Stanley Crouch, who (since winning a "genius" grant) thinks of himself as some kind of all-seeing, all-thinking,...well - fuck all that, the man's a blowhard - anyway, Stanley had just given us a column on how fucking brilliant and honest that man, Rachel Maddow, is, when the very next day - what do you know? - Rachel Maddow gets busted for lying and not even knowing how to use Google:The Internet's finest satirists hooked a big fish in the media world last night. In an embarrassing segment on her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow slammed conservatives for attacking President Obama's Egypt policies. Her targets included Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, former ambassador to the UN John Bolton and Stephenson Billings at ChristWire.org. Only problem is Stephenson Billings is not a real person. He's a fictional byproduct of a website that also warns readers that the Xbox Kinect is a terrorist training tool and the Japanese have created scary robot babies which "threaten humanity."Gawd - Sarah Palin - again? The woman is a one-woman Liberal wrecking crew! She's catnip to idiots - and to their supporters - who, in this case, includes Stanley Crouch.
The article that caught Maddow's eye called for an "American-led invasion" into Egypt and begged former Alaska governor Sarah Palin to lead the war cry."The escalating crisis in Egypt could become a defining moment for Sarah Palin," Billings wrote. "Governor Palin needs to speak out publicly and forcibly for an American-led invasion to protect our interests in North Africa."
The fact that ChristWire isn't a sincere Christian web forum has been a difficult lesson for the mainstream media to learn—especially NBC and its affiliates. The Atlantic Wire first outed ChristWire last July, when NBC's New York and Los Angeles affiliates published an article about the Christian right boycotting actor Bill Murray. NBC's Drew Magary linked to a ChristWire article calling Murray a "murderer of lambs" and a "fatal disease" to America's children. The article's author? Stephenson Billings. Maybe the company should flag this guy in its employee handbook.
Now to Maddow's credit, her blog acknowledged the mistake quickly after the broadcast aired.
Maddow's humility sparkles in comparison to The Huffington Post's, which upon being duped by ChristWire last August, simply erased parts of the article that showed they weren't in on the joke. In that instance, ChristWire had published an advice guide for women on how to tell if their husbands are gay. The mistake caught the attention of The New York Times which pressed the website on the issue and finally elicited a concession. “We did get hoodwinked,” Huffington Post spokesperson Mario Ruiz admitted.
C'mon people. Google searches! They're not that hard.
We suggest he'd better stick to Jazz criticism - or stay in a permanent crouch for now on:
Politics ain't his thing.
Left you a message at Althouse's but doubt you see it.
ReplyDeleteSo anyway, you're welcome, anytime. And, thanks.
I won't try to hide behind any shit, I think you're a smart guy. You hit the third rail more often than not, good for you. And your new age take is right on in my opinion. See, I know the lingo, too.
More people should be reading you. Though, when you put pictures of guys sucking themselves off on your front page, well, I can see why that might be off-putting to some, even most. But go for it!
LOL - Thanks, Luther.
ReplyDeleteAbout the 'new age'. You see, I was enveloped in that shit for a long time, almost. But had that warning bell in the back of my head going off the whole time. Never really took it in... it was just something cool to do, so I did.
ReplyDeleteNow, years later, I see what a waste of time it all was, still is.
So keep on keeping on, Crack.
WV - whinias
I ain't whining. I should have known better.
Well, Frank Rich is a theater critic and he knows all about politics and Maureen Dowd is very witty so she knows all about politics too.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about it, all you really need to know is that global warming is true, jazz popularization and cartoons will soothe our guilty souls, and maybe a little bit about what's going on in gay fashion...
The rest just falls into place.
It's a great business model.
P.S.-I think Oprah is the poor man's Maya Angelou.
You usually edit the stuff you quote in a very misleading way, removing details or combining sentences to create the impression that the person you are quoting supports the same or similar positions as you do, but you should have been more careful here.
ReplyDeleteReread the part that states "..to her credit"... doesn't support your "busted for lying" contention
Just a FYi, you're usually not this sloppy.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteAnd you throw criticisms around without revealing your identity - an easy thing to do against someone who willingly exposes himself.
I didn't change the nature of anything to make it "misleading". I edited the "to her credit" phrase because I didn't want to go into her Twitter response (which doesn't change anything I'm putting here: she lied on the air - to millions - then apologized on Twitter, probably to thousands, and, I betcha, made light of it on the air later). The point of the post was Stanley Crouch's declaration - on the previous day - that she's a font of wisdom and honesty. Both of which she proved wrong herself:
She's a fool and a liar.