Romney Rumor: Ryan Calls Romney "The Stench"

Okay, Rick and Michael have already pretty well covered this (that’s what I get for going out to lunch) but this has to get in the Romney Rumors.

When Roger Simon wrote in Politico Wednesday that Paul Ryan’s new nickname for Mitt Romney is “Stench,” a number of news outlets — from MSNBC to Mediaite — took it seriously.

Simon told BuzzFeed: “Some people always don’t get something, but I figured describing PowerPoint as having been invented to euthanize cattle would make the satire clear. I guess people hate PowerPoint more than I thought.”

As Buzzfeed points out, the list of people who fell for it is long and extinguished distinguished:

• Lawrence O’Donnell
• Daily Kos
• Tommy Christopher at Mediaite (who’s already banned me for having caught him making a fool of himself once too often; apparently that doesn’t mean he learned a lesson.)
• Comedy Central
• NewsOne
• Gawker
• Paul Krugman

I think I’m going to create an official Sheep Award for people who fall for these things.