Manufacturing a scandal
By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Blogging, Economy, General Politics, Legislation, News, Partisan HacksA few days ago I slammed Democrats for hypocritically exempting American Samoa from the new minimum wage law. In passing, I noted that one of the beneficiaries of low wages on the island is Starkist, a subsidiary of Del Monte, which is based in Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco district.
Partisans have now taken that basic data and run with it, providing a fascinating look at how a scandal can be ginned up out of, literally, nothing.
It started on Jan. 12, when somebody modified the Wikipedia entry on Del Monte to add a sentence claiming that Pelosi’s husband, Paul, owns $17 million worth of Del Monte shares — suggesting, of course, that personal financial interest drove the Samoan exception. The right-wing site Newsbusters picked it up that same day, and it started spreading through the right-wing blogosphere. It gained momentum on Jan. 15, with an unsourced allegation by Rush Limbaugh. Along with the buzz came the usual smug and knowing comments of “I wonder why the mainstream media is ignoring this?”
Perhaps because it isn’t true.
(continued at Midtopia)
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 18th, 2007 and is filed under Blogging, Economy, General Politics, Legislation, News, Partisan Hacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 18th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
It is at this point that one does have to get concerned at the conflict between all of the “benefits” of the blogiverse on the one hand (access, freedom of speech etc etc) and the rights of the individual to protection from malicious or even accidental untruths.
January 18th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Wow, welcome to the wounderful world of extreme partinsanship; like I need to tell you something u don’t already know! I haven’t read the links you provided yet, and I skipped the original post because it just didn’t seem that big of a deal.
I was browsing thru some rt-wing blogs at that time looking for their take on Pelosi n Reid’s first 100 hrs. Unfortunately, I found nothing but obsurd partisan nonsense, but I’m afraid to say that your post was linked on one of the sites to help further their point about how badly the Dems were doing in trying to reform congress.
One worries that this sort of thing might stop reasonable people from uncovering truths because they may be taken out of context or, as in this case, simply distorted for partisan propaganda. Hopefully we’ll soon realize, if the previous election is any harbinger of the upcoming one, that people can think for themselves and see thru all of this.
January 19th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Still, sean, you’ve got to admit something smells fishy:
January 19th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Jimmy: Sure, and that’s a legitimate point. Although the Samoan exception long predated Pelosi, as well as Del Monte’s ownership of Starkist.
BenG: I hope people won’t seriously become gunshy about saying what they think out of fear that a handful of partisan fools will misrepresent it. That’s the best way to shut down democracy that I can think of.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
The 16 yr. old lasse I employ to do some filing work for me for $6.00 an hour for 10-15 hours a week is going to be let go if and when this thing passes. Sweet girl, but hardly worth what I’m paying here now, let alone 7 or more bucks an hour. Too bad, because she likes her job and she spends her money at the local coffee shop and at the local music shop – two great places. She will probably get a job at McDonalds or, hopefully, at the GAP, although it is going to be more difficult now. And she will be making more money — but she’ll be flipping burgers or hawking clothes rather than being in a professional setting that educates her.
My full-time secretary will get her additional (if minimal) work load. My secretary thanks all you well intentioned people out there for fucking up her ability to leave at 4:30 and said to me yesterday, “Too we all don’t live in American Saoma.” Yes, too bad.
January 19th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
It never ceases to amaze me how many people cite wikipedia as pure fact.
January 19th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Bush haters and the like accusing conservatives of manufacturing scandals? HA HA HA HA! That is so pathetic!