Posted on 04/30/2015 10:46:32 AM PDT by kristinn
Two leading newspapers have posted incorrect reports regarding the role of Free Republic in the dissemination of a bogus story about an alleged pre-existing spinal injury to Freddie Gray that contributed to his death in Baltimore police custody.
Those incorrect reports are being repeated by blogs.
The Baltimore Sun falsely reported:
"The Free Republic website said Wednesday that Gray's "life-ending injuries to his spine may have possibly been the result of spinal and neck surgery that he allegedly received a week before he was arrested." The article also said the injury was the result of a car accident and cited thefourthestate.records.om as the source of the information. The story did not cite any court records.
"Free Republic has since removed the story from its website and could not be reached for comment."
What actually occurred was a poster at Free Republic posted the TheFourthEstate.co article to the news discussion forum at Free Republic. Free Republic did not report on the story.
As happens when something relating to a story of intense public interest breaks multiple versions of the story are posted by posters to Free Republic. Those duplicates are either deleted or locked from receiving further comments.
During the discussion thread based on the article FReepers commented on and analyzed the report. Some took the story at face value and others questioned its veracity. Eventually one poster, Conscience of a Conservative, posted the results of online court documents about Gray's civil actions and pronounced about the TheFourthEstate.co article, " This article is nonsense.
Contrary to the Sun, the article in question is still available as is one locked duplicate.
The Sun article by Mark Puente and Doug Donovan claims Free Republic could not be reached for comment.
I was not contacted by the Sun for this story. I am listed on the Free Republic home page as media contact.
Free Republic owner Jim Robinson told me he was not contacted by the Sun.
The Sun updated its article Thursday morning. All mentions of Free Republic were deleted without notation or explanation.
The Washington Post article published Thursday also incorrectly states Free Republic pulled the TheFourthEstate.co article.
The Post also paints Free Republic as a rumor-mongering site for linking to a report on the injuries of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson that was later proven to be inaccurate.
The Post article by Michael E. Miller said:
..."Yet that was the story circulating on a handful of conservative Web sites Tuesday. In an “exclusive” that quoted anonymous sources, the Web site the Fourth Estate reported that “Freddie Gray’s life-ending injuries to his spine may have possibly been the result of spinal and neck surgery that he allegedly received a week before he was arrested, not from rough [sic] excessively rough treatment or abuse from police.” The site claimed his injury was from a car accident."
..."And yet that rumor might have caused real damage in a country already polarized on the subject of race and the police. The story quickly spread to several other Web sites, such as Free Republic and the Conservative Tree House, which called Gray’s supposedly preexisting injury “a potential game changing discovery.” A site called New York City Guns ran the headline “Dead Baltimore Drug Dealer Had Spinal Surgery DAYS Before He Collapsed in Police Van (Rioters Say ‘OOPS’).”
"“Boom! Seems legit,” a commenter wrote on the Conservative Tree House.
After the Sun and others debunked the story, Free Republic apparently took it down. (Free Republic was criticized previously for linking to a bogus story about Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson suffering a facial fracture in his struggle with Michael Brown.) The Conservative Tree House updated its post by quoting and linking to the Sun but also tried to throw doubt onto the Gray family’s denial of a preexisting injury by calling the attorney’s statement “a little weird.”
Again, Free Republic did not pull the story. Also, again, FReepers post articles like the Darren Wilson story to discuss and analyze.
The irony in all this is that in the course of allegedly stopping rumors in the conservative blogosphere the media has started rumors of their own.
The conservative site Hot Air reiterated the bogus reporting by the Sun and Post about Free Republic in a posting by Jazz shaw.
...The story first showed up at Free Republic and it looks like they jumped the gun on that one because they’ve since pulled the article.
The liberal site Gawker used the Sun article to bash Free Republic.
This report, which includes screenshots of a settlement listed on the Howard County Circuit Court Records, apparently has just enough detail to ring true and was quickly picked up by rabid conservatives at the Free Republic in a now-deleted post cited by the Baltimore Sun.
Likewise the liberal site Wonkette used the Sun article to bash Free Republic.
A poster at the Daily Kos used the Sun article to attack Free Republic.
More excellent coverage from the Baltimore SUN, sticking a thumb in the eye of the F--- Rep----c website and its vicious rumors.
The Columbus Dispatch reprinted the original unedited version of the Sun article on Thursday.
NOW PAY ATTENTION MEDIA AND BLOGGERS. Below is a copy of the source for the Freddie Gray rumors. I saw copies of this being retweeted on Twitter shortly before the TheFourthEstate.co article was posted. This is a text version found in the comment section of the blog NeoNeoCon. It is posted to Free Republic for the record. Understand media and bloggers? Good. Here it is:
This was found in the CITY PAPER in the comments section: Freddy Gray had a pre-existing spinal and neck injury and had severe damage and scar tissue from an accident that Allstate Insurance was paying him a large structured settlement. Freddy had several unsuccessful spinal fusion surgeries, he most recent spinal/cervical operation was a week and a half before he was arrested. Freddy should have been at home in bed resting and recovering from recent major operation instead of manufacturing and distributing drugs on the streets and resisting arrest. Freddy has a criminal record pages long for manufacturing and distributing controlled dangerous drugs that were cocaine crack heroine etc. along with many assault charges, gun charges, breaking and entering and the list goes on since he was 18 years old. (Juvenile records are sealed.) Look at some of this on http://www.mdjudiciarycasesearch. You will also see where he was trying to cash in his monthly structured settlement for his spinal injury payments to one lump sum through Peachtree Funding, He could have easily fallen in the paddy wagon from the slippery bench to the floor or twisted his fused spine to reopen his recently fused damaged spine. Also, the police that arrested him were also black, not white. Why are people destroying their own homes and revenue when they don’t know the whole story? Mostly because it’s a good reason and timing to loot and get new shoes and stolen goods? You got it! None of the police officers that arrested Freddy had a history of police brutality. Freddy was a dangerous career felon with a damaged spine and neck that was supposed to be healing a week and a half after surgery, not running the streets committing felonies and resisting arrest.
