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Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

Punked: Limbaugh, Beck, and Breitbart swallow fake story about Harry Reid and his ‘drunk’ brother brawling

Author:     Joan Shipps
Source:     The Raw Story
Publication Date:     26 Apr 2015 at 19:42 ET
 Link: Punked: Limbaugh, Beck, and Breitbart swallow fake story about Harry Reid and his ‘drunk’ brother brawling
Stephan:   At one level this story is very funny. But at another level is a a very sad commentary both on the lack of discernment exercised by many prominent media outlets and individuals, and how easy it is to start a false rumor that enters the echo chamber of American media where it ricochets back and forth.
Harry Reid with eye wound

Senator Harry Reid, (D-NV)

Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Breitbart, and Laura Ingraham all reported this month on the rumor that Larry Reid got drunk on New Year’s Eve and beat up his senator brother Harry, then showed up intoxicated to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with an injured hand and relayed that he had just assaulted a family member.

According to a 50-year-old veteran of the Vegas nightclub industry, however, Larry Reid did no such thing. Rather, Larry Pfeifer, former party promoter, made the whole story up and fed it to a right-wing blogger in a scheme to discredit the blogger’s reporting. The blogger, John Hinderaker, then published Pfeifer’s version of events, launching the conspiracy that — though Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) says he hurt his face exercising with an elastic resistance band in his bathroom at home — Reid is lying to the American public to protect his brother’s reputation.

Using the pseudonym Easton Elliott, Pfeifer pitched Hinderaker his Reid assault story in response to the blogger’s assertion that Reid’s facial […]

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