THE ANIMAL LOVER

Cass Sunstein

Obscure office accused of conspiring to ban hunting, zoos, meat.

When President Obama announced he would appoint prolific author and Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein to the position of “regulatory czar,” it added a dose of celebrity to the usually dull office. However, Sunstein’s Senate confirmation was halted when Republican Sen. John Cornyn decided to place a “hold” on the professor. The grounds? The Texan was unconvinced that Sunstein wouldn’t push a radical animal-rights agenda, “specifically the fact that he wants to establish legal 'rights' for livestock, wildlife, and pets, which would enable animals to file lawsuits in American courts," as Cornyn’s rep told Fox News. His concerns stemmed from Sustein’s 2007 Harvard speech, in which he advocated restricting animal testing for cosmetics, limiting hunting for sport, and encouraging the public to eat less meat. Sunstein's position wouldn't enable him to do much on this front even if he wanted to and he was referring to policy issues at the margins rather than an outright ban on these activities, but the conservative press ran wild with phony doomsday scenarios. Glenn Beck invited a food and tobacco lobbyist on his show who claimed Sunstein's appointment would "spell the end of animal agriculture, retail sales of meat and dairy foods, hunting and fishing, biomedical research, pet ownership, zoos and aquariums, traveling circuses, and countless other things Americans take for granted."

Photo: UPI Photo / Landov

TRUTHERS

Alex Jones Enters Mainstream via Fox

“9/11 was an inside job.”

Rocky Mountain News

On March 18, the weekly, hourlong Fox News Internet show Freedom Watch entered into an extraordinary collaboration: broadcasting an interview with Alex Jones. It was then that Jones, grandfather and ringleader of the "9/11 Truth" movement, was put front and center in the mainstream media. 9/11 Truthers (911Truth.org)—those who believed that the 9/11 attacks were not the act of terrorists, but instead were constructed by the government as a means to implement unpopular policies—have long been associated with the likes of Area 51 and Elvis theorists. Times change. Appearing on Fox, Jones presented his theory that, “the banks had engineered the financial collapse in order to establish a global government that would collect carbon taxes to fuel its evil designs.” The show’s host, Judge Andrew Napolitano, merely said, “I appreciate what you’re exposing.” Jones is the biggest proponent of the “controlled-demolition theory,” which asserts that the Twin Towers collapsed not because of burning fuel, but because of pre-set bombs—a theory that is, however, directly contradicted by the 10,000-page investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

SHE’S BACK!

The Return of Betsy McCaughey

Health-care writer spreads euthanasia rumors.

TPM Muckraker

Between 1993 and 1994, with two Wall Street Journal op-eds and a five-page article in the The New Republic titled “No Exit,” some say that Betsy McCaughey single-handedly took out Bill Clinton's health-care plan. The article, which won the National Magazine Award, became the rallying point for opposition to Clinton's doomed bill. The New Republic recanted the article in 2006, with its new editor issuing an official apology. Now McCaughey is back, sinking her teeth (or pen) into ObamaCare, which she claims will promote physician-assisted suicide. The outrageous claim was derived from a very creative interpretation of a provision requiring Medicare to cover seniors who voluntarily request a consultation on "the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice.” But the meme made its way through conservative media and garnered mainstream coverage before being thoroughly debunked.

Photo: Robert Pitts / Landov

The Conspiracy Boom

Inset: Epsilon / Getty Images

Nearly 58% of the GOP doubts Obama was born in the U.S., but how does that compare to FEMA concentration camps and national bans on eating meat? The Daily Beast presents the kookiest claims in politics.

HISTORY

Early Conspiracies

"Birthers" part of long line of far-out theorists.

The Daily Beast

George Washington was accused of conspiring with the Brits during the Revolutionary War. John Adams was said to desire re-establishing the crown. Thomas Jefferson was called out for wanting to ban Christianity. Things have gotten much better since those days, according to historian R.B. Bernstein: “Politicians complain about the abuse they get today, but if they were teleported back to the Founding Fathers’ era, they would be screaming for their mothers in a New York minute.” The accusations stretched past the Revolutionary Era. See the case of Mary Todd Lincoln, who was accused of spying for the Confederacy. Throughout American history, there's been a simple rule: Let no good—or bad—president go unbesmirched.

Photo: AP Photo

'WHITEY'

Michelle Obama

Former intelligence official starts racist-tape rumor.

Harper's Magazine

Michelle Obama. On Tape. With Louis Farrakhan. Ranting about "Whitey." One could not imagine a more perfect scenario for taking down the nascent Barack Obama campaign in June 2007. The only problem was that it was imagined, by former intelligence officer Larry Johnson, who reported that a "STUNNING" video existed. It was all third-hand—Johnson wrote, "I have heard from five separate sources who have spoken directly with people who have seen the tape"—and the tape never surfaced. No friend of the left wing, blogger Michelle Malkin wrote that Johnson was "not to be trusted.” The story caught fire, but the tape is still M.I.A.

Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

FEMA CAMPS

Glenn Beck

Can’t debunk them, decides U.S. is heading for totalitarianism.

Huffington Post

Known for his apocalyptic views, moral outrage, and dramatic flair, Glenn Beck, the early-evening host on the Fox News Channel, draws 2.3 million viewers a night. On March 2, Beck interrupted a discussion on Russia and Iran to suggest that there was something suspicious about the Federal Emergency Management Agency camps, declaring that he could not debunk the myths that the camps may be some sort of detention centers or concentration camps. However, due to the media frenzy that ensued, with many blaming him for inspiring other conspiracy theories, Beck ended up having to defend his position not only on The O’Reilly Factor, where he insisted he never said that FEMA was creating concentration camps, but also in a special on Fox in which he sought to debunk the rumor on air. On the two-part segment, he was able to show that the “death camp” shown in a video from 1995 was actually a maintenance facility for Amtrak trains in Indiana, and that the supposed aerial shot of a concentration camp in Wyoming was actually a labor camp in North Korea.

Photo: Ed Hille, Philadelphia Inquirer, MCT / Newscom