Mr. Smith goes fishing

Politico runs a headline: "Condemning mosque, Gingrich echoed Mussolini." And the two quotes sure look alike. But as you read on, you notice a telltale sign: They say that the quote "is frequently attributed to Il Duce," which is a euphemism for "we don't have a source for that."

I call fabrication. The quote gets five ghits, none of them books. To put that into context, earlier this evening, I googled a quote attributed to St. Sixtus I, a second-century Pope. How many hits, do you suppose? 128. Of course, that doesn't prove that Sixtus said it, and a more credible number of Ghits wouldn't prove Mussolini said it. But that isn't the point. The lack of hits casts a pall over Ben's claim that it's widely attributed to Mussolini, and leaves as dubious any claim that it's real. Google is not the oracle of all knowledge, but if it can find 128 hits for a quote that's nearly two millennia old and in latin, what are the odds it can't find even six hits for a legitimate quote from a major historical figure, in a widely-spoken language, that can't be more than a century old, and is supposedly "frequently attributed"?

The story shouldn't have been filed in the first place, but if it was going to be, the headline should have read: "Gingrich attack vaguely resembles quote attributed to Mussolini." Or, if they were to be honest about it—"We hope you'll swallow this."