Okay, a number of intrepid TPM readers have gotten to the bottom of the Coldline mystery, noted in the earlier post. (Actually, what am I thinking? No one in his right mind in DC wants to offend the newsgods at the Hotline. They can make buzz or break buzz with a stern look. I just imagine them sitting in some smokey nightclub, with 
fancy suits and pinky rings, telling me “All I need is your respect and none of this ugliness has to happen.”)
Anyway, here’s what seems to have transpired. As we speculated in the last post, the story of the Georgia state legislators objecting to the musical South Pacific because it “justifies intermarriage of different races” is true. It really did happen. Only it didn’t happen yesterday. It happened fifty years ago yesterday.
Apparently the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, the paper that ran the item the Hotline picked up, often runs fifty-years-ago-today filler-items. Here’s one from last week, for instance. Only this time they forgot to add the “Fifty Years Ago Today” moniker and it ran with the appearance of a normal news item. “Georgia Senators Attack ‘South Pacific’ Themes”
Apparently, the folks at the Hotline caught wind of it and, not surprisingly, thought it was a new story.
Thanks to TPM readers TFW and JS for some above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty sleuthing.
