The Breitbart Laptop Lie & How Liberals Spread It
[Guest Post by Lee Stranahan]
I’ve always been interested in Urban Legends since I first saw author Jan Harold Brunvand on the old NBC David Letterman show. It’s interesting how untruths spread and it’s even more interesting now that we can track them online.
I’ve already shown conclusively that Little Green Footballs author Charles Johnson was totally wrong in a really humiliating way by claiming that Andrew Breitbart’s laptop is actually a menu board out in the front of the restaurant.
This lie is part of a story that liberals are trying to spin, desperate to find SOME way to prove Andrew Breitbart is wrong on the #Weinergate story. The idea is to prove that Breitbart was totally careless with the Weiner XXX picture – so lax that he left it out on a laptop screen in public!
Johnson drives this point home with TWO mentions in his short, embarrassingly wrong article. And with over 2,000 retweets and 400+ comments, not one liberal reader of Little Green Footballs even NOTICED that the ‘laptop’ is a frickin’ MENU BOARD. Not one.
They can’t all be stupid – but they are all that biased.
So full of hate for Breitbart that their eyes don’t work. So misguided by someone like Charles Johnson pandering to their worst instincts that they don’t even question someone leaving an open laptop out on the streets of New York City with a photo of the Most Famous Woody in America sitting on the screen.
Nobody grabbed a photo of that? No New Yorkers stopped and grab a snapshot? The story doesn’t even make sense, even if you missed the laptop / menu board thing.
Why no correction or retraction? Charles Johnson WANTS the lie to spread. That’s clear. He knows it isn’t try and goes with it not in spite of the fact it’s a wrong. He spreads it BECAUSE it’s wrong.
Thousands of liberals saw that photo and suspending their rational judgment and eyesight in favor of pure hate. That’s the EXACT same mistake they made that caused them to get Weinergate so totally wrong. They haven’t learned a ding-dong thing.
And worse – some of them blog about this discredited, obviously false, totally far-fetched “Breitbart Laptop” idea that Johnson still refuse to correct. This is how stupid spreads on the left.
It’s a mystery how it got out, what with Breitbart going to bars and leaving his laptop open with pictures of Weiner’s component parts on full display for everyone.
Now, giving Andrew Breitbart control over your life because you were stupid is Rep. Weiner’s own fault. But any notion that Breitbart was going to uphold his words on the “Today” show, where he said he’d hold the photo as insurance in case Weiner went after him, should be at the very least questioned, while I admit to believing he leaked it on purpose, no matter what he says.
All I can say to Andrew Breitbart is make sure your backyard is clean because they are gunning for your fall from grace too. One more thing, how many heterosexual men walk around with a picture of another man’s penis on their laptop or cellphones? Could he be a closeted homosexual? This is a disgrace. The photograph has since been removed.
One final point – given the cover-up and smear campaign against Andrew Breitbart that Rep. Anthony Weiner actively engaged in, I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for Weiner that Breitbart has shown the photo to a few people. Breitbart could have published it and didn’t. Breitbart isn’t running for Saint – he’s got a photo that millions of people who want to see and he’s shown it to a few people. Big deal. Karma, dude. Rep. Weiner got himself into a position where his genitals are in the news media.
What do you think Charles Johnson or Gawker would do if they had a nude photo of Andrew Breitbart or Ann Coulter? It wouldn’t just be on a cell phone, that’s for damn sure. The Hinterland comment makes that clear.
– Lee Stranahan
Mr. Stranahan,
I applaud your diligence in sifting through the rubbish of what was a website of interest until about midnight, Election Day, 2008. You however are missing Mr. Johnson’s point that he has not released yet, as he is still searching font types on his Mac. You see, the “menu” is obviously a photoshopped piece put in on the second photo of your article, to through off all the people who follow Breitbart into thinking that there is obviously some sort of conspiracy going on:
JDubya (7011a0) — 6/9/2011 @ 3:50 pm“Was it a laptop profile in that photo of the evil Ms. Coulter obviously was laughing at (size?), or was it a menu strategically placed in front of the four drunkards…and where is Ms. Coulter now in this shot?”
You see, this stuff happens hundreds of thousands of times a day in everyday America.
Ah, there’s the “Breitbart is gay” slur again from the so-called tolerant left.
Because calling him “racist” has worked so well….
Pious Agnostic (6048a8) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:16 pmOh man, Chuck is spinning like a top on Twitter, trying to pretend he never said what he CLEARLY said in the screen cap above.
What a liar.
