Crush Liberalism

MSNBC duped by parody site

MSNBC fell for a parody site, passed it off as authentic, then issued a correction that erroneously referred to the parody site as a “hoax”. From NRO:

“Don’t let this guilty plea fool you, Vick is innocent (like OJ)”   [Greg Pollowitz]

That’s the title of a supposed Al Sharpton blog post being linked to by MSNBC.com. MSNBC reporter Alex Johnson writes:

But at the same time, Sharpton argued that the prosecution of Vick was overkill.

“If the police caught Brett Favre (a white quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) running a dolphin-fighting ring out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each other, would they bust him? Of course not,” Sharpton wrote Tuesday on his personal blog.

“They would get his autograph, commend him on his tightly spiraled forward passes, then bet on one of his dolphins.”

It’s going to take a long, long time for Johnson to live this down. The Al Sharpton blog post he’s linked to is a parody site.

UPDATE: MSNBC has issued a correction:

An earlier version of this article quoted from a blog entry purportedly by the Rev. Al Sharpton. MSNBC.com has determined that the blog is a hoax. In July, Sharpton signed a letter with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals condemning dogfighting, saying: “Dogfighting is unacceptable. Hurting animals for human pleasure or gain is despicable. Cruelty is just plain wrong.”

No, it’s not a hoax. The blog is clearly labeled as a parody site. MSNBC has scrubbed the link from their correction so readers can’t see how easily they were duped.

Do you see why I often have to include my disclaimer “For those of you on the left, the prior statements were sarcasm (or parody or satire or whatever)”? It’s for the benefit of idiots like MSNBC who can’t tell the difference.

August 24, 2007 - Posted by crushliberalism | humor, media bias