Five days ago, for those who missed it, our esteemed Booman had a post on The Michelle Tape. There are some developments. Larry Johnson’s efforts to peddle the alleged “tape” has been exposed and debunked.

BooMan

My old friend, Larry Johnson, knows about manipulating elections from his training with the Central Intelligence Agency. He doesn’t want Obama to win the nomination for whatever reason, and he’s in full propaganda mode to do everything he can to frighten the superdelegates. He claims to have a shocking tape of Michelle Obama ranting in some anti-white diatribe. He promises to produce this tape tomorrow at 9am.

From what I understand, it is a tape of Michelle Obama criticizing the Bush administration.

How you’d write it:

    Why did Bush cut folks off medicaid?
    Why did Bush let New Orleans drown?
    Why did Bush do nothing about Jena?
    Why did Bush put us in Iraq for no reason?

How you’d say it:

    Why’d he cut folks off medicaid?
    Why’d he let New Orleans drown?
    Why’d he do nothing about Jena?
    Why’d he put us in Iraq for no reason?

How Larry Johnson wants you to hear it:

    Whitie cut folks off medicaid?
    Whitie let New Orleans drown?
    Whitie do nothing about Jena?
    Whitie put us in Iraq for no reason?

As it turned out, our BooMan, raise a glass to him, is quite a sleuth… throwing some cold water and a heap pile of doubt in Larry’s direction.

Yesterday, over at Reason Magazine – Hit & Run, David Weigel had this post in which he chronicles the time line of Larry Johnson’s lies and quotes our BooMan:

(HT: Andrew Sullivan)

Everything’s Gonna Be All White

On Monday I blogged about the rumors of a video that shows Michelle Obama making hateful comments about “whitey.” I’m now convinced that Larry Johnson, the blogger who’s done the most to make the rumors public, is spreading misinformation. At the least, he’s been unable to stick to his story.

Johnson starts getting attention for this on May 26, recounting intel from “someone in touch with a senior Republican.”

I know for a fact that Barack and Michelle Obama would like the tape of her blasting “whitey” during a rant at Jeremiah Wright’s church to never see the light of day.

On the night of May 31, Johnson fires up the speculation by promising an update by 9 a.m. on June 2. “Now I know why people who have seen the videotape say it is stunning.” The blogs start churning, and reporters fish around. On June 1, Roger Stone appears on Fox News and says he’s heard rumors about a Michelle Obama tape. Gleefully, a NoQuarter blogger completes the Mobius strip and claims Stone has given Johnson “new credence.”

A little before 8 a.m. on June 2, Johnson reveals what he learned from “five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape.”

    It features Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan. They are sitting on a panel at Jeremiah Wright’s Church when Michelle makes her intemperate remarks. Whoops!!

[.]

The bloggy frenzy increases, with a few possible “transcripts” of the speech making the rounds. Booman posts a theoretical transcript (“from what I understand”) in which Obama says “why’d he” and it sounds like she’s saying “whitey.” Blogger MyTownTalks posts part of “an e-mail with part of the alleged speech,” in which Obama says both “whitey” and “why’d he,” and rants about “the white man” who “let Katrina happen.”

Later in the day, Johnson gleefully updates:

[.]

On the morning of June 3, B-list Democratic pundit Bob Beckel goes on Fox News and speculates that “there might be a big shoe dropping on Michelle Obama tomorrow.” Later that night, after all the polls are closed, SusanUnPC posts a photo of Michelle Obama at a June 28, 2004 luncheon from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition convention in Chicago, posing alongside Louis Farrakhan’s wife. It kicks off another wave of speculation. On June 4, a blogger at “HillBuzz” posts a new explanation of what’s on the tape and claims it was actually recorded at this luncheon.

[.]

    For about 30 minutes, Michelle Obama launched into a rant about the evils of America, and how America is to blame for the problems of Africa. Michelle personally blamed President Clinton for the deaths of millions of Africans and said America is responsible for the genocide of the Tutsis and other ethnic groups. She then launched into an attack on “whitey”, and talked about solutions to black on black crime in the realm of diverting those actions onto white America.

Her rant was fueled by the crowd: they reacted strongly to what she said, so she got more passionate and enraged, and that’s when she completely loses it and says things that have made the mouths drop of everyone who’s seen this.

