Um, Susan, Larry?

Look. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Let's suppose there really is a tape. You've been stringing your cohorts, syncophants, and casual observers along for over two weeks now on this bombshell video that purports to show Michelle Obama railing against whitey.

You've sited multiple anonymous sources, anonymous billionaire Republicans, and confirmations based on unnamed prominent bloggers relying on second and third-hand, etc, information garnered from what sounds like a very brief Q&A session with Axelrod, and have otherwise offered up highly suspicious reason/s for the purpose of the video including unseating Obama as well as unseating McCain and that, surprise of surprises, Karl Rove and other insider Republicans are pulling the strings on this.

Well, I'm as curious as the next guy so I read the report:

FNC 06/01/2008 14:43:30: …>>> welcome back to our special coverage live coverage from puerto rico. just before the break, roger stone the republican strategist made the comment that michele obama used the phrase whitey when describing white people and michael brown says bs that is republican dirty tricks as usual. roger take it away. michael, you are in the wings. >> this has little to do with the general election and a lot to do with why hillary clinton is staying in the race. look, there is already a buzz in washington at least seven news organizations have contacted me. wanting to know how to get their hands on this tape, giving me more information than i had after i had spoken to each one of them. i now believe the tape exists and i believe a network has it. if this pans to out to be true based on michele obama’s previous comment that this is the first time she had been proud of her country which i think shows an attitude it is problematic.

>> [GERALDO SAYS THIS — IGNORE HIM] i will give you a hundred bucks if it is true. i don’t believe it is true. michael brown, you respond. >> his premise is that this is why hillary clinton is staying in hoping this bomb shell derails senator obama’s nomination effort. this is not why senator clinton is staying in the race. she is hoping that now since she has the popular vote lead that superdelegates will say she is the best to take on john mccain. that is why she is staying in the race tortion make the argument to superdelegates. to put out the allegation that there is a race between the news organization and the. >> the republicans. >> this is a republican tactic and what they do and this is what we will continue to for the next six months with us they have no answer about the war no, answer about the economy. no answer about gas prices and no answers about healthcare to they do smear, that is what they do. >> okay. michael brown, thank you. roger stone tracks you. we will see, you know, brock rock scored a major endorsement here a couple of months ago when the governor endorsed him because nobody knew barack obama here in puerto rico. the clintons had been here many, many, many times. hillary came after hurricane george in 1998 and the clintons have huge name recognition. the endorsement by the governor was a major coupe until the governor was slapped with a 19…

And so....here's the thing, Susan and Larry. I've read this several times now just to make sure I'm understanding what's being said, that I got it in the right context, and well...I can't help but point a few things out in this transcript:

this has little to do with the general election and a lot to do with why hillary clinton is staying in the race. look, there is already a buzz in washington at least seven news organizations have contacted me. wanting to know how to get their hands on this tape, giving me more information than i had after i had spoken to each one of them. i now believe the tape exists and i believe a network has it. if this pans to out to be true

I'm just checking to make sure you read what I just read and so I have to ask - where exactly does it say a network actually HAS the tape, as your banner title declares? All I saw was a lot of speculation and a couple mentions about how somebody "believes" the tape exists and how he "believes" a network has it.

Can you clarify this point? I really want to make sure I'm reading this properly and that I actually have the same report you're reading and providing to your readers since, well - gosh! How embarrassing would that be if I picked a completely different report to critique your post with that wasn't available to your readers! You know how silly that would look?

Then again, what if I didn't pick a completely different report to critique your post with and was right about what I said two paragraphs above?

You know how silly that would look?

So best wishes! I do hope you can address this in the near future and I'm absolutely sure you will. It just seems like a minor oversight on your part and it happens to the best of us.

Thanks, Larry and Susan.

(Edits below since I saw the video)

Oh! One last thing before I forget! Why did you tell your readers to just ignore what Geraldo and Michael Brown said? I would think your readers are smart enough to make up their own minds based on the observations of people other than just you, right?

Geraldo:

i will give you a hundred bucks if it is true. i don’t believe it is true.

Michael Brown:

this is a republican tactic and what they do and this is what we will continue to for the next six months with us they have no answer about the war no, answer about the economy. no answer about gas prices and no answers about healthcare to they do smear, that is what they do.

I haven't heard Brown's legitimate raising of issues addressed, not Geraldo's disbelief.

Thanks again!

(Addendum - The funny thing about this is that given how much the person in the report "believes" in the tape, it's kind of like hope, or rather, the audacity of it, I suppose. After all, as I said previously, there's a funny thing about hope.

And if ultimately, I'm forced to eat crow, then I eat crow. Like I said before, it's no big thing to me.)