Igor Volsky, writing at the Soros-funded Think Progress, either can’t read the English language or is being blatantly dishonest in his reporting.

He alleges that Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann has signed a pledge from a Christian organization to ban pornography. Here’s what Volsky wrote on Think Progress’ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender blog as part of a bulleted list of evil things the pledge allegedly demands:

– PORNOGRAPHY SHOULD BE BANNED: Vow 9 stipulates that the candidate must “support human protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” and protect them from “seduction into promiscuity and all forms of pornography…and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.”

However, if you go to the actual pledge you’ll see that Volsky either needs some remedial reading instruction or he simply wanted to provide a juicy headline for the denizens of the nutroot blogs to play with for a day or two, in hopes that Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert would cement it in the minds of those not paying much attention.

But here’s what the pledge actually calls for, also in a bulleted list of things the signees will work for:

–Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy – our next generation of American children – from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution, infanticide, abortion and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.

Note that this calls for the “protection” of women and children from things such as those listed, which includes pornography. It never mentions a ban, it never promotes a ban. But Volsky chooses to use it in his deceptive characterization of the pledge, implying that the words “PORNOGRAPHY SHOULD BE BANNED” actually appear in the pledge. Typical journalistic standards for Think Progress.

If you want to read the entire pledge, it’s here.

UPDATE: Sister Toldjah points out that many more outlets, bloggers and tweeters have picked up on this scurrilous falsehood. But, hey, that was the plan, wasn’t it?