THE NOISE MACHINE….Today in the New York Times, David Kirkpatrick runs down the story behind the bogus report of Barack Obama’s supposed early education in an Indonesian madrassa. It’s mildly interesting (Insight magazine is no longer part of the Washington Times — who knew?), but it turns out that it’s mostly wasted. A single quote from Insight editor Jeffrey Kuhner pretty much tells the whole story:
“I said, ‘That is a sexy story, if you can confirm it,’ ” Mr. Kuhner recalled. After Insight posted the article on Jan. 17, Mr. Kuhner said, he was disappointed to see that the Drudge Report did not link to it on its Web site as it has done with other Insight articles. So, as usual, he e-mailed the article to producers at Fox News and MSNBC.
And that was that. Your media machine at work.
