Right-Wing Bloggers Turn To National Enquirer To Smear Michelle Obama

Proving that when it comes to attacking the First Lady, the right-wing media adhere to no standards of common decency, conservative bloggers this week have embraced a sleazy and unsubstantiated report from the National Enquirer that raises questions about Michelle Obama's drinking habits.

Pajamas Media, Powerline, The Lonely Conservative, and Gateway Pundit are among the far-right sites that have been peddling the National Enquirer's hate story, which attacks the First Lady as a spoiled and arrogant shopaholic with expensive taste in alcohol.

London's notoriously unreliable (and Obama-hating) Daily Mail first put the National Enquirer story in play, quoting the tabloid's unnamed sources who denounced the First Lady's “out-of-control” and “disgusting” behavior. Bloggers have linked approvingly to the Daily Mail article, effectively hyping the National Enquirer's lurid brand of check-out aisle gossip.

What's telling is that unlike previously misguided attacks that centered around Michelle Obama's advocacy work to reduce childhood obesity, the vicious and oddly personal posts this week about the First Lady have nothing to do with policy. It's just the right-wing advertising its unapologetic contempt for the president's wife.