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Politico Hatchet Job on Breitbart an Old Fashioned Pile-On

By now every political junkie is aware of the fact that Andrew Breitbart is being hunted down like a rabid dog in a crowded neighborhood. The accusations against him are that he took a video “out of context,” thereby exaggerating racial statements made by Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, and forcing her out of office. His most prominent accusers, Keach Hagey & Kenneth P. Vogel, write for the Politico where they posted an article titled: “The Tucker and Breitbart Show.”

While Hagey and Vogel’s article is ostensibly aimed at proving that Breitbart jumped the gun by posting a video of Sherrod that was “misleadingly edited,” this seems but a subterfuge by which they might not only lampoon Breitbart and Daily Caller publisher Tucker Carlson, but keep attention away from the fact that Breitbart’s goal in focusing on the Sherrod story was correct: inasmuch as it fits into his larger goal of highlighting the ongoing racial politicis of the Obama administration and the NAACP.

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Of course, the reader will never be able to ascertain Breitbart’s goal from reading the Politico piece, which is nothing less than an old fashioned pile-on with Breitbart at the bottom of the pile.

For example, instead of delving into hard evidence that supported their accusations against Breitbart, Hagey and Vogel employed quotes from various bloggers, television personalities, and even House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) in such a way as to taint the reader’s opinion of Breitbart, thereby preparing the reader to accept the idea that he had indeed “misleadingly edited” a video for shock value. But Breitbart didn’t edit the video. Rather, he aired the excerpts he received. And this seems like a crucial important point for writers at the Politico to have overlooked.

Perhaps Big Government editor Mike Flynn put it best by pointing out how obvious it was that Hagey and Vogel had decided that the purpose of their article would be to take Breitbart down a notch “long before they sat down at their keyboards.” (Thus the multitude of quotes against both his body of work and his character, as well as the failure to bring out the fact that Breitbart hadn’t edited the video to begin with.)

In addition to going after Breitbart in a way apparently aimed at defusing his criticism of the NAACP, Hagey and Vogel’s piece also seems to be a not-so-veiled attempt to lessen the impact of deeper revelations Breitbart might uncover regarding “JournoList.” This is a recently exposed listserv archive of contacts and points of collaboration among liberal journalists, some of whom not only use the list to propagate talking points but even to discuss the joy they’d feel over watching Rush Limbaugh die.

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In fact, Hagey and Vogel are so eager to discredit what might be uncovered regarding JournoList that they actually dedicate three or four paragraphs to people who claim to have been misquoted by Carlson’s website, then imply that these accusations could be applied to Breitbart because of the “inevitable comparisons” often made between the two men. (Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali were often compared as well. But I never heard anyone trying to argue that such comparisons justified blaming Ali for biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear.)

The bottom line is this: the Politico piece appears to be a work of obfuscation, in which Breitbart is used as a red herring to keep readers from connecting the dots that liberals would rather not see connected.


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