Breitbart uses satire website to smear Krugman with false bankruptcy report

Breitbart.com's Big Journalism website on Monday fell for a fake report on a satire website which claimed that Nobel Price-winning economist had filed for bankruptcy.

Business Insider reported that Big Journalism's Larry O'Connor ran with the satirical report from The Daily Currant in an effort to smear Krugman.

Although Breitbart.com deleted the story -- without posting an explanation -- a copy preserved by Media Matters did not indicate that O'Connor had attempted to verify the report.

"Apparently this Keynsian [sic] thing doesn't really work on the micro level," the Breitbart columnist snarked.

In a tweet, O'Connor blamed a March 7 report by The Boston Globe's website, which linked to a report in Austria's Format website that cited the satirical Daily Currant.

By Monday, the Format report has been updated to note that the source was a satirical website and that "the truth of the message accordingly low," but the Globe's report had not been corrected by the time of publication.

Krugman took to his New York Times blog on Monday to explain that he had been "Breaitbarted" and reminded readers that Breitbart.com had also recently published a false story linking Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to the non-existent group "Friends of Hamas."

"I wanted to wait and see which right-wing media outlets would fall for the hoax," Krugman wrote. "And Breitbart.com came through!"

"Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go give a lavishly paid speech to Friends of Hamas," he added.

Breitbart.com recently blastedThe Washington Post for falling for a satirical Daily Currant report which claimed that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had accepted a job with Al Jazeera.

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