Here’s the latest banal, biased White House press briefing question from Les Kinsolving, per a July 26 WorldNetDaily article:
Kinsolving asked, “What assurance has the president received from his secretary of state that in 2012 she will not run for president?”
“I am unaware of any assurance that this president needs about his secretary of state,” responded Gibbs, declining even to mention Clinton’s name.
Of course, Kinsolving didn’t use Clinton’s name either, so pointing out that Gibbs didn’t use it is utterly irrelevant.
But here’s the headline on this article: “Democrat says he’d pick Hillary, Satan before Obama.” Surely it must have been an at least somewhat prominent Democrat making this statement, given that WND elevated it to headline status. Um, no:
Wrote one forum participant at the U.S. News & World Report magazine website, “If Hillary Clinton is not the Democratic nominee in 2012 I am voting for the Republican. I don’t care if the Republican is Satan. Obama stole the nomination from Hillary Clinton in 2008. I once was a Democrat. I will never vote for another Democrat if they don’t get it together.”
That’s right — WND turned an anoymous comment in a comment thread into a headline. WND puts a lot of stock in anonymous sources, despite — or perhaps because of — editor Joseph Farah’s statement that they are “usually quotes made up out of whole cloth to help make the story read better.”
Is that anybody’s idea of responsible journalism?