Name (required) (382560) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:19 pmThey don’t care about the truth. There’s a livelihood to be made in deception.
Wtfci (5cf9c4) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:31 pmHe’ll pull this ‘oh big deal, stop whining that I’m lying about Breitbart’ for a few days, and then he’ll correct with a ‘big deal, are you satisfied?’ after enough people are duped into buying the meme that Breitbart was indiscriminately showing the explicit photo like this.
That’s not to say Breitbart didn’t mess up trusting Opie. But LGF is spinning that mistake into something far far worse. Charles is pathetic in how he will outright lie, cut out of context, or simply assert his hatred, over and over again, and then project those traits onto honorable people.
And yes, the homophobia of the left rears its head again. There’s nothing wrong with Breitbart having the evidence of Weiner’s behavior. In fact, Weiner forced this by demonizing Breitbart with this hacker nonsense. LGF was among the worst shills for that. It’s not Breitbart’s fault that the evidence that exonerates him is nasty. That’s Weiner’s fault. It’s not Breitbart’s fault he used that evidence to protect himself from a smear. That’s actually Charles Johnson’s fault.
Charles has known all day that he’s lying about this, and he knows that this is just one of a million little passive aggressive lies and smears in a campaign to convince people not to listen to the news Breitbart shares.
It’s no coincidence that as Media Matters and others really ramped up their operation, LGF had its sudden turn. This guy is a paid shill. I am sure of it.
Dustin (c16eca) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:32 pmBreitbart naively ventures out alone at night among his enemies witless and unprotected by experience, arms, or allies.
Brightbart’s a modern Billy Budd dependent on today’s Capt. Blighs and living on borrowed time, while the sharks smell blood and circle impatiently.
ropelight (ab65b3) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:34 pmWhen you are a Lefty you don’t have to tell the truth. Matter of fact telling the truth if you are a lefty might get you in trouble. What’s important is advancing the cause.
f1guyus (2a84e9) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:37 pm“Morgan Fairchild…yeah, that’s it…”
Name (required) (382560) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:40 pmThere’s a bit of truth to that. He doesn’t get nearly the support from allies that he deserves. Glenn Beck comes to mind as I think about that.
As he grows in influence, the left will hit him harder and harder. Just consider the different sides of this.
Breitbart brought real evidence and witnesses to tell a story about Weiner twitting a picture of his wiener. The story wasn’t perfect, though much better than the sourcing you’d get from the MSM. But over time the story grew legs from Weiner’s reaction. LGF runs a nonstop campaign to assert the evidence was completely fraudulent. They lied and ignored basic reality of what Weiner was non-denying.
And on the other hand, you have LGF’s story, that Breitbart was showing this picture on a kiosk he set up next to a busy street. Their evidence is completely stupid and they have known for hours it’s wrong, and they do not retract. And there is a growing chorus of agreement on the left with this dishonest story, and it continues a long trend of assuming the worst of Breitbart.
It’s a desperate unfairness.
Imagine if Vitter or Foley had tried to frame a reporter, with the help of instapundit and drudge, and the reporter amazingly vindicated herself with hard proof. That person would get the Pulitzer, journalism endowed chairs in her honor, and mostly: respect.
But no respect for Breitbart, yet again. Just more ignoring what happened, and piling on another lie. I think in the long run it’s an impotent direction for the left to be on.
Dustin (c16eca) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:47 pmAnd on the other hand, you have LGF’s story, that Breitbart was showing this picture on a kiosk he set up next to a busy street
Still laughing
goatsred (b20383) — 6/9/2011 @ 4:51 pmBe fair, people. Charles has probably not left his basement for so long that he doesn’t even realize restaurants in big cities have menu boards outside so the public may peruse both the food choices and the prices before going inside.
elissa (1d49e1) — 6/9/2011 @ 5:01 pmCan any of you think of a single story that was about a liberal politician or figure that actually faked by conservative operatives?
I mean, a story that actually got legs, not some half-assed attempt by fringers to punk somebody.
Has there ever been anything as big as the Rather-hoax perpetrated by a verified conservative?
Pious Agnostic (6048a8) — 6/9/2011 @ 5:09 pmWhere has Hustler’s Larry Flynt been on all of this? If it was a Repub, he would have been all over it. I’m surprised by his silence.
John B. (59ede2) — 6/9/2011 @ 5:33 pmConservatives are craftier than than, Pious. Remember BREITBART! made Weiner fake his own confession.
