[The news media fell for a hoax] by an environmental group that produced a fake press release from the US Chamber of Commerce. The USCC has had a number of its members resign over the group’s opposition to cap-and-trade legislation in Congress, and the hoax announcement stated that the USCC had reversed itself and now endorsed cap-and-trade. Layers of editors and fact-checkers at mainstream news outlets apparently couldn’t be bothered to check the official USCC website for confirmation:
In a dramatic shift, the Chamber of Commerce announced Monday that it is throwing its support behind climate change legislation making its way through the U.S. Senate.
Only it didn’t.
An e-mail press release announcing the change is a hoax, say Chamber officials.
Several meeting organizations fell for it.
A CNBC anchor interrupted herself mid-sentence Monday morning to announce that the network had “breaking news,” then cut away to reporter Hampton Pearson, who read from the fake press release.
Pearson quickly followed up with a second report saying the “so-called bulletin” was an “absolute hoax.” Smelling a rat, CNBC’s Larry Kudlow demanded to know whether the White House had been involved.
In a story posted Monday morning, Reuters declared: “The Chamber of Commerce said on Monday it will no longer opposes climate change legislation, but wants the bill to include a carbon tax.”
Of course, with one or two clicks (or even a glance at the URL), these media outlets would have been able to confirm that this was, in fact, a hoax.
The fact that they openly swallowed the hoax without bothering to check it out simply proves that they are absolutely worthless as news organizations, and useful only as official transcribers and echo chambers for the Obama White House.
There's my two cents.
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