Maddow, who lives in western Massachusetts, called Brown a “creep” in a planned MSNBC newspaper ad scheduled to run today and slammed him for sending out a nationwide fund-raising letter this week “smearing me to raise money for himself.”

However, the rumor sprang from a Facebook page launched by a liberal Northhampton radio host, was fueled by a mysterious tweet from the state Democratic party chairman and got pumped up as recently as Wednesday by the state’s Democratic governor.