UPDATE July 4th, 2012 8:00am CST: At this time, there is still no correction nor has there been any response to our requests for one. Contact @KarlRove, @AndrewCMcCarthy, @NROCorner or @RichLowry and demand that they explain themselves.
Have you heard the one about the President planning to spend Independence Day at a fundraiser in France? The rumor is all over the fringes of the right. Wedged in between hyperventilations over the President's "Kenyan birthplace" and "Agenda 21," the comments sections of our country's "anyone-but-Obama" blogs are full of it.
The story is, of course, as baseless as it is absurd. It is the kind of nonsense which has become so commonplace in the rumor-sphere that it would ordinarily not merit much discussion.
But this one is different. It's not just the web-rabble and the knuckle-draggers who are pushing it.
Over at the National Review, Andy McCarthy picked it up on Saturday morning. He ran with it. It's still there as I go to post, 72 hours later, without correction.
Even better, good old Karl Rove picked up the McCarthy link and tweeted it a short time later to his 353,000 followers. His post is also still up. He also hasn't issued any correction. In fact, he hasn't tweeted since.
Steve Benen writes:
"The reality is simple: neither the president nor his family are going to Paris for the 4th of July. They will, of course, be in the United States, celebrating the holiday at the White House, hosting an event for military families. Republican media outlets reporting otherwise are lying."
"The reality is simple: neither the president nor his family are going to Paris for the 4th of July. They will, of course, be in the United States, celebrating the holiday at the White House, hosting an event for military families. Republican media outlets reporting otherwise are lying."
Benen is too kind. After three days, it seems clear that this is not cynical carelessness. This is coordinated propaganda.