SarahW (af7312) — 6/9/2011 @ 5:42 pmMost liberals aren’t smart enough to know the difference between a resturant menu and a laptop. Or an etch-a-sketch.
f1guyus (2a84e9) — 6/9/2011 @ 6:11 pmGotta love the homophobia of the reactionary left.
The wonder is that the cognitive dissonance doesn’t cause their heads to explode.
TANSTAAFL (bb1ee7) — 6/9/2011 @ 6:24 pmWhat CJ does is rouse the rabble.
He’s the guy who stands in back of the mob yelling “get a rope” just hoping to incite a murder.
Then he calls it justice.
Someone aught to write a book about it.
Oh , here’s one.
Demonic; How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America
If assholes like Johnson weren’t as predictable as poison oak on a scouting trip, Ann might be mistaken for omniscient.
papertiger (e55ba0) — 6/9/2011 @ 7:06 pmOver a dozen comments have been added to this post, and no one has pointed out that the “Pig’n’Whistle” signage in the Coulter photo does not match the sign visible on Google streetview. And the scaffolding is missing in streetview too. Anyone with a brain can see you’ve got the wrong P’n’W. I suspect the photo was taken at Famous Ray’s Original Pig’n’Whistle in SoHo, which (I am reliably informed) displays its menu on an exterior laptop. They upload a JPG of the menu to yfrog and it automagically appears on the screen. Obviously Breitbart hacked the account and uploaded his sordid pic, to Coulter’s horror.
CMT (cdca84) — 6/9/2011 @ 7:42 pmStreetview is not realtime, CMT.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/9/2011 @ 7:44 pmObviously, Brietbart carelessly hacked the resataurant’s menu displays so they were showing his laptop’s screensaver (which is currently the Weiner pic).
What’s so hard to understand about that?
malclave (4f3ec1) — 6/9/2011 @ 7:45 pm‘What’s that Dean Wormer line, again’?
ian cormac (72470d) — 6/9/2011 @ 7:48 pmWha did happen to Johnson? Why did he throw away the good work of rathergate to make up stories about menu signs?
There has to be a reason. Maybe it is money, but that sounds hollow to me.
Ag80 (49b44d) — 6/9/2011 @ 7:56 pmweiner his schmeckler
ColonelHaiku (8fa4f9) — 6/9/2011 @ 8:12 pmnow his paint’s all over town
Andrew get your gun
call him nitwit or
ColonelHaiku (8fa4f9) — 6/9/2011 @ 8:16 pmclown but you doesn’t has to
call him charles johnson
He was faking being a conservative, or at least tolerant of conservatives, which made him more and more upset inside, until he had some kind of breakdown, and now he’s just … well, you see what he is.
Charles clearly cares deeply about being popular online, especially when it comes to high web impressions. Didn’t folks demonstrate that when you visit his site, it records several page hits? Like 7? The conservative fighting media bias angle was a clever one back when the media still had control. He’s troll for great discoveries, and then steal them without offering credit. I’m not even talking about the Times New Roman fraud.
That’s why he tried so hard to be one of us. He’s always been a drooling lefty on the inside, though the anger came from years of repression.
It’s also odd how he’s neatly on the Media Matters talking points. He’s probably just on some kind of journolist 2.0.
Dustin (c16eca) — 6/9/2011 @ 9:34 pmYou have to admit, the differences between a laptop screen and a restaurant menu board can be subtle. Maybe Charles needs an animated GIF.
Jim Treacher (30ee2f) — 6/10/2011 @ 5:25 amI’m surprised Charles didn’t think he saw a swastika on the menu. The boy is deranged.
CrustyB (2fb454) — 6/10/2011 @ 5:35 amCharles Johnson’s laughable article and subsequent laughable repeats by others glosses over something else. That “laptop” appears to be on a New York City sidewalk. In public view. Mr. Breitbart would therefore have no problems with leaving a graphic, pornographic photo for passersby, including children, to see “for long periods of time.”
Dan (a78edb) — 6/10/2011 @ 6:15 amGiven everything else that Breitbart has said and done, this:
1. Indicates in another way that the story is false.
2. Indicates that Charles Johnson, and those repeating the story, seemingly have no problem with that.
There’s Reality. And then there’s Reality Based. Charlie definitely lives in the latter world.
Ag80, never seen an explanation that made sense.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/10/2011 @ 7:01 amNo, nothing comes to mind. Then again, we don’t usually HAVE to make up stories about Democrats. They’re pretty good at being ridiculous all on their own.
Book (c7b6c5) — 6/10/2011 @ 10:06 am