I have had time to digest this, and I agree with America Blog: ABC News has risked its credibility to run a (admittedly funny) prank on their blogsite. The story, on their popular daily blog-style update “The Note”, portrays Bush making a very Jimmy Carter-esque speech about fuel conservation, which they plainly state the president will be making later in the day:

President Bush will give these remarks (or something like them) when he meets with Texas officials regarding hurricane damage at 10:50 am ET in Beaumont, TX before meeting with Louisiana officials at 1:10 pm ET in Lake Charles, LA. In between the two meetings, he will tour Texas and Louisiana hurricane damage by air.

The problem is this speech isn’t Jimmy Carter-esque, it is an altered version of a speech Carter gave in the 70s. Though a link was provided in the original speech, it makes no reference to the joke, and the only punchline is that these bastards are making fifty times what we are.

I think anyone who reads our blog (at least after the first week of Katrina) knows that we all have a pretty damn good sense of humor. And, as a prank, this is pretty genius. The problem is that it is coming from ABC News, who are allegedly a “credible” source. I’m not sure I’ve considered them that since the early 90s, to be honest, but I definitely give them no credit at this point at all. Though they did something creative, satirical, and funny, they did it at the expense of the rest of us, as this is already circulating the web via email (I got it from my neo-con friends, who believe it’s real–frightening).

So to ABC News, all I can say is thank you. Thank you for ruining the last, tattered threads of your own credibility. Thank you for finally letting the rest of the world realize that you can’t be trusted. But mostly, thanks for making Jaded Times a credible source of news. We appreciate it.

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