Another Breitbart dud

Media Matters for America

You have to credit Andrew Breitbart for perseverance. Less than a week after Ornamentgate blew up in the blogger's face, he's back with yet another dubious accusation. And just like his last smear, this one crumbles with the least bit of scrutiny.

Yesterday, Breitbart's BigGovernment.com claimed that the "Bertha E. Lewis" who visited the White House in September, according to recently released visitor logs, was in fact ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis. In a breathtaking bit of hubris, the post links Lewis' purported visit to the heavily edited ACORN tapes Breitbart released that month, expressing shock that Obama had subsequently "acted almost as if he'd never heard of the group," even as he had just met with its CEO.

The post concludes:

Of course, it is possible that this isn't ACORN's Bertha Lewis. After a previous dump of visitor records listed the name, Jeremiah Wright, the White House said, 'oh, that was a different Jeremiah Wright.' The media, of course, said, 'okay,' and never followed up. So, maybe the Bertha Lewis listed here isn't the CEO of ACORN. Just another Bertha Lewis who gets special weekend access to the White House Residence, complete with an extra-special staff tour. Sure, possible, but we'd love to see a bookie's odds on that.

It's not clear how President Obama meeting with the CEO of ACORN would be problmatic anywhere outside the right-wing fantasy world in which the group is the root of all evil, but guess what? Politico's Ben Smith called the White House. Yup, it's a different Bertha Lewis (a whitepages.com search turns up more than 100 matches, go figure). He also called ACORN. Yup, Lewis' middle initial isn't "E."

Looks like there's more egg all over Breitbart's face (and that of Glenn Reynolds and the other right-wing bloggers who ran with his report).

I can't wait for BigJournalism.

UPDATE: Fox Nation is now blaring the headline, "ACORN CEO Visited White House Week Before Scandal Broke." This is what happens when you run with a Breitbart story: you end up being embarrassed.