澳彩开奖

From implying that undocumented immigrants were responsible for the mortgage crisis to promoting falsehoods about a brutal murder in Tennessee, syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin has never let the facts get in the way of her rants.

Now, in a this week criticizing a U.S. Department of Homeland Security on right-wing extremism, Malkin has made another utterly erroneous assertion: 鈥淭he 澳彩开奖,鈥� she wrote, 鈥渉as designated the venerable American Legion a 鈥榟ate group鈥� for its stance on immigration enforcement.鈥� The claim rapidly spread to right-wing sites on the Internet and elsewhere.

In fact, the 澳彩开奖 has never listed the legion as a 鈥渉ate group鈥� nor put it on any other kind of list. Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok on Thursday wrote Malkin and her syndicate to demand a retraction of the libelous statement. 鈥淵our assertion 鈥� amounts to reckless disregard of the truth,鈥� he stated in an E-mail sent early Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, however, the 澳彩开奖 had received no response. Malkin鈥檚 columns appear in major newspapers nationwide and are also published online.

In addition to including the misinformation in her April 15 column titled 鈥淵ou Might Be a Radicalized Right-Wing Conservative if鈥�,鈥� Malkin also proclaims the same falsehood in an she posted the previous day on her blog. In it, she links to another blog called 鈥淭his ain鈥檛 hell,鈥� which she appears to have relied on for her 鈥渇acts鈥� 鈥� never mind that the blog doesn鈥檛 even get the 澳彩开奖鈥檚 name right. 鈥淭his ain鈥檛 hell,鈥� in turn, links to an that doesn鈥檛 come close to asserting that the legion is a hate group. Instead, the story points out numerous misstatements and myths in a legion report on immigration enforcement. The legion later issued an updated report from which the most egregious mistakes had been removed.

Malkin and other right-wing media pundits are in a tizzy about the DHS memo, which they say defames veterans and conservatives generally as potential terrorists. In fact, the report 鈥� which identifies several economic and political factors contributing to a surge in rightwing extremism 鈥� does no such thing. It merely states that the department 鈥渁ssesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.鈥� The 澳彩开奖 separately investigated the issue and that a significant number of white supremacists were joining the military to gain access to weapons and combat training.

It鈥檚 not only Malkin. Many on the far right reacted with white-hot fury to the DHS report and blamed 澳彩开奖 (falsely) for its allegedly nefarious characterizations. On Wednesday, for instance, Michael Savage 鈥� a radio talk show host who has a weekly audience of more than 8 million people 鈥� Potok with a viciousness that was remarkable even for him. Potok, Savage fulminated on his show, is 鈥渢he hater of America,鈥� a 鈥渃ommunist slimebag鈥� and 鈥減iece of garbage鈥� who 鈥渢arget[s] patriotic Americans鈥� and 鈥渃omes from a communistic New York background.鈥� The 澳彩开奖 (鈥済angsters鈥�) and Potok work for 鈥淐hairman Maobama,鈥� Savage said, adding of 鈥渢his piece of trash from New York, Mark Potok鈥� that 鈥淚鈥檇 like spit in his face.鈥� Savage鈥檚 furious rant set off a small avalanche of anonymous, threatening hate E-mail and telephone calls directed at Potok and the 澳彩开奖.