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February 12, 2009

Conservative Lies, Part 2

Talking about how a conservative lie goes mainstream:

Is there really $30 million in the new stimulus package devoted to saving the salt marsh mouse in Nancy Pelosi’s district?

That’s what some conservatives are now charging, and the claim seems to be gaining some traction with elected GOP officials and conservative media outlets, who are using it to argue that the bill is stuffed with Dem pork.

But there isn’t any such money in the bill. And Pelosi’s office is saying that the claim is a “total fabrication.”

How did this one get going? Yesterday a House Republican leadership staffer circulated a background email, which I obtained, charging that GOP staffers had been told by an unnamed Federal agency that if it got money from the stim package, it would spend “thirty million dollars for wetland restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area — including work to protect the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse.”

Hat tip to Greg Sargent and Barbara Morrill at Daily Kos.

So conservative hill staffers circulate a lie, the politicians themselves pick up on it and use it in campaign rhetoric, and (taking the logical leap) outlets like Fox News allow these same politicians and right-wing media consultants on to expound upon it.

And away it goes.

Posted by Ben at February 12, 2009 11:47 AM