Eric Boehlert STILL Owes Jim Treacher a Correction — and an Apology Would Be Nice, Too
Eric Boehlert recently wrote that Jim Treacher had claimed, on the Daily Caller web site, that the Secret Service had hit him while he was jogging:
UPDATED: And how about the Daily Caller itself, which allowed its blogger to publish the allegation on its site that he’d been hit by the Secret Service, which was not true.
Note very carefully Boehlert’s reference to Treacher publishing this on the Daily Caller web site. In case any reader missed it, Boehlert repeated the claim:
The Daily Caller then posted a long, detailed account of the accident, suggesting a government conspiracy to cover up the crime. Yet in that accusatory article, the Daily Caller left out the fact that its employee originally, and eroneously [sic], accused the Secret Service of running him over, and did it on the Daily Caller site. That fact was conveniently flushed down the memory hole.
Note well: Boehlert’s complaint was that Treacher published on the Daily Caller web site the false allegation that the Secret Service had hit him.
In a post published this morning, I noted that Boehlert’s claim was false. Instead, Treacher’s Daily Caller piece merely noted that he had been told the Secret Service had hit him. (As it turns out, Treacher had been misinformed; he was really hit by a security officer for the State Department.)
Boehlert now defends himself in a new, dishonest post at Media Matters titled Surprise! RW blogger Patterico swings and misses.
Pay close attention, because I want you to see precisely how dishonest Boehlert’s debating tactics are.
- Tactic #1: If you said something indefensible, pretend you never said it.
As noted above, Boehlert repeatedly claimed that Treacher’s claim was published “on the Daily Caller site.” It was not. So Boehlert is pretending he never said it.
Instead, Boehlert cites a couple of “tweets” by Treacher.
“Tweets”?
(For those not familiar with the term, it refers to the short 140-character-or-less messages posted on Twitter.)
Remember the Boehlert quotes above, about “the Daily Caller site” and how the Daily Caller “allowed its blogger” to publish a false allegation “on its site”?
That never happened, friends. This was all about Jim Treacher’s “tweets.”
It remains clear: Eric Boehlert still owes Jim Treacher a correction. Boehlert claimed that Treacher published false allegations on the Daily Caller web site. Treacher did not. Boehlert called the injured bloggers’s statements “lies.” They were not.
What’s more, Boehlert owes Treacher an apology for being such a cretin. The man got hit by a car and had his knee broken, for God’s sake, and all Boehlert can do is insert falsehoods into Treacher’s mouth and do a little happy dance.
Creep.
Oh — and in discussing the “Tweets,” Boehlert engages in his second dishonest, Media Matters-approved tactic:
- Tactic #2: Rip statements out of their context.
Treacher’s original Twitter messages came one after the other, over the course of about 10 minutes. In those messages, Treacher said the following:
Guess what? I just got hit by a car while crossing the street. At a crosswalk. With the right of way. By the Secret Service. Not joking. My knee’s broken. I’m staying at my boss Neil’s house. I want to know why the Secret Service hit me, crossing w/ the Walk sign, & drove off. You guys think I’m joking. I’m not joking. So everybody who doesn’t like me, give yourself a pat on the back. Don’t be afraid to cheer. I know the Secret Service hit me because the cops said so. Oh, and so did the Secret Service. No apology, though. Yet.
Because of the nature of Twitter, messages are broken up into 140-character segments — meaning that the above set of messages was necessarily broken into separate messages, as follows (start at the bottom):
Remember: Boehlert’s claim is that Treacher claimed, without qualification, that he had been hit by the Secret Service. Treacher’s claim is that he said only that he had been told he had been hit by the Secret Service.
Boehlert’s claim depends on the reader ignoring the context of the 10-minute stream of messages, taken as a whole. If you read the statements in context, Treacher clearly qualifies his claim as based on what he was told.
Yes, he said he had been hit by the Secret Service. Yes, he made it clear that he “knew” this only because of what he had been told. Yes, when he learned he had been told the wrong thing, he immediately corrected himself.
So what exactly is Boehlert making such a big deal about?
I listed at least three previous instances (all unaddressed by Boehlert) where Boehlert made incorrect and/or unsupportable statements without correcting them. He’s now up to at least four.
It’s a shameful record. He engages in shameful and dishonest tactics.
Par for the course at Media Matters.
Oh — and by the way, it wasn’t a hit and run. It was a hit and walk.
“fake but accurate”….. SOP for the MFM and its sycophants.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 2/9/2010 @ 5:14 pm“Par for the course at Media Matters.”
Yes, indeed. They are pond scum. No malicious intent on my part. Just stating a fact.
GeneralMalaise (55c598) — 2/9/2010 @ 5:21 pmWonder if Boehlert joins in the twinkie-eating contests with Oliver Willis?
JD (e19c2d) — 2/9/2010 @ 5:33 pmIs there really that much difference between the Secret Service and the State Department Security Service or whatever they’re called? Enough to create any kerfuffle over this?
It seems like someone getting hit by a city police car, then after being told it was a county sheriff, being called a liar for repeating it.
Eirik (90ff8a) — 2/9/2010 @ 5:36 pm[…] That Reid Is Past the "Negro Dialect" Controversy, Let Me Tell You What I Think of the Word "Negro"GeneralMalaise on Eric Boehlert STILL Owes Jim Treacher a Correction — and an Apology Would Be Nice, Toojjw on […]
Patterico's Pontifications » Eric Boehlert Owes Jim Treacher a Correction (e4ab32) — 2/9/2010 @ 5:41 pmStupidest. Controversy. Ever.
