Politico runs interference for Scott Brown

by Eric Boehlert

Politico's Ben Smith seemed to go out of his way to create a false equivalency with his recent report on the Mass. special election:

Headline:

Massachusetts gets ugly

Lede:

Given the stakes and the growing possibility of a historic upset, the two campaigns closed with fervor. Coakley’s backers accused Brown of indulging a crude, violent remark by a supporter, while Brown blasted Coakley with claims that she had misused the legacy of Martin Luther King on a day that brought the candidates into the same room for the last time for a sedate breakfast honoring the memory of the slain civil rights icon.

See, both sides were getting ugly, according to Smith. But was that really true? According to Smith's reporting, the claim that Democratic Martha Coakley's campaign had become "ugly," was the suggestion by her opponent that she inappropriately campaigned at an MLK event.

Is that "ugly"? Doesn't really seem that way to me. And yes, that's the only example Smith included to document how the Coakley campaign had become "ugly." So we'd say that's pretty thin stuff.

As for Republican Brown? Behold [emphasis added]:

[He's accused of] smiling and encouraging a supporter’s entreaty to “shove a curling iron up [Coakley’s] butt.” A video shows Brown smiling, nodding, and saying, “We can do it,” immediately after his supporter shouted the words at a West Springfield event.

Now that sounds kinda of ugly. (Brown's rep claimed the candidate didn't hear the vulgar remark.) But according to Smith's telling, both sides on Mass. campaign were getting ugly, even though Smith only provided evidence of the Republican doing so.

UPDATED: Politico conducted an "exclusive" poll on the Mass. race with InsiderAdvantage, which uncovered horrible news for Coakley. News that InsiderAdvantage chief Matt Towery seemed eager to tout in Politico:

"I actually think the bottom is falling out," said InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery, referring to Coakley's fall in the polls over the last ten days. "I think that this candidate is in free fall. Clearly this race is imploding for her."

And who is Matt Towery? He's "a former aide to Newt Gingrich." An interesting choice in polling partner for Politico, to say the least.