Noel Sheppard used a Sept. 29 NewsBusters post to cheer on Bill O’Reilly, during an appearance on “The Daily Show,” for pointing out how host Jon Stewart, who according to Sheppard “liberals love to put … up on a pedestal as being the most intelligent man on television aware of all that’s impacting the nation,” supposedly “missed a major story last week about almost unthinkable waste in government spending.”
As Sheppard goes on to explain, that would be the story of the $16 muffins reportedly served at a Department of Justice conference. Sheppard concludes: “I guess the smartest guy in the room missed this story. Might it have been important if a man he didn’t like was in the White House overseeing such waste? Hmmm.”
Sheppard is apparently so invested in that right-wing talking point that he missed the fact that it has been discredited.
The DOJ has pointed out that “The abbreviated banquet checks did not reflect all of the food and services provided. … The package consisted of food, beverages, staff services and function space, including a 450-seat ballroom and more than a dozen workshop and breakout rooms each of the five days of the conference.” In other words, the DOJ got a lot more than muffins for their $16.
Might the full truth have been so unimportant to Sheppard if a man he liked was in the White House? Hmmm.
UPDATE: Even the DOJ inspector general — which first forwarded the $16 muffin story — is backing off the claim. Will Sheppard report this to his readers?