Yesterday the NY Times took note of a recent trend on the left: Making stuff up or what the left likes to call "misinformation." Of course this being the NY Times they mention several times that it's still the right that generates the most misinformation. Still, the main thrust here is that in the left has been on a misinformation bender lately.

Several elected officials, along with a top political aide for the billionaire Reid Hoffman, recently suggested, without proof, that former President Donald J. Trump may have staged an attempt to assassinate him in July.

Mark Hamill, an actor and advocate for Democratic causes with more than five million followers on X, criticized a conservative policy proposal by railing against ideas that were not part of the document.

And last month, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign misleadingly suggested, in posts viewed millions of times, that Mr. Trump was confused about his whereabouts during a campaign stop. Her followers seized on the posts to claim that Mr. Trump was suffering from cognitive decline.

People do make mistakes, but I don't believe for a moment that the Harris camp claim about Trump being confused was an innocent mistake. They knew this was a lie when they posted it and just didn't care. After months of lying about Joe Biden's condition, they saw a chance to (dishonestly) flip the tables and took it.

Trump: Would that be okay, North Carolina?

(He is in Pennsylvania) pic.twitter.com/TcymR609Rg

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 17, 2024

But the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania spawned the most conspiracy talk on the left. Naturally, MSNBC and Joy Reid were at the forefront.

Secret Service agents, some popular influencers on X and Threads have claimed, were in on the plan. The blood from the bullet that hit Mr. Trump’s ear was actually ketchup, others theorized. Never mind that there was no evidence behind these claims...

Joy Reid, a host on MSNBC with more than 340,000 followers on Threads, raised questions about Mr. Trump’s injury from the shooting, doubts that some of her followers interpreted, when his medical details were not released, as implying a cover-up. Majid M. Padellan, who is known as “Brooklyn Dad Defiant” on X and has more than 1.3 million followers, amplified such suspicions by offering his own doubts about Mr. Trump’s injury. (The F.B.I. later said a bullet had struck Mr. Trump.)

Then of course there was the "joke" about JD Vance which the left celebrated, especially when it was being spread by Tim Walz.

The most misleading part of the NY Times' article is the suggestion any of this stuff is new. Left-wing misinformation has been having a moment for the last 40 years and before there was talk radio and later bloggers they mostly got away with it. Left-wing newspaper writers, editors and TV talking heads pretended not to notice most of it, especially in an election year. 

At least the NY Times made an effort to notice the trend which is more than you can say for most of the other left-leaning outlets who are happily pushing the pro-Harris agenda right now. It's not much, but it's something.