Free Republic

I try not to spend too much time complaining about media bias, mostly because it doesn’t do any good. But I have had a couple of posts about the topic, usually when there’s a hopelessly outrageous example on an issue I care about. That’s why I complained about an ABC report about Mitt Romney and tax havens.It’s why I groused about a Reuters report that presumed Obama’s spending plans created jobs.And it’s why I nailed the Washington Post for using “slash” to describe a tiny reduction in the growth of spending. I’ve also had a few posts where I hit...

n television journalism, few reporters are as controversial as Brian Ross of ABC News. The investigative correspondent has landed major scoops and won prestigious awards for his reporting on the Peace Corps, Solyndra, and U.S. antiterrorism efforts — to name just a few. And yet, he has also produced more high-level haphazard reporting than perhaps any other reporter on television. Ross came under attack again Friday when he reported that James Holmes, the suspect of today’s theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., may have connections to the tea party — basing that on a single web page that listed an Aurora-based...

Journalistic mistakes are easy to make in the immediate wake of events like the horrific shootings last week in a movie theater in Colorado. [Snip] But the stampede to speed is only part of the problem. I believe the media malfeasance also includes a disregard for the reputations of the people on whom we report. To me, that is the mortal sin. We in the mass media have tremendous power to harm reputations if we are not careful – and we seem to be getting less and less careful until it must look to the public as if we couldn’t...

Another act of mass violence, another round of finger-pointing directed at tea party members. When ABC News issued a report Friday suggesting that the horrific shooting at a Colorado movie theater was perpetrated by a suspect with ties to the movement, the situation had a familiar feel to it, tea party leaders say. Just as in January 2011, when the Tucson shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords sparked speculation that the perpetrator was either affiliated with the tea party or influenced by its anti-government rhetoric, members were again wrongly fingered as possible culprits and forced to defend themselves against the assumption...

As NewsBusters previously reported, ABC's Brian Ross, during a Good Morning America segment with co-host George Stephanopoulos, wrongly accused a Tea Party member of being Friday's Aurora, Colorado, mass murderer. Later that day, conservative talk radio host Mark Levin said, "If ABC News corporate had an ounce of integrity it would fire both of them right now" (video follows courtesy Right Scoop with transcript and commentary):Mark Levin tells the left to give it a rest! MARK LEVIN: Most of us when something as tragic as what happened in Aurora this morning takes place, our hearts go out to the dead,...

ABC News reporter Brian Ross committed what used to be a fatal mistake to a journalist’s career: He blurted out a wild, unsubstantiated, speculative observation that hadn’t been vetted by anyone and was explosively political at the same time. Via Breitbart: Here is the exchange between ABC News chief investigator Brian Ross and host George Stephanopoulos about apparent suspect James Holmes: Stephanolpoulos: I’m going to go to Brian Ross. You’ve been investigating the background of Jim Holmes here. You found something that might be significant. Ross: There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site...

During a morning news segment of Good Morning America, Anchor George Stephanopoulos, and Brian Ross, ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent erroneously and callously linked an innocent Colorado man with the same name to this tragedy without making any attempt at verification of his identity. His only “alleged crime” was being a member of the Tea Party. So in an instant, the name of an innocent man was automatically linked to one of the most despicable acts of violence perpetrated against the nation’s citizens, and the Tea Party was demonized. This was done, because ABC’s Brian Ross neglected to follow the...

By Mr. CurmudgeonBrian Ross of ABC News erroneously identified the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooter as a member of the Tea Party Patriots. The man accused of firing an assortment of weapons into a packed theater, killed 12 and wounded 59. ABC misidentified James Holmes, the alleged shooter, age 24, as 52-year-old James Holmes of the Colorado Tea Party Patriots.This, of course, should come as no surprise. Keen observers of the American political scene view The Tea Party as most responsible for the dramatic reversal of fortunes afflicting the Obama presidency and the Democratic Party since the midterm elections of...

Brian Ross, media malpractice consequences: Falsely accused Tea Party member receiving threats...