Patterico, just remember the axiom: when you lie down with pigs all you ever get is dirty.
Boehlert is a lying sack of crap, and everyone with a functioning brain knows it, including Boehlert. Which means that Treacher is unlikely to ever get the apology owed him.
DelD (1179a6) — 2/9/2010 @ 5:45 pmPerhaps, but he can still make great sport of his idiocy all the same.
Dmac (799abd) — 2/9/2010 @ 6:24 pmI just visited MMFA (that’s the acronym – fill in the blanks as you please) for the first time in months and noticed something amazing about Eric Boehlert’s writing: He has plenty of links but — wait for it — NONE OF THEM ARE EXTERNAL. He proves his assertions by referencing MMFA only, and its version of events!
Unbelievable (literally)!
L.N. Smithee (b048eb) — 2/9/2010 @ 6:26 pmWhoops! Sorry, it appears I was wrong. The links are external, but all begin with http://mediamatters.org
L.N. Smithee regrets the error. Or, as Eric Boehlert might say, the “eror.”
L.N. Smithee (b048eb) — 2/9/2010 @ 6:29 pmjust another worthless pos.
everything you wrote above can be encapsulated in one comment,
this guy is berating and castigating treacher for not having one small portion of the facts right while he was in the midst of a terrible accident.
he was in a terrible accident.
rumcrook (bcc845) — 2/9/2010 @ 9:07 pmThe funniest part about this is Eric Boehlert only grasped onto this so-called mis-reporting?because he sat helpless and pissed off watching Briertbart clean Max Blumenthal and left blog’s clock with retractions like dominos. So he went out and found a right-wing “lie” he could get retractions from only he’s a left-wing hack, and a stupid one at that.
Topsecretk9 (ab69ad) — 2/9/2010 @ 9:56 pmYour guy repeatedly stated as fact that he was struck by a Secret Service vehicle. You even quote him when he says the Secret Service told him so. I don’t care how you spin it, your guy was wrong.
Douglas (4583e0) — 2/9/2010 @ 10:05 pmWhen you say the cops told you that the Secret Service struck you with their vehicle, you could be relying on false information. When you say the Secret Service told you they hit you, you are lying.
Douglas (4583e0) — 2/9/2010 @ 10:08 pm“Your guy repeatedly stated as fact that he was struck by a Secret Service vehicle.”
Douglas – In Boehlert’s post he claim’s Treacher said it on the Daily Caller blog, not in a tweet or somewhere else. Can you find it on the blog? This is not rocket science.
daleyrocks (718861) — 2/9/2010 @ 10:28 pmDouglas: I hope you never get hit by a car.
Jim Treacher (e65ee4) — 2/10/2010 @ 12:46 am@DelD – Hear, hear.
Tom (98c376) — 2/10/2010 @ 12:49 amIt surely cannot be that difficult. We all know that disappearing posts down the memory hole does not work reliably if at all.
So, Douglas, pony up the links. Treacher tweeted that the police told him so. Find proof otherwise that (a) he said the SS told him themselves and (b) that it appeared on the Daily Caller blog.
But you can’t, can you? Who’s the liar here?
Gregory (f7735e) — 2/10/2010 @ 1:02 amLooked up Boehlert in the dictionary and it said, “See Stupid Prick”
nomad (51add6) — 2/10/2010 @ 1:23 amHe said it was DSS, State Department security, or wern’t you paying attention
ian cormac (7b6e35) — 2/10/2010 @ 6:23 amDolly – still waiting for you to show us the part where Boehlert was referencing tweets in the original article. Especially since he specifically referenced the Daily Caller. Stick to those delicious little fattening snack cakes.
JD (6076b7) — 2/10/2010 @ 6:37 amAny reports on who might have been in the SUV in addition to the driver. If there was a VIP passenger, that would help explain why the driver left the scene.
ropelight (5f2652) — 2/10/2010 @ 9:26 amMedia Matters: Isn’t that the wholly owned Hillary lie factory? Just disregard anything attributed to them unless you’re a sucker for lies.
Scrapiron (996c34) — 2/10/2010 @ 4:48 pmFirst Treacher, Now Peggy Fleming. White House Vehicles Strike Again!…
First, they came for Treacher and I said nothing (except for blogging about it and twittering some stern messages!) Next, they came for Peggy Fleming. Before they come for ME, I must speak up.
iOwnTheWorld.com (d65a4c) — 2/14/2010 @ 8:23 pmJoe Biden’s motorcade was involved in yet another acc…
[…] include road conditions and a possible oil spill on the roadway.”Appears to be accidental? Media Matters, who has been relentlessly hounding the injured Jim Treacher, had better investigate this fully. Possible oil spill? You know who that can be blamed on, right? […]
First Treacher, Now Peggy Fleming. Biden’s Motorcade Injures Fleming | Right Wing News (c8efe7) — 2/14/2010 @ 8:52 pm[…] to be accidental? Media Matters, who has been relentlessly hounding the injured Jim Treacher, had better investigate this fully. Possible oil spill? You know who that can be blamed on, right? […]
First Treacher, Now Peggy Fleming. Biden’s Motorcade Injures Fleming « Snark And Boobs (dc54a9) — 2/14/2010 @ 10:25 pm