Glenn Greenwald provides a decent recap and summary of a controversy about a source used by AP when reporting an episode of sectarian violence. The story was remarkable because it quoted an Iraqi police captain who recounted that nearby Iraqi soldiers did not intervene to stop the Shiite militiamen. The captain was quoted by name. You can read more about the controversy at Greenwald’s blog, but the end result is that the right wing blogs were full of hot air. They were completely and totally wrong on this but refuse to apologize to AP or admit they were wrong.

As Greenwald points out, the episode is more telling about the way these blogs operate and how they integrate into the national media than most people realize. While Greenwald focuses on the bloggers who are not afraid to make stuff up, this is a larger issue that carries throughout all media platforms. From Michelle Malkin and others in the blogs to folks like Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh on radio to Brit Hume and Bill O’Reilly, the entire right wing media establishment is rife with people like this and episodes like this.

The Greenwald post is long, but I urge you to read it. After you’re done, think back to every Clinton era scandal. Then remember that every single one of the Clinton’s supposed scandals led nowhere. Not one panned out. The scandal that eventually brought Clinton to impeachment was not one invented by the right wing media establishment…

These people are not afraid to make stuff up, and they leave a lasting impression.

I had someone make an Al Gore/Internet joke to me the other day. It still persists even though the guy never said he invented the Internet. That came from a Republican press release the day after and was mutated and mutilated by Rush and company until Leno and Letterman made it a national given.

It’s likely that the perception created by the made up scandals and the intentional misquotes cost Gore votes. Imagine a world where a man like Gore, who has more integrity and intelligence than Bush, was running foreign policy. Afghanistan would be a better place, a better effort would’ve been made to seal off Tora Bora when bin Laden tried to escape (maybe we’d have him), and we wouldn’t be in Iraq.

Who says correcting partisan bullshit doesn’t matter? It matters.