Posted on 07/21/2012 1:10:38 PM PDT by Kfobbs
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 first essential rule of journalism 101, always, always check and verify your facts!
Make no mistake, this was not an innocent accident, because on previous occasions, former Clinton White House Political Advisor George Stephanopoulos has attempted to link or malign the Tea Party or Sarah Palin.
This was done most notably in after the assassination attempt upon U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and eighteen other people in Casas Adobes, just outside of Tucson, Arizona in January 2011. This type of gotcha journalism practiced at any cost must be stopped.
There is a limit where yellow journalistic practices by media organizations which continue to perpetrate an active and ongoing fraud of disinformation campaigns must be eliminated. The perpetrators must be fined, suspended or fired as was the case involving Dan Rather in 2004, when he aired falsified forged documents about President Bush on CBS ’60 Minutes.
ABC Brian Ross’ blurting out a clear un-validated libelous statement, showed an apparent intent to cast a dark ominous shadow on the Tea Party in the midst of a Presidential election years. Again, past was prologue in 2004, when Dan Rather’s equally sinister design was to place doubt and suspicion in the minds of an unsuspecting...
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
This is a rhetorical question, right?
Yes they should fire him.
Will they fire him? No.
And, their “out”, will be that, when Brian Ross and Stefanopolous (sp?) were chatting about this, Ross did say that someone with that name was a member of the Tea Party, but they didn’t know if it was the same person.
We all know what they were trying to do, but, if they go back and review the exact words, they will say that they said that it was not confirmed that it was the Tea Party guy who was the shooter.
Why bother, the guy has hung himself right in front of me on so many occasions I can’t remember them all, but brian I remember without any credibility whatsoever.
If you fired every TV journalist for politicizing events, failure to check facts, and being an advocate for the Democrats, then ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN would just be dead air.
So, yes, fire him!
Stephanopoulos and Ross are just a couple of old DNC political shills. They couldn’t help themselves. They were just doing what their massas down at the DNC want them to do. Attack, trash, insult and smear Americans.
Either:
1) The network should fire Brian Ross for editorial content, posing as a fact.
2) Viewers should turn off the network entirely.
3) Both.
Just saying. I go with “both”.
“Should ABC Fire Brian Ross For Linking Colorado Mass Murderer To Tea Party”
No. He should be fired for putting an innocent man’s life in danger. The TEA Party has nothing to do with it. He named this man on national television and just as much as called HIM a mass murderer without an ounce of facts to back it up.
Not only should they fire him, but the FCC should take away ABC news divisions license for 1 year. Not only that, but the hours where the news was being broadcast, there should be a test pattern with the words, “ABC is not broadcasting at this time due to the unethical reporting by its news division.”
Know what I call that? The Fairness Doctrine.
4) Mr. Holmes sues Brian Ross personally for as much as he can get.
I go with all of them. I understand he’s been getting threatening phone calls. He’s now in fear of his and his families lives.
No, he should NOT be fired. In fact, ABC should hire dozens more just like him. The more the better!
More and more folks are turning off SlimeNewsIdiots on TV because of him and deeds like this; so by keeping him, this will continue...
Yes, he should be expeditiously terminated, but it will never happen.
Given that the aggrieved man, and the killer have the same name, you’re going to have to come up with a much better argument that it was purposeful.
The MSM are just dying to find a “tea party terrorist.”
They can’t wait to put that smear label on every patriot.
Ross and Snuffleupagus tipped their hand in their eagerness.
Again.
Let’s be correct...FCC licenses individual radio and television stations...they do not license networks.
Nonetheless, if this had been Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck or Laura Ingraham the media would be SCREAMING for their heads.
Of course he should be fired, but he won’t be.
Yet another reason CBS news is beneath contempt
What is this thing called “ABC News”?
Left to themselves they aren't going to fire him.
Should they? Well, he did make a major mistake with the intent of smearing his political opponents, so yesterday I would have said yes.
But all these OWS rumors put things in a different light. Going with rumors and making smears is pretty much standard operating procedure nowadays.
Should Brian Ross be held to a higher standard and fired? Sure, but I can't get as indignant about it today as I did yesterday.
Ross staked the Tea Party on an anthill but he put no one’s life in danger. Every news source was repoting the shooter to be in custody. This wasn’t like Spike Lee giving out Zimmerman’s address on Twitter. Just prior to Ross’ attack on theTea Party Steffi indicated the shooter was known and in custody.
The man is vile.
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