Spin....

Here's how one attempts to spin a disaster into something positive.

Media-circus ringmaster Andrew Breitbart, the self-styled scourge of everything liberal and politically correct, has really outdone himself this time. With the help of Fox News—and, truth be told, key members of the Obama administration—he has made the president’s minions look like clowns.

This is being done on a right wing website so it is to be expected that they will try and put as positive a gloss as possible on what was a PR nightmare for Breitbart.

The truth, of course, is that it is Breitbart who looks like a clown, which is why he has gone into hiding.

Never again will he get away with releasing one of his edited tapes and have anyone assume that it reflects what he tells us it does.

No amount of spin will make anyone - other than the truly deranged right wingers who see only what they want to see anyway - fail to recognise the considerable damage Breitbart has done to his credibility.

Not that one gets that impression from reading The Daily Beast:

For the media-savvy Breitbart, it’s an unalloyed triumph—even better than last year’s redacted videos of a fake pimp and prostitute seeking business advice from ACORN, which resulted in Congress voting to defund the community group.

He's applauding the fact that this year's lie is even more audacious than last years. But he really is missing the point. The Acorn lie wasn't revealed until long after the damage had been done. And, more importantly, until after the media had moved on.

In this case the lie was instantly revealed and also linked to the fact that this was not the first time Breitbart had been caught peddling untruths. And the media, full of genuine outrage at the fact that they fell for it, have been all over this story like a rash.

The Daily Beast can spin that any way which they want, but it's very hard to imagine that this is good news for Breitbart's credibility.

As this story was breaking I imagined that he might get away with it. But the story has simply become too big for that to happen.

Click here for Daily Beast's spin piece.

Tags: Breitbart