Breaking: Jonathan Swift advocates baby eating

After seeing it mentioned on a couple of different blogs, I just watched the Beat the Press video on political blogging. See Joke "all MyDD bloggers are really Jerome" post suckers MSM for the story.

So Carroll got suckered by something that (1) is obviously a joke, and (2) could easily have been verified as such had Carroll bothered to undertake the most cursory investigation, which led to Carroll's falsely accusing Armstrong of gross deception. And what sticks in my personal craw is that Carroll then used that false accusation as the lead-in to a quote from me which, in its original context, had nothing to do with the Armstrong story. Armstrong was never mentioned in the interview with me; what I was responding to was a question about whether secret blogging-for-dollars in general gives blogging a bad name. What I said, and what I believe is true, is that astroturfing and other forms of fake blogging (like the Charlie Bass incident up in NH) usually get sniffed out pretty quickly. But the way my quote was used, it looked as though I was excusing Armstrong's (nonexistent) bad conduct by saying it's no big deal because it'll all come out in the wash. Not so -- I disapprove of astroturfing, and I said so in parts of the interview that ended up on the cutting room floor.

Here's a direct link to the satirical post that was quoted in the piece.

By the way, if you watch the video, they flash the name of our own Aldon Hynes as a blogger who received money from the Lamont campaign. Aldon addresses the issue here.

The thing is, John Carroll is apparently somebody who should know better.

John Carroll is currently an Assistant Professor of Mass Communications at Boston University. Prior to signing on with BU, Carroll was the executive producer for Greater Boston. Previously John was a commentator for WBUR-FM, as well as Public Radio International's Marketplace, and National Public Radio's On the Media. As a freelance writer on advertising, John has been an advertising columnist for The Boston Globe and Adweek and was a commentator for National Public Radio's All Things Considered. His advertising career included work at William Filene's Sons, where he was a copy chief, KK&M Advertising, where he was a senior vice president and creative director, and Carroll Creative, an advertising consulting firm he founded.

During his years with Greater Boston, John was awarded the prestigious local and national Edward R. Murrow awards for Writing, in addition to a series of New England Emmy Awards in both the News Writing and Commentary/Editorial categories. He shared the 2005 National Press Club's Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism with Emily Rooney.

So, this isn't Fox News we're talking about. We're talking about a journalist who, had he been around in the 1700s, would hopefully have had the good sense not to report on the "shocking" story that Jonathan Swift was advocating the eating of babies as a solution to poverty.

From the post at Crooks and Liars, where I got the link to the video"

Via Kos: Ask Carroll directly how he plans on holding himself accountable, given how accountable he and his ilk supposedly are. Be polite. john_carroll@wgbh.org

And, someone has probably mentioned this already, but it seems like this story would be a good one to mention to the people at Countdown on MSNBC.

Update: There's a new post on this at Crooks and Liars: Questions for Carroll

Another update: The Greater Boston blog now has posted a correction, adding that We will run a correction on tonight’s program (Dec. 11), and discuss the story on Friday’s “Beat The Press.”

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