This morning as the Middle East burned while Obama fundraised in Vegas and our genius president told the world he had lost Egypt as an ally (whoops!), BenSmithing BenSmither John Stanton over at BuzzFeed Politics wrote an hysterically desperate hit-job against Paul Ryan and House Republicans.
The BenSmithing troll-tastic goal here is obviously to manufacture the idea that there’s some kind animosity brewing between Ryan and his House colleagues. Not because Ben Smith or BuzzFeed or Stanton actually believe there’s bad blood. What this is is just another shiny distraction fabricated to keep everyone’s eyes off the fact that there were no Marines guarding our consulate in Libya and that middle class incomes under Obama have dropped to 1995 levels.
Here’s a taste of the worst journalism you might read at BuzzFeed Politics in, oh, the next hour or so:
Ryan Avoids Congressional Republicans On DC Visit …
A warning to members of Congress hoping for a choice photo-op with vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan during his trip to the Capitol today: blink and you might miss him.
Ryan, the current chairman of the House Budget Committee and the architect of the Republican budget blueprint, is scheduled to return to his Capitol Hill haunts today for an early evening vote.
And that’s about it.
Yep, that’s about it.
Except…
Three hours later… Oops!
Well, maybe that’s not about it.
Via WaPo:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) this evening visits the Capitol for the first time as GOP vice-presidential nominee — and he can expect to receive a raucous welcome from his fellow House Republicans.
House GOP leaders are holding a brief welcome-back meet-and-greet with Ryan Thursday night in a room just off the Republican side of the House floor. …
Many of Ryan‘s fellow House Republicans have expressed pride in Romney’s choice of one of their own to serve as his running mate, and several members of the House GOP freshman class were so excited when news broke on the morning of the announcement that they were up tweeting their support of Ryan until the wee hours.
The meet-and-greet is one of the few events Ryan is holding during his brief return to Washington.
A source tells me that after this WaPo piece ran announcing the “raucous welcome” Ryan can expect from his House colleagues, Stanton later backfilled his piece as though the news of this “meet and greet” didn’t change the thrust of his story or the headline one teeny tiny little bit: [emphasis added]
The House Republican Conference Thursday afternoon did, however, announce he would be holding an informal meeting in Boehner’s office at 4:45 Thursday afternoon to see any colleagues who wanted to “visit” with Ryan prior to the vote.
Don’t you just love that “however”?
Translation: However, when I said in my headline that Ryan is avoiding House Republicans, that wasn’t at all true.
And if my source is correct, Stanton updated his piece without noting the update (via Twitter, I reached out to Stanton to confirm, but two hours later he still hasn’t responded.)
But that’s the great thing about being a BenSmithing BenSmither who BenSmiths… It’s not about getting it right, it’s about being a third-rate troll who can give the Obama-worshipping media something shiny to play with.
UPDATE: After I tweeted Stanton he added “[Updated]” to his headline. I’m sure that’s a coincidence.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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