Little Green Footballs has been all over the story of Democrat Maurice Hinchey, the N.Y. congressman who claims Karl Rove planted the CBS Rathergate memos.

Confederate Yankee, a constituent in Hinchey’s district, can’t get anyone from the congressman’s office to respond to his inquiry about the remarks. The local press has buried the controversy. E-mail and contact info for the regional MSM who should be covering Hinchey’s crackpot rants here.

And while you’re sending e-mails, make sure to drop Google a line and get them to explain why LGF is not a legitimate news source, even though it has once again scooped the MSM.

Update: 5:30pm EST. Charles Johnson is coming up on MSNBC’s news show with Monica Crowley and Ron Reagan. Very impressive for MSNBC to be on the story so quickly.

Quick notes: Ron Reagan promos the story, calling it the “latest storm on the internet.” MSNBC plays the audio recording of Hinchey’s remarks.

Reagan gives credence to Hinchey’s remarks, in half-jest. Crowley: “What was this guy thinking about?!…How about CBS screwed up bigtime, Ron?”

Charles Johnson’s photo shown on screen, along with screenshots of LGF.

“I think it’s blatant fear-baiting really,” Johnson notes. Any reasonable person who sat down and tried to create Hinchey’s scenario would get a “migraine headache.”

Reagan: “Is this big in the blogosphere?” Duh. Johnson notes his traffic is two to three times his normal rate and mentions links from Lucianne.com, Freerepublic.com, and NRO.

Crowley reads comments from LGF, including this from A Ziggen:

Rove doesn’t have to scheme to make Democrats look like idiots.
They do a fine job on their own. What a pathetic creep.

Heh.

Glad to see at least one MSM outlet (even if it is a competitor) getting its finger on the blogosphere’s pulse.

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Related: Rep. Hinchey’s other claim to fame is his crusade to essentially regulate conservative talk radio out of existence via the “Media Ownership Reform Act.” Cato analysis of Hinchey’s bill here.

Carpe Bonum has a good overview of Hinchey.