Proof (did you need any?) Investigative Journalism is Dead

A YouTube user named NHLiberty4Paul created an account on January 4th and loaded a single video that mocked Jon Huntsman for adopting a Chinese daughter. The next day, Jon Huntsman's daughters tweeted about the video, and two days later Jon Huntsman denounced Paul for the video, saying Paul should disavow it.


Then nearly every newspaper and TV station ran with the story.


The trouble is that no one seems to have mentioned that this video is the only thing uploaded by NHLiberty4Paul (doing so would render the story pointless). Nor did they research that one of the first referrals to the video came from Jon2012.com.


BuzzFeed.com was the first place to embed the video, but yesterday the Editor-in-Chief spoke against the idea that NHLiberty4Paul is a Paul supporter. He tweeted that Paul's camp: "thinks (not unreasonably) that offensive video was a set-up."


The lesson? If you want to manipulate the press, go ahead and create a racially charged video under an anonymous name. They won't investigate the source; they'll just be happy to cover something sensational.


Update: This sums up the situation well. I'm not too heated about the particulars, but the fact that the media gets away with such sloppy work upsets me. It does collective damage to our national discourse.

Update #2: Rachel Maddow also floats the idea that Huntsman is behind the video, saying, among other things, that Huntsman brought up the video at every place he spoke this past week in New Hampshire.