With the publication of Peter Schweizer’s best-selling book Throw Them All Out, Media Matters for America embarked on a scorched-earth campaign in an attempt to undermine both Schweizer and his book, while dismissing the topic of insider trading in Congress.
Bet they’d like to have that one back.
Here’s just a taste of their relentless attack. Each headline represents another post, with even more vitriol at the link on MMfA’s website:
60 Minutes Questions Suggesting Pelosi “Conflict” Reportedly Based On Schweizer Book
Bush, Beck, Breitbart, Palin: Schweizer’s Deep Right-Wing Ties
Schweizer Previously Pushed Dishonest Smears Of Pelosi In Prior Book
Schweizer Wrote Falsehood-Laden Op-ed Accusing Al Gore Of “Hypocrisy”
Schweizer Authored Book Blaming “Big Government Liberals” For Financial Meltdown
For its part, Politico mostly followed the Media Matters line on the story, with much of its report relying on quotes from Nancy Pelosi’s office. They even included a shot at Schweizer:
The allegations regarding Bachus, Hastert and Gregg covered by 60 Minutes are several years old and have received extensive media coverage already.
“Tonight’s report,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi in a statement, “failed to note that the legislation in question in this story was reported out of the Judiciary Committee on October 3, 2008 – the day the House was consumed in passing TARP and also the last day the House was in session before the November election. It failed to note than in September 2008, the House passed the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights. In the next Congress, the House and Senate passed and President Obama signed the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights and the Dodd-Frank legislation, which included a stronger, more direct approach to addressing swipe fees.”
Hammill added: “It is very troubling that 60 Minutes would base their reporting off of an already-discredited conservative author who has made a career of out attacking Democrats.”
Now that Obama has raised the issue in his State of the Union address, the left is scrambling to get on the right side of the issue. Along with the humiliation of Pelosi-loving outlets like the Huffington Post, Media Matters and Politico have quite a bit of egg on their faces, as well.
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