How To Be A Hack

Learn, once again, from the master:

JON STEWART: “Andrew Breitbart may be the most honest person in this entire story.”

If you do what Reynolds presumably hopes you won’t do — i.e. actually watch the above video rather than taking the above quote at face value — you’ll note that according to Stewart what Breitbart is honest about is being a hack propagandist dedicated to bringing down Democrats whether the charges are true or not.   This is in the context of (correctly) criticizing the Obama administration and the NAACP for making the foolish mistake of believing Breitbart’s disgusting smear campaign. This is, however, a rather different argument that the quote implies.

Now, as many people have observed one nice thing about communicating mostly through links is that it gives you a certain passive-aggressive deniability.   Reynolds might claim that he’s just endorsing Stewart’s criticisms without necessarily defending Breitbart.    This, of course, would be nonsense, because Reynolds has been an enthusiastic supporter and promoter of Breitbart’s dishonest propaganda, so either he was also duped and isn’t in a position to criticize anybody else or he doesn’t actually agree with any of Stewart’s argument (and wants the apparent defense of Breitbart to be taken at face value.)

Fortunately, in an update Reynolds removes all doubt:

UPDATE: Dan Riehl: Sad, Jon Stewart Has More Ballz Than Many Right-Side Pundits On Breitbart, Sherrod. That’s true. When the lefties target someone, whether it’s Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh, too many rightish pundits instinctively distance themselves. That’s a reflex left over from when things were very different.

So, to be clear, conservatives should stand behind Breitbart although his vile smear campaign got somebody fired for saying something she didn’t actually say.    It’s nice that we’re being explicit about this!