Court System: Circuit Court for Howard County – Civil System Case Number: 13C14101574
I do not know if this comment was actually found in the Baltimore City Paper comments section. But it was making the rounds in the hours before the TheFourthEstate.co article was posted. But no media reporter or blogger seems to have reported this. How about that?
Note: Blogger (and retired cop) John Cardillo took apart the TheFourthEstate.co article in detail the night it was posted.
Good grief. Just about any post I read debunked that idiotic theory. No good deed as they say ...
Here is the mail I sent to the BS reporters soon after they posted their story
There then ensued a discussion that now has over 200 comments. Within an hour and a half, one of the posters, Conscience of a Conservative, had found out the facts of the matter; and he did not even have to visit the Court House.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3284149/posts?page=144#144
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3284149/posts?page=168#168
Perhaps you would wish to enlarge and extend your story to give full and proper coverage of Free Republic’s real investigative reporting?
Sincerely
Edit to remove Free Republic reference
I see that you have done this. But there is no mention, that I can see, that it IS edited - the time stamp is the same as when it was originally posted.
Man up.
Bump
And the lesson here is...?
humblegunner is prescient!
Looks like Freddie also used the aliases:
Freddy Gray and Eric Ray
according to the Court cases.
I actually commented that the thread should have been pulled, due to the absolute nothingness of the content. Turns out that it was good that it stayed up C O a Conservative to destroy it. A side benefit is for yet another exposure of shoddy journalism.
“But, I have witnessed my wife track people down who could not be reached. If the reporter REALLY wants to get a comment...they will get hold of the person.”
I recall former senator phil gramm years ago mention how a reporter called him in regards to ssome story about the senators finances. The reporter wanted an answer in 2 hours because of his deadline and gramm couldnt answer because he was in DC and all his financial papers were back in texas.
The leftists love to play these little games. Some version of reverse psychology agit-prop. Internet rumors found on some blog designed especially to obscure the truth. A diversionary tactic.
Remember the pictures of Trayvon shooting the finger? Well it wasn’t Trayvon. Remember the pictures of a bloody beaten Darren Wilson? Well it wasn’t Darren Wilson?
Disinformation is everywhere. But one thing is clear. This confuse and divide crap starts at the top. No one is better at lying and deceiving than one B. Hussein Obama. He, Holder, Sharpton and the media have lied and misled beginning in Sanford. Then on to Ferguson, NYC and now Baltimore.
They use these stories as an “Oh look, a squirrel” gimmick as they continue to inflame and incite racial hatred and violence.
AMEN.
I deplore knee-jerking. Even when I do it. But that blog served a purpose. and I too thank COAC for his due diligence in uncovering the facts.
If the mods had pulled the story - the leftists would have gotten away with their lies. But thanks to COAC nd many others - Free Republic once again was at the fore-front of true journalistic integrity.
kristinn, thanks for setting the record straight.
Thanks also for still being the FR media contact all these years. You have been a wonderful one.
“And the lesson here is...?”
Look both ways before you cross the street?
Eat your broccoli, there are starving kids in China?
5 bashes for a buck!!
Anything to get fireworks going off here .. And soon!!!
Thanks for the info!!!
FR does not “write articles”; it is a discussion forum.
People post articles from other sources as they wish, and may or may not post them as serious or not.
Context, always context.
They sure have their panties in a twist this week. A NYT reporter contacted me this week to ask how he had been erroneously included in the list of JournoList members that I published here five years ago.
I told him that I had no idea because it had been FIVE years but that I would absolutely research it and remove his name if it was an error. He proceeded to hurl insults about shoddy research and said that lapsed time was no excuse, etc.
I told him I would remove his name based solely on his word because I had done so with two others who contacted me back then. After I told him that, he still demanded that I correct it immediately because it had been in error long enough and “people are searching” now for information sourced to me at FR.
Finally, he tells me that someone confused “Bob Mackey” (who was on JournoList) with “Robert Mackey.” Then he said I didn’t fact-check anything. I guess the list of sources I included with the list doesn’t count. I told him I didn’t know who made the mistake, but I would look into it. Jim kindly edited the J-list thread for me. All happened in less than 24 hours.
So, when there is a legitimate mistake. We correct it ASAP. Can’t say the same for them.
Don't get me wrong - I appreciate the kind words, I do. But, if the bolded words are true, in reference to the work that FReepers did to debunk this story, then that is a damning statement about the state of journalistic integrity.
I spent maybe ten minutes pulling together my handful of posts on this story, and that included pulling screenshots, posting images, formatting posts, etc. That should not be at the "fore-front" of journalistic anything. That should be basic, lowest-common-denominator, due diligence that any journalist (or blogger) should dl before even deciding whether there is a story to report.
Well, I agree. Freddie was no loss. But I suspect, one way or another, that the PD will be found liable for his death, but I think it will be through negligence.
Regressives lie. All The Time.
WOW! Pretty stunning how they attempted to discredit FR once again...the media any more is all about pointing fingers and it really matters not to them who they blame as long as they have a story to run with...sheesh!
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