That casualty would be “any sense that the media is not working an agenda against conservatives, especially organized conservatives like the Tea Party”.
But that time was many years and at least one set of ideals ago.
During the confusion over the identity of the shooter in Aurora, ABC’s Brian Ross went on the air and reported…
“There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.”
Which has been, by the way, the leftymedia’s process for reporting on the Tea Party since the very beginning; find the slenderest reed of possible allowing the assumption of guilt, and work back from there (because there will be no consequences).
Brian Moran at Pajamas Media remembers that time as well:
There used to be a time when journalists had a rough integrity about what they said over the air and took pride in striving for accuracy. Who could ever forget ABC’s Frank Reynolds, ABC News anchorman, who, after receiving and announcing word that James Brady had been killed in the Reagan assassination attempt only to discover the press secretary was still alive, got visibly angry and to no one in particular barked on air, “Let’s get this right. Let’s nail this down.”
Today, Stephanopoulos thanked Brian Ross for smearing the Tea Party by reporting a lie. Ross should be suspended or lose his job for this attempt to inject politics into a national tragedy.
I noted the phenomenon years ago; in their unquenchable hunger to demonize the Tea Party – literally, to rhetorically turn them into demons – the media was bending over backwards to find the slenderest reed of association with the Tea Party first, and worry about attribution and proof later. It was so pervasive, it launched an entire category on this blog, “The Slander Files“, chronicling the left’s demented quest to make the facts, such as they were, fit their narrative. It’s been a busy category. Do you remember when…:
- Andy Birkey of the Minnesoros Independent claiming Tea Party leadership was behind a phoned-in threat to an AFSCME office because, well, the guy on the phone message said he was a Tea Party leader?
- MSNBC’s Martin Bashir wrapped himself in faux science to diagnose the entire movement?
- AM950’s inept afternoon host Matt McNeil tried to link Norwegian spree killer Anders Breivik to the Tea Party?
- The entire Sorosphere leapt onto a story that “white supremacists” were involved with CPAC – and crashed to the ground, since it was a non-story?
- America’s front-page village idiot Paul Krugman tying the Tea Party to the Oklahoma City bombing?
- To say nothing of the various bouts of violence back in 2009 that the left blamed on the Tea Party? John Patrick Bedell? Joseph Stack? Amy Bishop? Maurice Schwenkler? The “cut propane tube?”
Slandering the Tea Party is an exemption from whatever still passes for “Journalistic Ethics”.
Weird week to have a blog called “Shot in the Dark,” eh?
In general, in my life, I don’t distinguish degrees of “weird”; merely flavors.
Meanwhile in Texas, 13 people died when a pickup truck that was carrying 23 people crashed into trees:
The F-250 was headed north on U.S. Highway 59 when it left the road near the unincorporated town of Goliad — about 90 miles southeast of San Antonio — and rammed into two large trees, Bryant said. The victims were both male and female and were children and adults.
This is a horrible, senseless tragedy. Therefore I would like to be first to call for common sense F-250 control.
Mr D, I would call for common sense Border Control.
Mexico’s Presedente Calderon has denounced US gun laws following the CO shooting. Mexico has had about 50,000 people killed in its drug wars in the past four years with very strict gun laws. Many on the left believe that the guns used are nearly all smuggled in from the USA. If their belief is even remotely true you would think that Calderon and the professional left would also support common sense Border Control.
I was listening to Glenn Beck’s radio show on Friday morning after the Brian Ross – George Stephanopoulos clown show. I was LMAO as they Googeled Brian Ross and found one that was arrested for murder and another that was involved in child pornography. Of course, they tongue in cheeked the “this may be significant” and “we’re not sure if it is that Brian Ross.” I only lament that Beck’s show isn’t more mainstream so that more lefty ministry of propaganda workers would see the tables turned!
I have a picture of this asshole being carried by cops at what is purportedly an Occupy San Diego fiesta. Not being a major media outlet, I will treat it as hearsay.
Googled! UGH!
Strangely enough, there is a James Holmes Realty in Aurora, it’s a wonder that Brian Ross didn’t report that! But realtors aren’t on the media’s and left’s (ptr) most hated list.
“Slandering the Tea Party is an exemption from whatever still passes for “Journalistic Ethics”.
Can “journalistic” and “ethics” exist on the same line of type?
Angrclown agrees and deplores the rush to associate the Teabaggers with the Aurora shootings. Doesn’t Brian Ross know the correct response for all real Amuricans is to mistakenly blame Islamic extremists?
I saw the Good Morning America piece; I thought that he was very clear that it was not known if this was the same person or a different person, and that it was a common name. There was a person with that name, it was clarified quite well that it was a different person, so there was NOT a lie broadcast, and if you look at the information there was no accusation made, only a question raised.
You guys like those kinds of questions, especially when it is creepy people like Michele Bachmann making the unfounded accusations.
Given the recent shooting by the ultra-right wing nut Mormon Tea Partier in Arizona, and all the tea party events where people showed up with their guns and posters, and all the tea party leaders who have called for violence – notably after the recent supreme court decision on affordable health care reform — it wasnt such a stretch to wonder if this was another guy from the right gone off the rails.
Glenn Beck on the other hand wouldn’t recognize a fact if it landed on him like the giant weight in Monty Python animations. The man is a lunatic, which is why even Faux News eventually wouldn’t keep him on the air.
Was this any different than oh, say Rush Limbaugh and his conspiracy theory claims about a villain named Bane being used against Romney?
You lot are massively hypocritical practitioners of double standards.
Well said Angry Clown; you keep the conservatives in touch with the realit they try to deny very well — and you’re fun an funny doing it. Well done!
