One more case of “never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity” or in this case a mix of stupidity and laziness: a college Republican club gave a fake endorsement to John Kerry on behalf of “Communists for Kerry.”
All Fox had to do was click on the “About” link:
“Communists for Kerry” is a campaign of the Hellgate Republican Club, a tax exempt non-partisan public advocacy “527” organization that exists for the purpose of;
“Informing voters with satire and irony, how political candidates make decisions based on the failed social economic principles of socialism that punish the individual by preventing them from becoming their dream through proven ideas of entrepreneurship and freedom.”
Our members help elect candidates who support economic growth through Entrepreneurship, limited government and lower taxes. Communists For Kerry is separate and distinct from the Communist party of America and any of its organization. None of it’s members are members of any communist organizations.
Another:
After the debate undecided voter Ted Lyons said Kerry sounded like “an idiot” in his response to several questions.
Then you look down into the article and see that Ted Lyons is a Republican political consultant. (Here he is hanging out with fellow members of the North Dade Republican Club.)
What I don’t see being mentioned anywhere in the discussion of weblogging and it’s impact is that very few people are getting paid to to publish a weblog: the reporters who seem to routinely miss the story, fail to check facts, or garble someone’s message are getting paid. They’re probably graduates of universities you may have heard of, and I suspect think of themselves as credible, responsible professionals.
I wish I knew why they seem to do such a lousy job.