AARON BROWN NEEDS TO READ THE BLOGS:

CNN’s NewsNight with Aaron Brown led Wednesday night with attacks on the administration’s credibility, but Brown stretched his own credibility by picking up on a rumor, “a story that’s been circulating on the Web today that there was at some point a conversation between the President and a CIA consultant where the consultant directly told the President that this African uranium deal was bogus.” Brown’s raising of such an uncorroborated story befuddled CNN reporter David Ensor, who speaking slowly as he fumbled for words, told Brown: “I have no way to confirm that story and it is somewhat suspect I would say…”

I noted that “in a cursory check of a bunch of Web sites and news sources online, I could not find a reference to any such allegation. But then I’m not on the left-wing mailing lists which CNN must peruse.”

Scott Hogenson, Executive Editor of the MRC’s CNSNews.com site, is bit more adept than me at finding left-wing conspiracies on the Web and identified the source Brown was quoting as CapitolHillBlue.com. But they, it turns out, retracted their one-source story at about 6pm EDT, four hours before Brown went on the air. CapitolHillBlue.com Publisher Doug Thompson discovered that his source, one Terrance Wilkinson, who identified himself as a former CIA operative, was a fraud.

The story was here last night, before Brown’s broadcast, too. On the other hand, if you review the video, it seems pretty clear that there’s no support for the charge beyond something on an unspecified “website.” But just airing the charge caused it to reach millions (well, thousands) who wouldn’t have heard it otherwise. Will Brown say anything about it tonight?