Vicki McKenna’s Facebook page brings this Politico report, if that’s what you want to call it:

Wisconsinites know that “the flag for the local union” is actually the Wisconsin state flag. The only union it represents is Wisconsinites. (For non-Wisconsinites, the “1848” is the year of our statehood, on May 29. This little kerfuffle shows that the decision several years ago to add “Wisconsin” and “1848” to the flag because it looked too much like other state flags had unintended consequences.)

Since the premise of the entire story is based on that flag, erase the first three sentences, and what do you have? Obama saying something about something that has to do with his reelection.

Besides being sloppy, Donovan Slack’s reporting describes the nature of today’s media. You have technology, you use it to get the latest story out online, apparently whether correct or not. (Then again, read a Gannett Wisconsin newspaper, and you’ll see Gannett’s commitment to proper English. Or not.) This basic error is the sort of thing that is supposed to be the province of inexperienced, untrained bloggers, not supposedly professional reporters.

The worst part of this is that one of Politico’s founders, Jim VandeHei, is from Oshkosh.

On the other hand, Stuff Journalists Like blows the lid off the actual work of journalists following the latest Internet trend: