The Bogus Flag Story (CBS Buys into DNC Spin Without Seeing The "Other" Pics)

CBS ^ | Sep 6, 2008 | By Steve Benen

[icwhatudo]

It seems Fox News and some far-right blogs are excited about the latest in a series of lies from the McCain campaign -- the notion that thousands of American flags from the Democratic convention were going to be thrown away.

Like far too many of the stories pushed by the McCain campaign, and embraced by Fox News and far-right blogs, it's not true.

----snip---

"All of the flags at Invesco were picked up and put in bags and into storage, along with the unused flags and campaign signs. The flags were going to be donated, and the signs were going to be sent out to be used elsewhere,"

---snip---

"I mean, c'mon, we were never ever going to throw out flags."

[Selmore]

Biden is almost the same as Aires famous photo standing on a flag

[I'm ALL Right!]

Look at the respect Biden pays the flag...on the floor at his feet.

[andy58-in-nh]

Why did they have 12,000 left-over flags in the first place????

Because smoking was prohibited at the DNC and no one had a lighter.

[doug from upland]

The flag by Biden’s feet. Priceless.

[NOBAMA in 08]

Biden clearly doesnt give a crap about Our Flad as the picture proves! Thats why the closet Muslim Obama chose him as his running mate! That picture is infuriating!

[ETL]

'Guilty as hell, free as a bird—America is a great country,' he [Ayers] said."
August 2001, Chicago Magazine (article: No Regrets)
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-2001/No-Regrets/

"God D*** America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11"
--Rev Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for twenty years

"

"America’s chickens... are coming home... to ROOST!"

[HarryCaul]

Well, with phrases like “another in a series of lies from the McCain campaign”, it certainly does sound like CBS is giving us unbiased reporting.

[Islander7]

..and that's the way we say it is....

[webheart]

CBS doesn’t buy the spin, they write the spin.

[Raycpa]

Those flags are forgeries. There are only 50 stars on them.

[webheart]

I swear, Barack Obama is half black half white, and so he’s fairly light-complected, but Rev Wright looks like a white dude. The only thing black about him is the way he talks, and anybody can do that. I wonder if anyone has ever researched his family tree.

[Aussiebabe]

It would be nice to know when the picture of the bags in the CBS were taken. Could this be a picture before the convention started?

[rwa265]

Kind of ironic that the network that brought us RatherGate would say consider the source.

[LimberJim]

His email address is sbenen@washingtonmonthly.com

He used to run a nasty little blog called Carpetbag Report, then got hired to blog for Washington Monthly. CBS must use Washington Monthly as a source, because that’s where this entry originated.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

[ETL]

Look at the respect Biden pays the flag...on the floor at his feet.

Yes, and it wasn't that it fell on the floor. If you look closely, you'll see that the stick is leaning up against the chair as if he carelessly placed the flag that way (upside down touching the floor) intentionally.

[Cicero]

Steve Benen

is a freelance writer/researcher and creator of The Carpetbagger Report.

His work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, The Gadflyer, and Church & State. In addition to The Carpetbagger Report, he is the lead editor of Salon.com’s Blog Report (formerly the Daou Report), and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Crooks & Liars, The American Prospect, the Guardian, AlterNet, and Political Wire.

Benen has also been a guest on several radio programs, including NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” and Air America Radio’s “Sam Seder Show,” and appears once a month on the nationally syndicated “Culture Shocks with Barry Lynn.”

Benen got his Master’s at the George Washington University while interning at the Office of Speechwriting in Bill Clinton’s White House. He has written direct mail for a major Democratic consulting firm, worked as a communications director for a congressional campaign, and for six years, was part of the communications department at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

—from The Huffington Post

[Anti-Hillary]

What I find fun about this SeeBS piece is that they call out Fox. HMMMMM!!!! Methinks Fox is not going to take this sitting down. They WILL fight back. This election cycle just gets better and better by the minute as the drive-bys step in it over and over again.

[RoadKingSE]

"I wonder if anybody's paying attention. I haven't had a chance to scratch the testiculads all day. I could sneak in a stealth scratch right now and then go around behind that big curtain thingy and take a whiz. Uhhh, that feels better already."

[arkady_renko]

"All of the flags at Invesco were picked up and put in bags and into storage, along with the unused flags and campaign signs. The flags were going to be donated, and the signs were going to be sent out to be used elsewhere,"

This will be a good continuing story. Here are some journalistic type questions:

1. How many flags did they hand out at the event?
2. How many people attended the event?
3. Where did the DNC 'pick up' the 12,000 US flags from? The ground? The bathroom floor? The parking lots?
4. Knowing as fact how many flags were handed out and how many were 'Picked up', what percentage of America loving Obama supporters tossed the United States Flag on the ground as they wept for their candidate?

Come on CBS - Write a story, not a hit job.