganda, or in 2006, when she said that there were hundreds of Nobel Prize-winning scientists who believed in intelligent design, or in 2007, when she said that visiting Baghdad was like going to the Mall of America. But, no, there were no brave Republicans being revolted at sharing a party with her then, so she got to go on after her memorable Hardball fandango to accuse AmeriCorps of being an embryonic Hitler Youth, spread panic about the U.S. census, claim that Glenn Beck could solve the crisis over the national debt, and blame Jimmy Carter for the Swine Flu outbreak in the 1970s.
Where were all the brave boys then?
The problem they have with Michele Bachmann is not that she has one of the leakiest brain-pans in the garage. It’s that she has an audience. She has a constituency in the party, and that’s the party’s other problem. It has proven utterly incapable of wringing the craziness out of the most vital parts of its base. In fact, the party’s been so bad at it that Willard Romney has to drag his balls across broken glass just to appeal to the people who think Michele Bachmann was right about The Lion King.
Minnesota is also flooded. The freeways suck and half the state is under road repair. Just got back from there.
Someone pointed out on I think Tapper’s show that both Pelosi and Sebelius went to Trinity Washington College for the Dimwitted.
And, what does Pelosi growing up in Baltimore city politics have to do w/ anything? Just than she conned Dems to make her Speaker and proceeded to piss on both legs as Speaker. Teddy “Fredo” Kennedy grew up in politics. So did W. That would appear to be a liability.
Bachman is a member of Mike’s august profession as you know. Do you think Pelosi could pass the bar? Maybe a bartender’s test.
Well, I tried to rope maxcat, but that hilarious quote, “I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels.” That’s your girl, Nancy’s quote. How about this, Bachman is wacky and Pelosi is dumber than a bag of hammers. Can we shake on that?
Why are you trying to rope me? The comment I originally agreed with was one that generally claimed “a pox on both your houses”. To further conflate it would be redundant.
There must be a reason why so many believe they have to flaunt credentials on blank checks, credit cards, mailboxes, email addresses, or when commenting online. Myself, I prefer anonymity. I think more and more professionals are preferring anonymity because, in a divided nation, credentials can get you as much scorn as respect. And if you are a sensitive person, respect may not outweigh the scorn, leaving you psychologically in the red, unless you are a masochist.