This is a small thing, but completely emblematic of the moral vacuity of the major media these days, especially when it comes to the Democratic Presidential candidates. Chuck Todd of the National Journal lies on broadcast television and his buddies around the table let him get away with it.

MR. TODD: Well, building off of Ron’s point, you know, this whole growth of the Internet for Dean support, it was exponential in the summer and in the fall, and you know what? It’s really slowed. This week, you know, they throw up these fund-raising goals and they do it as a bat. It’s like the old Red Cross goals where you see the progress as you go. They had the Sweep The Seven. On February 3, 700,000, Sweep The Seven. You know what? It was one of their slowest fund-raising bats we’d seen. [Ed: Huh? By what metric? I've seen smaller, slower bats.] They didn’t allow the goal by midnight Friday to even show up. [Ed: Lie!] They changed it. [Ed: Oo. An itty-bitty fact out of context!] You know, they realized something wasn’t working [Ed: Lie.], they changed it to say, “Thank you, Tom Harkin” and they made it to about 800,000.

False. False. False. At 7 minutes past midnight on Friday Mathew Gross posted the following on BFA:

On Tuesday, we put up the bat and asked you to raise $700,000 to help us win the February 3rd states that are coming rapidly right after Iowa and New Hampshire. And as of midnight, you met that goal-- raising $701,247 to help Dean win.

For the next 48 hours, we're extending that goal by $100,000. Show Senator Tom Harkin your gratitude for his endorsement and show the press and pundits that nothing is going to stop us from taking our country back.

Chuck Todd continued to lie after this was pointed out to him, as a reader on DailyKos noted:

Thanks for your response. Just noted the theme of the bat was changed before the original goal was allowed to expire. We'll never know if the non-Harkin bat would have made it or not. Trust me, I and others in the media respect the campaign and blog quite a bit.

But, we did know! Chuck Todd, you've joined the ranks of the lying liars. And Todd added another lie by claiming he respects the campaign. You don't lie about things you respect, Chuck Todd of National Journal.

Now, this may seem trivial, and on one level, it is. But this kind of thing happens every single day. I could spend all day only writing about media lies, mistruths, and misleading spin. It's truly appalling.

And if you know anything about weblogs, don't go read the rest of that MTP interview. They also, trying to be charitable here, demonstrated that they have no clue about weblogs or the weblog community. As someone who's been writing, reading, and using weblogs for more than five years, I am just astonished at the depth of their ignorance. Only half-snarky note to major media: I'm available for consulting if you need some help understanding this stuff. You're just embarrassing yourselves.

By the way, Chuck Todd's email address is [email protected] if you feel inclined to explain to him the difference between facts and lies.