HOW A WINGNUT MEME CAN START

1) MSM idiot screws up basic fact
2) MSM idiot offers no correction
3) Choose one of A. Drudge B. Limbaugh or C. Politico to repeat it
4) Watch it spread! Whee!!!

(Via Atrios)

Garance at Tapped offers us a real life example from a reporter from the NY Times:

Today's newbie example appears to be otherwise experienced New York Times reporter Katharine Seelye, who managed to pack three different errors into a single blog item on the Yearly Kos conference.

[SNIP]

Those are quibbles compared to this doozy, however. Wrote Seelye

But hey, this is a tough crowd. Later in the evening, they booed Mother Teresa.

According to Ben Wickler of Avaaz.org, who was in the audience for that boo, "Mother Teresa was an answer to a pub trivia question about three people in the 20th century who were made U.S. citizens by an act of Congress." The boos were from one team of pub trivia players toward other teams.

[SNIP]

Another blogger confirms Wickler's account:

that was during a PUB QUIZ, and people were yelling because they got the question wrong. Thanks for the absolute slander. I'm sure to see it become wingnut mythology within minutes today, something we'll hear for the next 20 years.