In The Washington Post this morning, reporter Perry Bacon Jr. wrote what may be the single worst campaign ’08 piece to appear in any American newspaper so far this election cycle.
In the front-page piece, Bacon muses over how the chances of Barack Obama getting elected president might be affected by the fact that he’s not Muslim. Seriously. To build his case, Bacon stumbles artlessly through all manner of rumor, innuendo, and xenophobic smear–never bothering to refute any of it, even though there is plenty of well-documented evidence to knock down much of this stuff.
Bacon essentially equates internet rumors with Obama’s own statements (and church membership).
I’m surprised the Post continues to employ Perry Bacon Jr. given the rumor of his multiple child rape convictions on the internet.
Update: The Post’s story has wings.
The problem with the original Post story is that the “rumors” have already been reliably established as false. To make this a he said/she said story is to give credence to the lies. Lies are lies, not rumors.