How much more fraud are we obligated to tolerate from the conservative intelligentsia? This isn't the first time an assault on some right-wing nobody has turned out to be a hoax, and I know it won't be the last.
A 20-year-old woman from College Station, Texas, has reported that she was robbed at knifepoint at an ATM in Pittsburgh because her car bears a McCain sticker and because she was wearing a Republican button. The alleged victim is a volunteer for the McCain campaign and has been a field rep for the College Republican National Committee. She claimed the robber was a large black man, and she said that he carved a 'B' into her face.
The story immediately thumped false, for the 'B' was backwards, as if the alleged victim carved it herself while looking at a mirror. The Associated Press, however, reported the story as if the robbery was real - even though it appeared off the bat to be a hoax.
It was clear that 'B' in this case stands for bullshit.
Investigators agree. A police spokesperson said, "We have learned that the victim's statement has a few inconsistencies in it and her statement has changed." Translation: the alleged victim lied. The young woman keeps adding new details about the attack.
Police say that the alleged victim's statements conflict with the evidence at the scene.
Now she says she doesn't remember being knifed in the face - another change in her story. She claims she didn't discover the injury until much later. This makes about as much sense as the urban legend about the man who got his scalp torn off when he got his hair caught on the axle of his car and didn't notice it until he went to the mall and got pointed at by other shoppers.
What really seals the deal though is the fact that the video of the ATM where the robbery of the McCain volunteer supposedly took place showed that the alleged victim wasn't even there! It's unclear if any man matching the description of the alleged robber was present, but I just can't help thinking of a line in an old Marky Mark song about the racial aspect of another case. In any event, the fact that the alleged victim wasn't present at the ATM is prima facie proof she wasn't robbed there.
The robbery was a hoax. If the video proves you weren't in a place where you claim you were robbed, that proves you're full of shit. That's it. End of story.
Naturally, the AP has yet to retract or correct its original story reporting the attack as if it was real. The AP continues to keep the story up, even though it's been debunked.
The robbery was a fraud just like everything else in the Republican Party these days. Their party's a fraud, their ideas are a fraud, and they're a fraud.
(Source: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/17789356/detail.html;
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212181240.shtml;
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_298121000.html)
Friday, October 24, 2008
'B' is for bullshit
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"Naturally, the AP has yet to retract or correct its original story reporting the attack as if it was real. The AP continues to keep the story up, even though it's been debunked."
ReplyDeleteWrong, Tim. AP has updated the story:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D940VEM01&show_article=1
Nope. The bogus story remains up:
ReplyDeletehttp://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iidrMKZwVNDDlEtkssY6t1xxhg9QD940EL380
This is one of the reasons why there has to be an investigation into the media's bias.
For one, that's Google's web site, not AP's.
ReplyDeleteSecond, AP's story reported what the one woman told police. That's not bias, it's reporting.
Considering the media has given Joe the Plumber more scrutiny than Barack Obama, I can't imagine you'd have anything to complain about.
The AP article calls her "a woman robbed at knifepoint." She claimed to have been robbed. It wasn't known yet whether there was really a robbery.
ReplyDeleteShould the AP not report on any criminal cases until there's a conviction? Do you really want that?
ReplyDeleteThey reported it as if it was a fact, when it wasn't. "A woman robbed at knifepoint" suggests the robbery was real, when it hadn't been proven yet that it had even occurred at all.
ReplyDeleteIf that's your standard for reporting, I expect you to follow it on the Pail. No accusations against conservatives or anyone else until there's a verdict. Agreed?
ReplyDeleteWhen a conservative is accused of a crime, I always refer to it as an alleged crime, unless it's proven. The AP didn't even take that step in this story.
ReplyDeleteStandard news reporting practice is to use the "alleged" when referring a person accused of a crime. It's not usually done when the identity of a suspect is unknown.
ReplyDelete