Chalk another one up the “liberal” media acting not-so-liberal … and it’s a two-fer since Obama’s “free pass” in the media clearly disappeared as the reporters swooned over a scandal over, get this, the fact that the Canadian government now admits they “may have misrepresented the Obama advisor.” (wmv file)

The major benefactor in all this was of course Sen. Clinton whose stumbling campaign managed to get back on its two feet for a few days.

Give the media a D- for follow-through as they chose to run like lemmings from sensationalist smear to sensationalist smear regarding the Obama advisor’s comments to the Canadian embassy in Chicago. One of the basic facts that was rarely (if ever) reported is that the Canadian government is currently led by the conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper who, like Australia’s conservative PM, apparently has no problem trying to interfere in American politics.

Gee, why would conservative partisans (no matter the country) want to poke their fingers in the eyes of liberals? Hmm…

Now, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that the Canadian Embassy admits they “may have misrepresented the Obama advisor.”

MattW at MyDD explains what launched this silliness by describing the CBC report:

This [CBC news] piece details the sordid affair, that begins not with Obama contacting Canada, but nervous Canadians contacting the campaigns. [Obama economic advisor and Univ. of Chicago professor] Austan Goolsbee agreed to accept an invitation from Canadians, who pressed him for answers about protectionist sentiments emerging in the US Presidential election. He tried to reassure them that Obama did not want to do away with the agreement, but wanted to add labor and environmental protections.

Recall that the original row between Obama and Clinton began with Obama pointing out that Sen. Clinton supported NAFTA and her husband (who’s White House record she tries to claim as her own, but only the good bits) considered it a gem of his Administration.

Both Obama and Clinton have said in this campaign season that they want to refine the agreement to bolster labor and environmental standards within the pact — a reasonable position to improve the current treaty.

The non-flap flap came about after Obama advisor Goolsbee sat down with Canadian embassy officials. Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press then had a print story claiming Canadian officials saying Goolsbee was contradicating Obama’s refrains based on a Maple Leaf memo she “obtained“. (Ms. Pickler is married to a Fox News cameraman, BTW. Normally that wouldn’t mean boo but Ms. Pickler has a history of taking smears against Dems and running with them as well as uncritically using info provided by conservative-provided info near-verbatim. Sen. Obama has said he will not visit Fox studios after the network repeatedly aired lies about his grade school years while he and his mother were living in Indonesia.)

Sen. Obama didn’t yet know that Mr. Goolsbee had informally talked with the Canadians so he denied the gist of Pickler’s report.

Then Sen. Clinton picked up on the broohaha and the press lapped it up like so many kittens at their milk bowl.

And now Canada’s own public broadcasting channel has debunked the entire dang thing….

Go read the rest of MattW’s piece detailing the timeline of the infopimped flimflam and recapping the CBC’s report popping that balloon full of so much hot air.

Congratulations White House press corps wannabes, for better or worse you’re well on your way to proving yourselves to be every bit the “lazy stenographer” stereotype as the current crop.