Ha ha ha, NBC news

I went to MSNBC today and saw a curious story about the Michael Vick... err.  Imbroglio?  Controversy?  Uh, crisis?  What is it?  As far as I know, he treated some of his fighting dogs like a young serial killer treats forest creatures and early pets.  NBC news has a fabulous report on the "divide" amongst African-American leaders; some want to reserve judgment, while others are calling for his reinstatement to the NFL (though the league hasn't done anything yet).  The story became outrageously funny, however, when star reporter A. Johnson cited the writings of Rev. Al Sharpton.  Oh yeah, take a look:

Most recently, the Rev. Al Sharpton, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, charged that a star white athlete never would have been prosecuted for the same crime.

Like Hayes, Sharpton has denounced images of dogfighting in popular black culture, and he signed a letter along with hip-hop executive Russell Simmons condemning the activity as ignorant and cruel.

But at the same time, Sharpton argued that the prosecution of Vick was overkill.

"If the police caught Brett Favre (a white quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) running a dolphin-fighting ring out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each other, would they bust him? Of course not," Sharpton wrote Tuesday on his personal blog.

"They would get his autograph, commend him on his tightly spiraled forward passes, then bet on one of his dolphins."

The only problem is, Sharpton never said any such thing. If you take a quick gander at the site they linked to, which Mr. Johnson apparently thought was real, you see that it's Newsgroper.com, which posts a bunch of stupid phony blogs for any given celebrity or politician under the sun. The funniest part is how people visit the site (when linked to by fine outlets like NBC) and comment against the purported author, thinking it's just as real as NBC News thought it was. LOL!  Look at this gem, railing against Mr. Sharpton's post:

Mr. Al Sharpton,
You must be off your nut. Michael Vick is pleading guilty because, hello...he IS guilty and he needs to burn in hades for his atrocities toward dogs. And by the way: can you post your certificate that you are truly a reverend, because let me tell you something: you act ANYTHING BUT ONE.
I am a black man from Old Hickory and you disgust me.You and Michael Vick, the lowest form of scum on the planet.

Follow the link for more hilarity, including predictable racist comments.  The blog won't remove them, obviously, because they're in the business to generate such dreck from misfits who believe these myriad spoof blogs are real, even after they've hit "submit" on their comment.  I asked MSNBC to correct or remove the story, and I'm sure many others have, as well.  Take a look while it's hot.

UPDATE!  They took the quote attributed to Sharpton out of the story.  It doesn't mean I'm going to take this blog entry down; oh no.  Outlets who will post something from the web without checking out the source him/herself need to learn a lesson.  If anyone involved with the story wants to comment, you know where to do it.  Thanks.