Saturday, April 16, 2011

BLTWY: Do they even read the stuff they put up there? (UPDATED)


I got ticked off at the MSNBC.com politics blog BLTWY the other night when they put up a half-baked steaming pile of Grover Norquist taunting President Obama (Obama's Terrified of Paul Ryan...yeah,right), then linked it on the front page of MSNBC as if it was news.

But it was late at night and by the next morning it was forgotten, a temporary annoyance from a blog that's trying to up its readership, I supposed.

Today, though, I took another trip to BLTWY-ville and found the page pictured here, (which has since been removed - see UPDATE below) which convinces me that this stuff is the product of either incredible incompetence or just plain stupidity. Or both. Probably both.

Seems that the BLTWY bozos decided to put together a "where are they now" feature on high-profile politicians who ran for office and lost last fall. Among those featured: Joe Sestak.

Except that they apparently found an April Fool's Day item from the Politicspa.com website - which churned out fake news items on April 1 like a poor cousin of The Onion - and took the whole thing seriously. Here's what BLTWY is saying about Sestak:


Joe Sestak
Then: The Pennsylvania Representative lost his reelection bid to Republican Pat Toomey

Now: Running for basically every office in Pennsylvania

Joe Sestak certainly didn't let his loss in November slow him down. On the contrary, it seems the former congressman's political aspirations have quadrupled. Sestak recently announced his bids for or Auditor General, PA Treasurer, Congress, Governor in 2014 and 2018. “Pennsylvania is in crisis, and voters deserve responsible, accountable leadership,” said Sestak in a press release. “Unfortunately there’s only one of me, so I will give it my best.” Guess that clears up our lingering suspicion that Sestak had himself cloned.


The idiots at BLTWY found this fake April Fools day item, complete with fake press release, and swallowed it whole, then regurgitated it as fact for their readers.

I either need to read less or routinely pop some ibuprofen before turning on the computer. This stuff hurts my head.

UPDATE: I guess the crew at BLTWY was rightly embarrassed by their Sestak flub - they have taken the page down and Joe is nowhere to be seen in their current version of "Where are They Now?" But if you're curious about what real reporting incompetence looks like, you can still see their original in all it's head-slapping glory courtesy of Google cache. Go have a laugh, it's worth the trip.

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