Friends Of Hamas

Republicans complained about Chuck Hagel, Obama's pick for Defense Secretary, and challenged him to explain the money he was once paid by an organization named Friends of Hamas. But there's a problem: "Friends of Hamas" doesn't really exist. It turns out to a joke privately uttered by Dan Friedman, leaked to and laundered as weasel-worded reality by Breitbart's Ben Shapiro, and ultimately repeated by top Republicans in an effort to nix Hagel's nomination.

"If anyone didn’t know already," Friedman wrote, "Partisan agendas, Internet reporting and old-fashioned carelessness can move complete crocks fast. If you see a story on Hagel addressing the Junior League of Hezbollah, that’s fake too."

This being the internet, it took but hours for Friends of Hamas to become a real thing. [via Max Read hat-by ⇝ Matt Langer]

• [Michael D]

  We really need some sort of intelligence filter on who can run for office. It a national shame, the type of people we elect. The Dems aren’t any better, either: remember Rep. Hank Johnson who was afraid that putting more military personnel on Guam would cause the island to tip over?

  • [Boundegar]

    If you look back several years, you can find one example of a Democrat saying something really stupid.  Therefore, “both sides do it equally.”

    • [Michael D]

      Aside from the fact that I didn’t claim equality, Mr. Strawdog, do you really think that there’s only one Democratic Party example?

      • [C W]

        If you’re using false equivalencies to combat the initial claim of false equivalency:

        The point
        _
        You

        (None of this is a defense of “the Dems”.)

      • [david pawlyk]

        “The Dems aren’t any better, either”

        So, the Dems are equal or worse.

        • [Michael D]

          I would, in fact, argue that the group of Democratic voters who re-elected O’Busha  after one term of seeing exactly who he was, are, in deed dumber than Republicans. That’s still not “equal” however.

        • [C W]

          “O’Busha”

          Don’t do this if you want people to take you seriously. Not tone trolling, it just makes everything you say look childish. There are plenty of ways to discuss Centrist/”pragmatic” Dems without resorting to “AmeriKKKa” cutesy lingo.

        • [Jamie Norwood]

          To be fair, a lot of people would have voted against Bush if the alternative hadn’t been every last Republican that ran.

      • [wysinwyg]

         Yeah, you pretty clearly did.  We can still read your comment.

• [moop2000]

  I do love that website design, glorious!

• [blearghhh]

  And of course since the “Hagel took money from Friends of Hamas / Person connected to Obama took money from Hamas / Obama is funded by terrorists” meme is much more compelling (to some people) than “Oh, it didn’t actually happen…” it’ll be the one that is remembered a year from now.

• [Brainspore]

  The secret is to always add a question mark at the end of any outrageous accusation. i.e. “SECRET SIMIAN? SOURCES REFUSE TO COMMENT ON QUESTIONS OF BEN SHAPIRO’S APE ANCESTRY.”

• [Chris Hogan]

  Good to see Breitbart News keeping alive their late namesake’s dedication to well-researched, hard-hitting investigative journalism. Not for them lazy smears and yellow hackery. It is only a shame that the sainted Andrew isn’t here to cheer them on.

  Correction: I meant the opposite of all that. Oops.

• [C W]

  Breitbart’s readers believe it all, repeat it sincerely, nothing new since he was alive. Nice to see the Weekend at Bernie’s operation carrying on as planned.

  • [Shane Simmons]

    I left a comment there once, have been banned a couple of times, and have found it’s impossible to get off of their mailing list.  

    The cognitive dissonance is amazing, any time I check it.  I have literally checked the front-page and seen stories where they vilify the vulgarity of a liberal, and another glorifying Adam Corolla, or stories where commenters rail on Obama for sticking his nose in foreign affairs, while blasting him for not “supporting Israel”.

    EDIT: And of course there’s one recent story talking about how Obamacare is causing California to redefine what a doctor is…and the photo they picked was all minorities…and the author was a white doctor…

    • [Jorgen Fleisterman]

      The comments from the Breitbart believers on that article are comic gold, especially after the comments started rolling in about the whole thing being made up. Some of them doubled-down and only more fiercely defended Shapiro’s reporting. “He cited three sources!”

• [quietstorms]

  I can’t wait for the ‘Friends of Ham’ commercial where Marianne Ginther admits she fornicated with a pig.

• [Shane Simmons]

  Ah, yes, Breitbart: where if it’s outrageous and about a liberal, it must be true, and being forced to pay taxes for big government is tyranny, unless a “true conservative” does it, or unless it’s something Israel has demanded the United States do for them.

• [Matthew Petty]

  No smoke without fire

  • [C W]

    A phrase commonly used by arsonists, I suppose.

• [SomeGuyNamedMark]

  He failed the Israel litmus test it seems.

  More importantly, I’m stealing that puppy swimming gif.

• [Jamie Kelly]

  Can I say how much I love that Ben Shapiro wrote a book accusing “the Left” of using fear to silence dissent? The irony, it is delicious.

  • [C W]

    Irony is mistaken, their claims are pure malicious projection.

• [Heather Cristofaro]

  Facts = gotcha journalism!

• [smut clyde]

  a joke privately uttered by Dan Friedman, leaked to and laundered as weasel-worded reality by Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro, and ultimately repeated by top Republicans in an effort to nix Hagel’s nomination.

  The Human Centipede of politics.

  • [Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard]

    The Reverse Ouroboros- a serpent pooping into its own mouth.

• [Gus Mueller]

  it seems you can be FRIENDS with Friends of Hamas: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Hamas/142925212539134

  • [B E Pratt]

     Tempting. But then I’d have to sign up with Facebook. So, no thanks!

• [cellocgw]

  Meanwhile,  BIll Maher’s challenge to The Trump remains potentially true.  (He offered, satirically, $5million US if anyone could prove Trump was not the offspring of an oran-utang.  Trump had a hissy and produced his birth certificate, but duh! it was the short form)

  • [C W]

    Bill Maher isn’t really far enough from Breitbart in rhetoric where I’d be comfortable championing him. What a doucher.