Liberals will go to any lengths to smear conservative candidates as racist.
On Tuesday, The Blaze reported that Ken Layne of the left wing hate site Wonkette, "published a heavily-edited video and used it to unfairly convince readers that GOP presidential contender Michele Bachmann is a racist."
More specifically, Layne used the doctored clip to claim that Bachmann had asked a Christian music festival audience on August 5 in West Des Moines, Iowa, the following: “Who likes white people?”
But that's not what Bachmann asked.
Robert Stacy McCain. the conservative blogger who runs The Other McCain, covered the event in early August and took the video that was edited.
He explains at Hot Air:
"...Bachmann began her presentation with a joke, asking the rain-drenched crowd, “Who likes wet people?” and then said that, as Christians, they serve the “God of the winds and the rains.”
Nearly three weeks later, on Saturday Aug. 27, a left-wing anti-Christian blog, “On Knees for Jesus,” posted a pirated version of my video, edited and with a caption falsely asserting that Bachmann asked the crowd, “Who likes white people?” — with the contextual clue about “the winds and the rains” removed. That dishonest smear was then given prominence by the left-wing gossip site Gawker.
Bachmann's question had nothing to do with race, however. She was referring to "Wet People" - the name of a Christian band.
The attempted smear, however, did not go unnoticed.
Ben Smith of Politico tweeted: "Who likes white people?" Bachmann asks in an out-of-context line (it's a band name)"
Mediaite also noticed the edit, and posted a video showing the attempt to make Bachmann appear racist.
McCain notes:
Chris Moody of Yahoo News exposed this vicious falsehood and, after I learned that my video had been stolen and misused for such a defamatory purpose, I put up a blog post denouncing the smear, and sent an e-mail to the anonymous proprietor of the “On Knees” Web site. He then deleted his first lie and substituted another vicious smear as a “correction.” But his pirated and re-edited version of my video — a clear violation of my copyright, and of YouTube’s terms of service agreement — is still online. I have spoken to an attorney and fully intend that the perpetrator of this crime will be brought to justice.
As of this writing, Wonkette still has not retracted the false statement, and still implies that Bachmann is a racist:
Who likes white people? Uhh, everybody except for black people and brown people and yellow people, we guess? Also, many actual white people don’t much like white people, having read a history book or two. But Michele Bachmann is here to praise Jesus and His Own Special People, even though he was an Arab. UPDATE: Michele Bachmann actually said she “hates white people” because they’re “subhuman.” YouTube regrets the error.
What is happening here? The Wonkette editorial board just had a meeting and your editor Kirsten Boyd Johnson said, “She’s obviously referring to the dumb band that played before her but forgot to mention the rest of the band’s name, because she’s an idiot.”
So the band is called “White People and ….” what? We don’t know. Just elect Michele Bachmann. Let’s get this country back on track! The apocalypse is barely a year away and we sure don’t want a black person as president when God sends the Crazy Train. [YouTube via Wonkette Operative "Smashaduck"]
As for the video - it has been marked as "private," and cannot be viewed by the general public.
McCain reports that after getting his attorney involved, the "lowlife" who pirated the video has pulled it from his Youtube channel and apologized to Bachmann:
I want to apologize for misusing Stacey Robert McCain’s original video . . . I was angry so I decided to take Mrs. Bachmann’s line out of context to make her seem more overtly racist in light of her recent signing of that Iowa marriage pledge that said black children were better off under slavery than in Obama’s America. Whether or not I dislike Michele Bachmann, it wasn’t right to deliver a dishonest blow like that. I wanted to apologize to Mr. McCain and all of you directly. . . .
I have removed the video from my Youtube channel.
McCain writes that his attorney is considering what other action needs to be taken against the left wing blogger:
This “On Knees” blogger’s claim that his misleading distortion of Bachmann’s speech was retaliation for her having signed the Iowa marriage pledge is rather interesting in terms of demonstrating malice. But Bachmann’s potential claim for libelous defamation is irrelevant to my potential claim of copyright infringement in having my video pirated for such a purpose.
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