News Junkies

Over at Butt Busters, the wide loads are hissy-bitching about entirely accurate reporting.

Tiny Tim Graham leads off with this:

The Washington Post showed its liberal colors Saturday morning by running this copy in their "Inside" text box. "Rush Limbaugh Arrested: The talk radio icon surrenders on a charge of committing fraud to obtain prescription drugs." The headline for the story on the front of the Style section was also suggestive: "Rush Limbaugh Turns Himself In On Fraud Charge In Rx Drug Probe." The online link was "Limbaugh Charged With Prescription Drug Fraud," accurate but incomplete.

A casual reader of headlines could easily conclude that Limbaugh was admitting guilt, with words like "surrenders" and "turns himself in." But it was a part of a deal with no admission of guilt. The story by Peter Whoriskey noted: "The agreement is not an admission of guilt to the charge." A less inflammatory set of headlines would have said "Prosecutors, Limbaugh Strike Deal."

Yes, the headlines are entirely accurate, but people who read only the headline might get an inaccurate impression due to a combination of their own laziness and their own stupidity.

Tiny Tim clearly knows his audience.

Meanwhile, on Friday night, Brent Baker posted obsessively about every teevee news story reporting the corpulent junkie's arrest. I understand Baker's date was left stranded at the swap meet while Baker stroked his remotes late into the evening.

p.s. to Brent: The Doughboy Junkie was not a winner, no matter how you spin it. The only winner is Roy Black - to the tune of $750,000 or more, I'd guess.