On Tuesday evening, Matt Drudge set the Internet on fire by promising a video that would produce charges of racism by “both sides.” What he ended up producing instead was a massive, bored sigh when BuzzFeed scooped him by pointing out that much of the video had been on YouTube for years.
Drudge’s immensely popular right-wing site continued promoting the video until it was shown and dissected on Fox News’ Hannity. The Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson sat in and explained how he knew this was a bombshell: “I know because I reported it the first time.”
That’s right: Carlson also trumpeted the “new” video during the 2008 campaign on his ill-fated MSNBC show.
Host Sean Hannity and his guest fixated on the president’s “accent” in the video, suggesting he was putting on a black affect to connect with the crowd.
Most observers quickly dismissed the stunt as an attempt to create a “47 percent” moment for the president that reveals his disdain for some Americans. Hannity at one point said that then-candidate Obama made derisive comments about “poor people” — when Obama was clearly speaking about the need to provide skills training to neglected groups including the homeless, veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and young adults coming out of foster care.
Carlson went on Fox and Friends Wednesday morning to blame the dismissal of the tape on the “throne sniffers” in the mainstream media. Yet by morning even Drudge had dropped the story from his top headline and moved on to the next manufactured outrage.