What an outrage! The left and liberal media all to quick to blame this tragedy on the Tea Party. This is really p!&&ing me off! Brian Ross should be gone by tonight! Damn these liberals!

The drive by journalist who attempted to connect a member of the Tea Party to the Aurora shooting tragedy has been positively identified as Brian Elliot Ross. Ross is 63, approximately 5'11" tall, and about 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing a business suit on left wing ABC network news. HERE IS ROSS ON YOUTUBE WITH ANOTHER FAKE JOURNALIST AND FORMER CLINTON HACKAurora Theater Shootings False Report On July 20, 2012, gunman James Holmes, 24, entered a theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight showing of the new movie The Dark Knight Rises, killing 12 people and injuring another...

Brian Ross is one of the most honored and respected journalists in the country.

This morning, in the aftermath of the unspeakable Colorado massacre that claimed at least 12 innocent American lives and injured dozens more, ABC "news" investigative reporter Brian Ross appeared on ABC's Good Morning America and made the outrageous, irresponsible, and completely unfounded claim that the alleged gunman, 24-year-old Jim Holmes, is a member of the Tea Party. Apparently Ross has learned absolutely nothing from the media's disgraceful rush to judgment and dissemination of misinformation following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in January 2011.   That's twice now that the "news" media have falsely implicated the Tea Party in murder....

It should come as no surprise and no shock that the Left and the political media’s first impulse concerning the horrendous attack on theatergoers in Aurora, Colorado last night – is to score political points against conservatives. The ugly mask of hatred and deep-seated bias against constitutionally guaranteed rights is in no way limited to just the corporate owned press and media. It is also flourishing among the Fascist politico cadre. Let’s open the ball with ABC News. In the immediate aftermath of the deadly rampage committed by Jim Holmes, 24 – an erstwhile medical student pursuing a PhD in...

No one can say we weren't warned. Twenty-two months ago Jed Babbin profiled ABC's "investigative reporter" Brian Ross, whose "fabulist record" had by then extended to nine years. How many more years will ABC give him before he's retired?

<p>ABC News and Brian Ross are apologizing for an "incorrect" report that James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting, may have had connections to the Tea Party.</p> <p>"An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect," ABC News said in a statement. "ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted."</p>

By now we know of the massacre in Colorado during a showing of the latest Batman movie. We also know that ABC News (with the liberal blogosphere/tweeters not far behind them) was astonshingly quick to blame the Tea Party and Rush Limbaugh...and they were wrong to do so...again.

Breitbart News spoke to James Michael Holmes, the Tea Party member falsely identified this morning by ABC News' Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America as the possible suspect in the mass shooting early this morning at a screening of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. He is a 52-year-old Hispanic conservative who joined the Tea Party after becoming disillusioned with the Republican party. "It was freaky," said Holmes, describing his reaction when ABC News speculated that he was the culprit who entered a crowded theater and opened fire on dozens of innocent men, women, and...

SARASOTA, Fla. – Despite Nik Wallenda’s frequent mentions of God the Father and Jesus during his high-wire crossing of Niagara Falls Friday night, an ABC News blog documenting virtually every moment of the achievement makes no mention of his verbal thanks to the Creator. Wallenda, 33, the great grandson of legendary tightrope walker Karl Wallenda, walked across Niagara Falls on a high wire, as hundreds watched on TV at a block party in his Florida hometown of Sarasota, Fla., and millions of others tuned in for ABC television coverage. Wallenda was fitted with a microphone during his tension-filled, 25-minute saunter...

If an extraterrestrial had tuned into Good Morning America today and watched ABC News's report on national security leaks, he would have come away thinking the Obama administration was valiantly, aggressively pursuing the leakers. ET wouldn't have learned that there is good reason to suspect that the source of the leaks . . . is the Obama administration itself. An attentive viewer might have noticed that the screen graphic referred to the White House and Congress being investigated. But the report by ABC's Pierre Thomas never hinted that the Obama administration was itself being accused of being the source of...