Seriously- when you have people on the far right like J.T. Ready, or people influenced by the extreme U.S right as Anders Breivik claims to have been by people like Pamela Geller – honored as a blogger for her excesses by CPAC – you can’t act like it is a surprise that people expect violence of the extreme right.
You talk it up far too much, award and reward it, and parade around armed far too often to then turn around and claim foul.
The sheer audacity of Penigma’s Chihuahua citing that others would not recognize a fact if it hit them in the head. When you look up that definition, you get a reference ot Penigma’s Chihuahua.
So DG squeaks her usual specious tripe from the Dan Rather “fake but accurate” playbook. Ross and ABC both apologized for what journalists on the left as well as the right saw as an attempt to politicize a tragedy – well much like you DG, bottom feeder that you are, doing your very best to make this tragedy into an opportunity to promote your agenda. You are a singularly callused and depraved apparatchik.
DG: Attacking the Second Amendment is a losing proposition. What would have happened if a licensed concealed-carry patron would have been armed and sitting in the first row last Friday?
I thought that he was very clear that it was not known if this was the same person or a different person,
Er, DG?
When Bob Richardson – my first radio station GM – taught me how to report the news, when I was 16 years old back in 1979-1980, he was pretty brutally clear about one thing; doing your “fact-checking” live and on the air (“At this time, we’re not sure if accused shoplifter John Smith, age 21 of Kensal, is the same John Smith who is a high school shop teacher in Wimbledon. but we’ll figure it out in time for the next newscast!”) was a great way to get fired to protect the station from a defamation suit, no matter how “very clear” you “thought” you were being. You make sure you have the right info before you broadcast or publish the story.
Just like in the circus. Can I get a tip of the floppy hat, Angryclown?
Pam Geller? Who the in the hell gives a crap? Some bloggers rave about Pam Geller, so that excuses Ross?
Seirously, DG – you take on this air of condescension around these parts that, lest you haven’t figured it out, you have not earned. Not even a little.
DG, where’s your homework? Did the dog eat it?
<Fisk on>
I saw the Good Morning America piece; I thought that he was very clear that it was not known if this was the same person or a different person, and that it was a common name. There was a person with that name, it was clarified quite well that it was a different person, so there was NOT a lie broadcast, and if you look at the information there was no accusation made, only a question raised.
That didn’t stop your side from issuing death threats, such that he disconnected his phone line.
“There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.”
I don’t see any clarification in there that it is a different person. Sure, they did eventually say it was the wrong person…AFTER creating havoc in the life of Jim Holmes of Aurora, CO. Lotta good that did.
You guys like those kinds of questions, especially when it is creepy people like Michele Bachmann making the unfounded accusations.
Not unfounded in the least. There is a documented, verifiable paper trail, and a record of his appearances in support of events sponsored by organzations connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course, no one in the MSM has cared to investigate it, so conservatives took it upon themselves: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/07/21/rep-keith-ellison-rewrites-history-on-his-muslim-brotherhood-cair-ties/
Please stop perpetuating lies.
Given the recent shooting by the ultra-right wing nut Mormon Tea Partier in Arizona,
You mean Jared Loughner? Who shot Gabby Giffords? That lie was disproven a few days after he shot her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner#Expressed_views
Please stop perpetuating lies.
and all the tea party events where people showed up with their guns and posters,
And not one single violent crime has ever been reported as being committed by a “tea party member” at any tea party event. EVER.
Please stop perpetuating lies.
and all the tea party leaders who have called for violence – notably after the recent supreme court decision on affordable health care reform —
Link please. I have not heard of a call to violence. Unless you’re twisting statements like “the war at the ballot box” completely out of complex, which wouldn’t surprise me.
it wasnt such a stretch to wonder if this was another guy from the right gone off the rails.
In your mind.
Glenn Beck on the other hand wouldn’t recognize a fact if it landed on him like the giant weight in Monty Python animations. The man is a lunatic, which is why even Faux News eventually wouldn’t keep him on the air.
Man I would love to see a Glenn Beck hater debate Glenn Beck. The hater would get verbally sliced, diced, fileted and julienne fried.
Ok, I wasted enough time on this. Back to work.
Complex? No, I meant Context. I got distracted by the phone.
What Bill C said. Well done, sir!
It is ironic that this morning the boys at Powerline feature a post by David Gelertner, a guy who was maimed by a left-wing terrorist who killed and injured people explicitly for political reasons.
Kazinski was one of DG’s crowd of fellow travelers.
BTW, DG? You keep referring to “tea party violence”. Other than the few carefully-cherrypicked examples of tea partiers saying the occasional impolitic remark, you have no examples of significant violence carried out by Tea Partiers at all.
To the extent that a Tea Partier may have done something violent – maybe? Violence in the Tea Party can be fairly said to be below levels expected for any: random group of several million people over three years.
You’re participated in a group slander which has been shown to be universally wrong – absolutely comprehensively so. You’ve kept mum about all of those, but keep rattling off new ones – which in turn get debunked again.
You’re rapidly moving past disingenuous.
One more for you, DG: that noted conservative tool Mickey Kaus (hint: he’s not a conservative at all) says that it’s only the threat of a libel suit that is keeping ABC from firing Ross for the gross, journalistically unforgiveable rookie flub he just made. That’d be whether you “thought” it was “clear” or not.
Flagrant failure to ensure accuracy of defamatory information IS a form of malice, under MN law. I can’t imagine Colorado or New York are all that different.
Oh, now you’ve done it Bill! Doggy Doo will be in a tizzy for days trying to figure out why Wikipedia, a traditionally liberat source, would let her down like that by actually having the CORRECT information!
Dog Gone tells us all of the unsupportable garbage she believes and manages to call other people “creepy”? Well, isn’t she just a precocious little slice of lefty fever-swamp.
Isn’t there some carpet that needs tending to by Seeuentee?