MRC's Dan Gainor forwarded this embarrassing story from Jim Romenesko on Wisconsin: Madison's leftist newspaper the Capital Times apologized Saturday after associate editor John Nichols wrote up a story based on a on a prank anti-Paul Ryan press release. In this fictional scenario, Ryan and other Wisconsin Republicans supposedly were pressuring the Smithsonian to remove posters from last year’s anti-Scott Walker protests at the state Capitol from its archives.
In the release and Capital Times story, Ryan was quoted as saying, “Look, you can’t be displaying and archiving art that celebrates protests that were heavily aimed at Republicans, and then expect that Republicans are going to smile nicely and sit down and try and work with the Smithsonian.” The prankster was a local radical, "labor cartoonist" Mike Konopacki, a CapTimes freelancer:
In its apology the Times confessed:
The story was based on a news release that purportedly came from [Republican Rep. Steve] Nass’ office, but was in fact fabricated by Madison labor cartoonist Mike Konopacki. He has drawn editorial cartoons for The Capital Times for many years on a freelance basis and he sent the fake release to a staff member who then forwarded it to Associate Editor John Nichols, who wrote the story.
Nichols, a radical leftist who's a favorite of PBS omnipresence Bill Moyers, wrote a book and demanded in a Moyers show that Bush be impeached for incompetence. So Impeach John Nichols!