Louis Farrakhan isn’t there, nor is Hurricane Katrina (which happened a year after this luncheon, of course) mentioned. Nonetheless, Johnson links the post as “BREAKING NEWS from Hillbuzz.”

[.]

[.]

In his peddling of this story, Johnson has altered his description of what was in the tape. I e-mailed Johnson, asked about the holes in the HillBuzz story, and called him a liar. He e-mailed me back.

   “You and Reason in the same sentence? Now that’s funny. I don’t recall soliciting an email from you so fuck off.”

Until he comes out with a video tape that shows at least one of the many rumored “Michelle speeches,” I think that’s the last we need to hear from Larry Johnson.

::::

Weigel links to more Debunking of the Obama “Tape” Hoax

“Trying to debunk the internet rumors about Michelle Obama.–

As many of you know, there has been an ever-shifting internet rumor launched publicly by an extremely unreliable pro-Clinton blogger, Larry Johnson, that there is a video recording of Michelle Obama saying some intemperate things at Trinity United Church. The way that this story is being spread leads me to think that there is little or nothing to the rumors, which is why I haven’t posted on the issue here until now.

Until today, the rumors have been too vague to be debunked, but they have now become specific enough that the currently most prominent version of the rumor [offered by the pro-Clinton blog Hillbuzz] could potentially be determined to be false. A specific conference for the remarks has been specified: the 2004 Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Annual Conference starting on June 26, 2004.

In an attempt to get the information necessary to put this matter to bed, I drove over to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition National Headquarters, which is in the opposite corner of my Hyde-Park/Kenwood neighborhood. I spoke with Robert (Bobby) Lewis, Director of Studio Services, who apparently handles the recordings of events.

Lewis said that the recording of events from 2005 and earlier was farmed out and most or all of the existing recordings (listed on the website) had not been conveyed in-house to the National Headquarters. He said that he did not know if the organization had a recording of the 2004 conference. In response to my more specific question, he said that the one-hour Saturday broadcasts on the 2004 Annual Conference (June 26, 2004, and July 2, 2004), which are listed on the website for purchase, are not available, since they come from the earlier outsourced period.

I was very surprised when he informed me that I was the first person to have contacted them about this matter. Given the furor on the internet, I suspect that many of you are skeptical about this claim, but he really seemed unaware of the flap. He wanted to know the name of the website that had the story about the conference. And at first, he thought I was talking about a panel on which Barack, not Michelle, had spoken. In manner, he was gracious and he didn’t seem to be particularly guarded or defensive.

[.]

UPDATE: There are some anomalies in the story so far: according to the rumors, the Rainbow/Push conference was supposed to be held at Trinity United, yet schedules posted at Hillbuzz and elsewhere do not show the event as taking place at the church. Further, the schedule shows Michelle Obama as a “Special Guest,” not a speaker. Last, if it wasn’t at the church, why would the DVD have been on sale there? I remain highly skeptical that this story will amount to anything.

2d UPDATE: More on problems with this story: Does it seem at all plausible that anyone would go into a 30-plus minute racist rant during a “Woman’s Luncheon” at the Sheraton Hotel, moderated by two mainstream local TV news reporters/anchors from the Chicago ABC affiliate? Consider also that Michelle Obama was listed only as a “Special Guest,” not even listed as speaking (the Keynote Speaker for the luncheon was Jesse Jackson).

Here is the program for the luncheon:

    12:00p.m ~ 2:00p.m.
    SHERATON BALLROOM 1-7 Womans Luncheon

    M.C.’s: Cheryl Burton and Karen Jordan, ABC 7

    Keynote Speaker: Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

    Special Guests:

    Shoshana Johnson, Retired United States Military
    Michelle Obama, University of Chicago

And then somehow this supposed rant at a non-church event held at the Sheraton Hotel was for sale on the Trinity United website. Thus, I think that the most common version of the story (put forth by Hillbuzz) is almost certainly false.

(highlights added)

Those special skills on Larry Johnson’s resume had me wondering…you’d think he’d weigh the risk. This is not playing in backwoods Somalia or wherever agents, or ex-gents play.

In his glee to smear the Obamas, Larry finds fact checking to be very, very inconvenient.

Larry Johnson’s credibility is diminished and not just within this community but across the internet at some of the most prestigious websites.