The Cookies & The Noise Machine

5:11 pm EST November 22nd, 2005 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Your “liberal media” has once again carried water for the right wing smear machine, in this instance Michael Steele’s fabricated story about being pelted with oreos, in a blatant play for racial sympathy by a black candidate who continues to do everything in his power to screw over black Americans.

Cookie Monster

A LexisNexis search shows that only people directly connected to the Republican Party have ever been quoted attesting to the accuracy of any version of the Oreo story.

That hasn t stopped The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The Sun, the (London) Daily Telegraph, the Associated Press, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, and this paper, among others, from reporting as fact, without transparent sourcing or attribution, some version of the incident over the years.

Of the two newspapers that have most frequently discussed the event, the Sun s reporting has been largely circumspect, typically reporting the incident as a claim made by Republicans. The Washington Times, by contrast, has more freely propagated the most incendiary version of the incident, repeatedly reporting as a given fact that Steele was  pelted by cookies at the debate.

Milking a story for all it’s worth, media uncritically report crumbling allegation that Democrats threw Oreos at Steele

A Media Matters for America review of media coverage of the alleged Oreo-throwing incident has revealed little evidence to substantiate the claims originally advanced by Ehrlich, Steele, and Schurick. Reporting on the issue has varied greatly, giving wildly different accounts of the story, but a brief history of the Oreo-throwing legend demonstrates how this baseless allegation made the transition from partisan talking point to a “fact” reported in the media.

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3 Responses to “The Cookies & The Noise Machine”

  1. Quaker in a Basement says:
    November 22, 2005 at 7:11 pm

    It always bears mentioning again that the Washington Times’ S.A. Miller has been the one pushing this story hard. As you linked item at Media Matters points out:

    But WTOP reported that, “[w]hen pressed, Miller said he couldn’t swear in court that Steele did get hit with cookies because he didn’t actually see it happen.” WTOP also reported that “Fran Coombs, managing editor for the Washington Times, told WTOP Miller denies ever speaking to WTOP and said Miller did not attend the Morgan State event.”

    Miller wasn’t there.

  2. sooperedd says:
    November 22, 2005 at 10:11 pm

    I wish someone would try and pelt me with Oreos, just as long as they are Double Stuffs.

  3. Oliver Willis » Republicans Do What Republicans Do Best says:
    November 23, 2005 at 10:11 am

    [...] e read on the House floor, when she called John Murtha a coward. The Maryland GOP s lies about Oreos being thrown at Michael Steele has suffered at the hands o [...]