A Las Vegas man claims that he concocted a bogus story about Harry Reid’s brother beating up Reid to see whether he could get right-wing media outlets and blogs to run with it. He did. All without any corroboration or even requiring the man, Larry Pfeifer, to provide his true identity.
From The Las Vegas Sun …
Larry Pfeifer, a 50-year-old former consultant in the nightclub and entertainment industry, said he fabricated the story after becoming appalled that right-wing political blogger John Hinderaker published a rumor that Reid’s injuries stemmed from an assault by a Mafia enforcer. Pfeifer said he pitched his fake story about the Reid brothers’ supposed fight to Hinderaker, author of the Power Line blog, to test whether the blogger would publish it, as well. When Hinderaker reported it and the rumor was subsequently spread by others in conservative media, Pfeifer says he began plotting to self-report it as a lie to show the lack of credibility and journalistic standards among partisan media figures.
Pfeifer said he got the idea after the rightwing media started pushing a story that Reid’s eye injury was actually punishment from mafia figures with whom he purportedly had a falling out. Eventually Pfeifer’s tale made it onto the Limbaugh Show.
In truth, this isn’t remotely surprising. There are certainly unscrupulous people across the media political spectrum. But this is fairly par for the course on the right.
