The media misrepresenting candidate statements is nothing new, of course, but rarely is the misrepresentation quite this jaw-dropping. The Boston Globe didn’t just abandon journalistic ethics and professionalism. It murdered ethics while professionalism watched, after which point the paper buried professionalism alive.

Props to Greg Sargent of WhoRunsGov — a Washington Post operatation — for catching it, by the way. Stay tuned because he says he’ll have audio soon. But for now, here’s the interview in question:

QUESTION: “Scott, what do you think about the Tea Party movement and what they are trying to do?”

SCOTT BROWN: “I am not quite sure what you are talking about, what are they trying to do?”

QUESTION: “The anti-smaller government, sort of anti-establishment organization that is trying to take over the country.”

SCOTT BROWN: “Taking over the country. I think that is a little bit of an exaggeration.”

QUESTION: “Well, they are all over the place and they are trying to take down moderate Republicans. . .”

SCOTT BROWN: “All I know is that. . . “

QUESTION: “Are you completely unaware of that organization?”

SCOTT BROWN: “I’m not quite sure what you are referring to. But let me just say that this is a big tent campaign. I have people who are Democrats, I have people who are Independents, Republicans, young, old, liberal, conservative, moderate involved in this campaign because people are looking past the letter behind my name and they are looking at my 30 years of military service. They are looking at the fact that I have been a municipal and legislative leader with over 6000 votes, and more importantly they are looking at the stark differences between Martha and me on health care on cap and trade, on the expiring tax cuts, on the war tax, on how we treat people who are trying to kill us, on the fact that Afghanistan has a very real and vital national interest. They’re looking at those issues, and I welcome everybody’s support, because, literally, it’s me against the machine.”

Clearly Brown understands what the Tea Party movement is, he just objects to the questions posed and the way they’re posed. His first response is typical for a politician who objects to a question and tries to get the offending reporter to clarify or further indict himself.

But how did the Boston Globe report this interview? This is how:

He also claimed that he was unfamiliar with the “Tea Party movement,” when asked by a reporter. When told that different people labeled him a conservative, moderate and a liberal Republican, he responded “I’m a Scott Brown Republican.”

Actually, as Sargent points out quite wonderfully, that’s not at all what Brown claimed. He claimed he didn’t know what the reporter was talking about when referring to “what they’re trying to do” and “taking over the country”. He was offended by the reporter’s question.

This is how Democrats intend on defeating Brown in Massachusetts. Pay union members to support Coakley, flood the state with Democratic operatives, and slime Brown for saying something he never said. This little “he doesn’t know what the Tea Party movement is” narrative will be picked up by the media looking for a reason to slime him. The correction will be ignored.

Update: Wow. Even TalkingPointsMemo has defended Brown on this issue. Josh Marshall is linking to photos of Brown addressing Tea Party events. Clearly he knows what the movement is. The Boston Globe lied.