MSNBC Gets Duped By Parody Website, Uses Satirical Al Sharpton Quote

August 24th, 2007 11:22 AM

On Thursday, Alex Johnson wrote an article about beleaguered quarterback Michael Vick published at MSNBC.com.

In it, he quoted Rev. Al Sharpton as basically saying that the whole issue was being over-hyped due to racism stating, "If the police caught Brett Favre (a white quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) running a dolphin-fighting ring out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each other," Favre wouldn't get arrested.

Problem is that quote came from a parody website called News Groper.

Here's the entire hysterical quote reported at National Review's Media blog Friday which has subsequently been removed from the MSNBC.com story (h/t Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell of News Groper):

But at the same time, Sharpton argued that the prosecution of Vick was overkill.

"If the police caught Brett Favre (a white quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) running a dolphin-fighting ring out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each other, would they bust him? Of course not," Sharpton wrote Tuesday on his personal blog.

"They would get his autograph, commend him on his tightly spiraled forward passes, then bet on one of his dolphins."

As you can see, the link inside "Sharpton wrote Tuesday on his personal blog" is News Gropers' parody.

How delicious.