He thought he was clever, too, which would make this ever the more sweet. David Shuster of MSNBC was filling in for Tucker Carlson when he decided to play a grotesque game of “Gotcha” with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in order to make a political point.

SHUSTER: Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent of course a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last soldier from your district who was killed in Iraq?

MARSHA BLACKBURN: The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq from my district? I do not know.

SHUSTER: OK, his name was Jeremy Bohannon. He was killed August the ninth, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?

BLACKBURN: You know, I do not know why I did not know the name. We make contact with the families that are in our district, and when you have a major military post you are very sensitive to this and sensitive to working with those families and that is something that my staff and I do daily. Our district director is a gentleman who has served in the U.S. Army and currently serves in the National Guard, and we do everything that we possibly can do to assist those families. We are very appreciative of the sacrifice –

SHUSTER: Well, you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man, he was 18 years old who was killed, yet you can say chapter and verse what goes on with the New York Times and MoveOn.org

Well, now, this has turned up:

It now turns out that Army Private Jeremy Bohannon had not, contrary to Shuster’s claim, lived in Rep. Blackburn’s congressional district. As blogger Conservative Belle brought to NB’s attention, and as she has written about at her site, Private Bohannon lived in Bon Acqua, TN. Checking his nine-digit zip code reveals that he in fact lived in Tennessee District 8, represented by John Tanner, a Democrat.

I have now spoken with an aide in Rep. Blackburn’s office, who confirmed that Pvt. Bohannon had not lived in the congresswoman’s district.

Mr. Shuster, if you intend to criticize and speak about public trust, at least get your facts straight.

UPDATE:

Hot Air commentator Conblog_Nh wrote Shuster, and he apparently responded:

I respect your point of view… But if you are truly an “editor,” as you say, I’m sure you will understand that this segment was about the priorities of Representative Blackburn. What do you think it says when any lawmaker, regardless of their party, knows more about a newspaper ad than about their constituents serving and dying in Iraq?

In other words, he considers it Fake, But Accurate. The facts he presents are actually incorrect, but he feels he made a grander political point. Shuster, thing is, when you report false facts, people don’t want to hear your lectures on public trust. You have no podium from which to preach, metaphorically speaking. The public trusts you to report correct facts. When you violate that trust, you’ve lost your ability to lecture somebody else on the topic.