ABC's Fake Republican Memo Given New Life by Mark Shields

Appearing on Newshour With Jim Lehrer tonight (transcript won't be available for 24 hours), columnist Mark shields spoke of the infamous Terri Schiavo Talking Points Memo as an accepted artifact, and used it too punctuate a point during discussion with Lehrer and David Brooks of the New York Times. Even Lehrer and Brooks seemed taken aback and Shields explained that the memo was real because the Republican leadership "hasn't denied it".

Nonsense. Powerline has done at least a good enough job of debunking the memo to stop a responsible commentator from citing it. Powerline has documented denials by Republicans, and tellingly, back-pedaling by ABC. ABC now says that they never meant to report that the memo was an official document produced by the Republicans, but only a memo that was distributed to them. Of course the only people who can be confirmed to have had possession of the memo are the Democratic staffers who gave it to ABC.