Even Lefty Website Mediaite Says Breitbart Did Not Lie about Weinergate

by Warner Todd Huston | June 4, 2011 11:29 am

One of the things that the left has lighted upon to explain away the behavior of Democrat Congressman Anthony Weiner with his Weinergate Twitter mess is typical of the way leftists try to misdirect a debate away from the failings of their own side. Instead of keeping focus on the failures of Weiner to put an end to this controversy, leftists are trying to blame conservative Internet mogul Andrew Breitbart for it all, as if it is all Breitbart’s fault and not Weiner’s. Worse, these same leftists are saying Breitbart, not Weiner, is the “liar” here.

Many on the left, from the DailyKos, to many left-wingers on Twitter are claiming that Breitbart made up this whole Weinergate story and is the one behind it all. Some even on my own blog have chimed in to claim the story was invented by Breitbart. But any fair review of the timeline and the various folks involved shows this not to be true. In fact, even Mediaite says[1] that Breitbart is blameless in the whole Weinergate story.

Certainly Breitbart has launched into this story with gusto and his various “Big” sites have been chock-a-block full of Weinergate stories. But none of these posts have been invented by an evil Breitbartian cabal. They have simply been a discussion of the evidence as the story has progressed. Period.

So, who is this Tommy Christopher and why should we believe him? Tommy Christopher is the man behind the Mediaite byline and is an admitted lefty. In fact, he’s such a well-known lefty that when I was at blogger’s row at this year’s CPAC event, many of the other bloggers were grumbling that Christopher was allowed to join us as an accredited blogger. So, Christopher is not one beloved by right-of-center bloggers, for sure.

Nonetheless Christopher is a respected blogger, yes, he’s even respected by righties. Oh, we all know he’s a liberal, but many times he’s proven that he’ll follow a story where it legitimately ends up whether it supports his political side of the aisle or not. As Jeff Dunetz says[2], Christopher is “the Mench.”

Christopher assures his readers that Andrew Breitbart has “acted responsibly” with his focus on this whole Weinergate story.

There are reasonable criticisms to be made of Andrew Breitbart regarding the Weinergate story (I have made many), and I haven’t seen every statement he’s made on Twitter or TV, so I cannot vouch for their fairness, but when it comes to the publication of factual evidence, Breitbart has acted responsibly throughout…

…Through our contemporaneous conversations throughout this story, it has been clear that Andrew Breitbart followed leads that were submitted to him, rather than that he engineered any of this, and as far as presentation of documentary evidence, has acted responsibly throughout. He has also refrained from identifying the young women involved, unlike other websites on the left and the right, a fact that is to his credit.

It should be noted that Christopher is no shill for Breitbart. Back in 2009[3], Christopher had a very public altercation with Breitbart at a previous CPAC. They aren’t bosom buddies, for sure.

In any case, on his Mediaite site, Christopher has an extensive story that deals in the minute details of this scandal. He shows clearly that leftist websites, such as the DailyKos, are the worse offenders in this story, not Breitbart.

So, while the left spins its brains out to try and blame on others Anthony Weiner’s bad behavior and failure to clear this stupid story up properly, at least one self-respecting lefty has come out with the truth about it all. Congrats to Tommy Christopher for being one of the few on the left with any dignity. (Another is Eugene Robinson[4] who’s piece properly takes Weiner to task for his mishandling of this whole mess.)

Finally, we should note that this whole story has been given such legs because of Rep. Weiner has so badly handled this thing. As Robinson says, all Weiner had to do was unequivocally say that the photo was not of his scantily clad person. He refuses to say that furthering speculation that it is, indeed, him. Further, he has changed his story on what this even is so many times that he comes off as a liar.

First he said it was a hacker that took control of his Twitter account. Like the recent attempted hacking of the White House staffer’s email accounts[5], if this was a hacking of an Internet account of a member of Congress this should have called for an FBI investigation. But instead of launching an investigation with authorities over this “hacking,” Weiner suddenly changed his story and said it wasn’t a hacking and that he was not going to ask for the FBI to get involved.

This is an incongruity, to be sure. If this really was a hacking of a member of Congress, it most certainly deserves the attention of the FBI. That Weiner refuses to allow this investigation also speaks that he has something to hide, here.

At this point even the Democrat leadership is getting fed up[6] with Weiner’s mishandling of this story. A story that should have lasted two days tops is now going on for over a week! Big fail for Weiner, for sure.

Endnotes:
  1. Mediaite says: http://www.mediaite.com/online/andrew-breitbart-did-not-run-weinergate-evidence-which-turned-out-to-be-fabricated/
  2. Jeff Dunetz says: http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2011/06/andrew-breitbart-did-not-run-weinergate.html
  3. Back in 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_AagTFmsT6c
  4. Eugene Robinson: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-brief-on-rep-anthony-weiner/2011/06/02/AGqWIZHH_story.html?wprss=rss_opinions
  5. attempted hacking of the White House staffer’s email accounts: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1394036/China-targeted-White-House-Gmail-hacking-Hillary-Clinton-calls-threat-serious.html
  6. Democrat leadership is getting fed up: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/03/house-democratic-leadership-privately-push-weiner/

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