The axis of spin

A fabricated news story is like iodine working through the bloodstream -- it reveals so much about where it travels. Blogger Josh Marshall has been tracking the sequence of events since a "news" story appeared on Pravda Fox "News" Channel on Friday. It reported supposed remarks by John Kerry to a post-debate rally on Thursday night in which Kerry gloried in the state of his nails. The story was completely made up. But the retraction came too late for Mark Steyn, who is peddling the manicure spin in the Sunday Telegraph:

Perhaps [Kerry's] hand movements were just to show off the manicure he'd had during the day, while Bush was out putting his arms round Florida's hurricane victims.

That minus 5 hours deadline pressure for the US based Telegraph writers is so unfair; so little time to check up on which stories are actually true. But we give Steyn some points for the clause "Speaking as a third-rate hack..."