Dissecting a right-wing smear: How conservatives used trumped-up evidence to blame Democrats for Schiavo memo
Media Matters
Despite a lack of evidence, several media sources have repeated conservative speculation and accusations that Democrats secretly authored a "talking points" memo that described the Terri Schiavo case as a "great political issue" for Senate Republicans. These baseless accusations, apparently hatched on right-wing blogs and in conservative media such as The American Spectator, were given credibility by The Washington Post and CNN's Inside Politics. But as recent reports indicate, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) has admitted publicly that one of his aides is the true author of the memo.
As "evidence" for their claims that the Schiavo memo was a Democratic "dirty trick," conservative blogs such as Power Line and media sources pointed to the fact that the memo was "unsigned" and not on official Senate letterhead. In another posting on March 22, Power Line suggested that the memo was "suspicious" because it "mix
political strategy points...with talking points for Senatorial argument.
On March 23, Michelle Malkin repeated the "evidence" touted by Power Line, and suggested that spelling errors in the memo also raised questions about its authenticity.
In a March 23 post to his blog on the National Review's website, Jim Geraghty also repeated the "evidence" that appeared on the Power Line blog, and stated that "creepy phrases" in the memo indicate that the memo was written by a dumb GOP operative or a "Democratic dirty trickster."
Similarly, in its March 24 "Washington Prowler" column, The American Spectator echoed the same so-called "evidence" and stated, "It's Rathergate all over again."
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http://mediamatters.org/items/200504070005
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