Vast Right-Wing Astroturf Conspiracy Revealed!

You might have heard either of this Rachel Maddow expose on the moneybags Republican P.R. wizards concocting the anti-health care overhaul protests, or the Think Progress report [PDF] upon which some of it was based. If so, you should read this Mary Katherine Ham deconstruction/debunking at The Weekly Standard's blog. From Ham's conclusion:

So [Bob] MacGuffie, a local [libertarian] activist in Connecticut who never volunteered for FreedomWorks wrote a memo and also wrote a blog post on a site not paid for or hosted by FreedomWorks. There's your national conspiracy, folks.

There are also quoted headlines that were never written, and a link to several media organizations that took the bait. Whole thing well worth a read.

Bonus Reason.tv link: Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks talks to Nick Gillespie about the Tea Party protests.