The Narrative Trumps The Facts - Again

One of the big news stories of the last week revolved around people shouting "Kill Him" when Sarah Palin referenced Barack Obama. But, as it turns out, the story is a total fabrication. No one, aside from the pathetic little reporter who invented it claims to have heard anything of the sort.

News organizations including ABC, The Associated Press, The Washington Monthly and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann reported the claim, with most attributing the allegations to the Times-Tribune story.

But of course, that didn't prevent the mainstream media from running with the story.

The story gained legs because the media has been creating a narrative about Sarah Palin stirring hatred at her rallies. This isn't the first time that the media preferred narrative to facts.

As happened in the Duke lacrosse team rape case, the media was seduced by a narrative that conformed to their ideology. As Newsweek's Evan Thomas apologetically phrased it:

"It was about race. Nifong's motivations clearly were rooted in his need to win black votes. There were tensions between town and gown, that part was true. The narrative was properly about race, sex and class... We went a beat too fast in assuming that a rape took place... We just got the facts wrong. The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong."

Or, I suppose, the media could once again argue that the story was "fake but accurate."