Spanish news agency EFE has apologized for its smear of Arizona gubanatorial candidate Don Goldwater. It said he wanted to hold illegal aliens in "concentration camps". Now they say [1]:

EFE Executive Vice President Emillio Sanchez said a freelance writer for the news agency inaccurately described Goldwater's plan.

"Upon further reflection, our investigation has determined that your plan to house illegal prisoners in a tent city is consistent with accepted practices for nonviolent American prisoners in your area," Sanchez said in the letter released Tuesday by Goldwater's campaign.

The letter also acknowledged that the freelance reporter never interviewed Goldwater or any of his staff for the story.

Of course, on June 23 I pointed out that that claim was simply a smear and that the characterization of the camps was coming from the reporter and not from Goldwater.

To help the reader with determining who's credible and who's not, let's take a look at who helped promulgate the smear.

* EFE, of course

* the AP rewrote the EFE story. Much more weight was given to the reporter's characterization than to the note that it was simply a characterization and not a quote. And, considering the weight of the charge, that was not enough.

* Unfortunately, Br'er Drudge posted the smear in red type, without bothering to do a little bit of research.

* All the various papers that printed the AP article, some of which have control over which AP articles they print.

* Jim Kolbe and John McCain, who tripped over themselves to condemn Goldwater

Now, we get to the small-time smearers:

* Dave Weigel at Reason Magazine with "In Your Heart, You Know He's Batshit Insane": How much of this has been hyped by the "Mexican news service"? Apparently not much; Goldwater has said the same thing before. (reason dot com/hitandrun/2006/06/in_your_heart_y_1.shtml)

* "Joe in DC" at AmericaBlog: "GOPer proposes forced labor camps for illegal immigrants": Those right wingers...they're thinking has really evolved, hasn't it? Always looking for the solution. (americablog . blogspot . com/2006/06/ goper-proposes-forced-labor-camps-for.html)

* An unnamed contributor to TruthDig hedges a bit, but doesn't bother digging for the truth. (truthdig . com/eartotheground/item/ 20060624_goldwater_jr_calls_for_forced_immigrant_labor_camps)

* AZCongressWatch reprints the article but provides little hedging or analysis. Based on its past entries the reason why is clear. (azcongresswatch . com/?p=1815)

* Buffalo Pundit offers a report subtitled "El Trabajo Libera" (translation of Arbeit macht frei) (buffalopundit . wnymedia . net/archives/3244)

* alabamian dot net uses the same phrase. (alabamian . net/blog/2006/06/gop_el_trabajo_libera.html)

* Badattitudes' hedging falls a little short: "True, Goldwater is claiming he was quoted out of context, that he was talking about work programs for convicted felons. But he's apparently expressed such sentiments more than once... ...How does this talk of the US melting pot being polluted by immigrants differ from the ideas of the Nazis?" (badattitudes . com/MT/archives/003952.html)

* And, Man Eegee printed both the original smear and the retraction, but is unapologetic. (maneegee . blogspot . com/2006/06/sugar-coating-concentration-camps.html)

You can find various other blogs discussing this - before and after - with this a search.

And, note that Goldwater's claim that illegal aliens are "polluting" the "Arizona desert" are based on things like this. Even the Los Angeles Times has noticed:

At Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, 2 1/2 million pounds of garbage [left by illegal border crossers] is scattered through broad valleys and desert arroyos every year

UPDATE: Showing his true sleazy, no-class [2] nature, John McCain is refusing to back down:

"It is critically important that we improve the security of our borders and that we treat people humanely in the process, which I don't believe Mr. Goldwater's proposal, however he characterizes it, does," McCain said in a statement.

Goldwater, the nephew of former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, advocates detaining illegal border-crossers in tent-style jails and using them to help build a wall along the state's border with Mexico. The labor would be voluntary, he said, and modeled after work programs and tent-city jails run by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

"This is not an idea that's new," Goldwater said Tuesday. "All we're doing is taking a page out of Sheriff Arpaio's book."

McCain might be supporting EFE's false charge because of a true charge made against him:

In April, Goldwater penned a letter that appeared in The Arizona Republic in which he was critical of the path of immigration reform in Washington, D.C. He asked voters to "send a strong message to President Bush, McCain and Congressmen Jeff Flake and Rick Renzi that we are not going to accept their selling (out) of America."

Days later, Goldwater issued a clarification in which he took back the "selling out" remark, especially with reference to Renzi.

Jim Kolbe is also refusing to back down. -------- [1] breitbart . com/news/2006/06/28/D8IH0FE80.html [2] azcentral . com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0628goldwater0628.html