Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Anatomy of a Smear: How poor reporting trashed a Vermont judge (accuses FR of smearing idiot judge]
Vermont Guardian ^ | Feb 3, 2006 | By Will Hunter

Posted on 02/03/2006 1:48:58 PM PST by Jim Robinson

BURLINGTON - It began with an inaccurate local television news report, with the errors repeated by Vermont print and broadcast media. The story was quickly picked up by Internet bloggers and right-wing talk radio and soon reached at least three sensationalist national cable shows. Within a week, bloggers were posting ever more extreme comments, calling for vigilante action against a longtime Vermont judge and posting his home address and phone online. State politicians jumped at the chance to be on national television, repeating the errors and adding to them. Nationwide, there were calls for boycotts of Vermont if the judge were not removed from the bench. Both the Republican governor and the Democratic Speaker of the House joined in condemnation of the judge.

~~ snip ~~

Another blog which promoted the WCAX story was freerepublic.com where postings were equally intemperate. “Any parent that does not move from Vermont immediately needs their head examined!,” one declared. “More proof liberals do not care about children, although that’s what we keep hearing is the reason to take our money.” Appeals to vigilante justice were frequent: “Time to get a rope,” preached one writer. “Get two, one for hizzoner and one for the perp! Same tree, side by side would send a clear message to perps and judges!” echoed another.

Postings soon included links to the website of Gov. James Douglas, so that complaints about Cashman could be submitted electronically. Another posting provided the judge’s home address and telephone number. Bloggers pushed for national coverage of the story. “Rush [Limbaugh] mentioned this case at the end of his show today, and I hope [Bill] O’Reilly comes on board when he returns on Monday . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at vermontguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blackrobedthugs; deadtreemedia; frisnotablog; judgecashman; judicialactivism; mediabias
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-100 next last
To: Jim Robinson

bttt


61 posted on 02/03/2006 3:05:20 PM PST by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Bubba182

Bump!


62 posted on 02/03/2006 3:10:16 PM PST by Indy Pendance
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
This Will Hunter might feel different if that little girl was his granddaughter.

Aside from proving that the outrage over the perv and the judge
is right on target, this article makes me wonder:
Who is Will Hunter?
And what are the colors of the moons on his home planet?
63 posted on 02/03/2006 3:12:19 PM PST by VOA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson

Good.


64 posted on 02/03/2006 3:13:27 PM PST by hershey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hershey; dirtboy; Jim Robinson; All
Here is a story on the pos pal that Hulett, the first pos, pimped the 7 year old girl to.

The garbage reporter who wrote the article above was remiss in reporting that little factoid, wasn't he?

65 posted on 02/03/2006 3:22:26 PM PST by jwalsh07
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Williams; jimrob

***The article raises only one question in my mind: Did the prosecutor agree to a deal whereby the defendant would not be incarcerated for more than 90 days? If so, the prosecutor is also deserving of criticism.***

You have absolutely raised the same question that I have. I saw nothing in the article that said whether the judge had any choice about the term of the sentence.

And I DO understand that a longer MANDATORY sentence sometimes makes it impossible for the DA to get a confession in trade for a shorter sentence. That tells me one of two things: Either the DA did not have enough proof to insure a conviction, thus he got a confession. Or, the DA's office is understaffed or incompetent.


66 posted on 02/03/2006 3:23:23 PM PST by kitkat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson

This nugget from from Baptistwatch.org's forum:

If They All Do It, They Ought To Go
Will Hunter

Rutland (VT) Daily Herald
April 30, 2005



It's interesting to trace the history of use of the phrase "They all do it" as applied to activities in Washington. During the early 1970s, the Republicans were fond of it, as a way of excusing the crimes of Richard Nixon. By the 1990s, when some Democrats said it about Bill Clinton, the Republicans were shocked that anyone could use such an argument to explain away sexual misbehavior and its attendant lies. But now that they have to defend a congressional leader who has lived high off the hog with lobbyists paying the bills and a bullying boss who wants to be ambassador to the United Nations, "They all do it" is back on Republican lips.

The apologists for John Bolton apparently think that it's fine to have people in power scream, yell, throw things and generally terrorize people over whom they have authority. And the Tom DeLay defense team says no one should care when a representative of the people takes junkets to London, staying in a $790-a-night hotel room with the $6,938 plane ticket paid for by a lobbyist. After all, he didn't pay much attention to who was paying the bill; he thought that the "nonprofit" National Center for Public Policy Research was shelling out the $120,000 it cost for the 10-day bash for him and his attendants. The lobbyist, after all, was on the board of the NCPPR. (That lobbyist, now the subject of several investigations for ripping off Indian tribes, has apparently recently slipped off the NCPPR's board.)

If, in fact, "they all do it," they all should be sent packing.


67 posted on 02/03/2006 3:28:50 PM PST by Crawdad (So the guy says to the doctor, "It hurts when I do this.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Indy Pendance
I found more, I think it is the same person:

Crucifying Cashman

"..To date, both Republican State Sen. Vince Illuzzi and former Democratic State Sen. Will Hunter have weighed in with strong published condemnations of WCAX-TV News' reporting on the case. .."

LAWYER PROBE

".. By David Gram, Associated Press Writer

APn 08/07/95

CAVENDISH, Vt. (AP) -- In one Vermont Fourth of July parade, a float honored Will Hunter -- former legislator, defender of the poor and downtrodden, and suspected launderer of drug money..."

The odds of there being two former legislators named Wil Hunter writing on this are long.

68 posted on 02/03/2006 3:33:18 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson
Hi Jim. I live in Vermont and you can be sure that this article is just one more example of the powerful spin that the Socialist/Liberals of Vermont can put on any social movement here in Vermont with which they disagree.

The fact is that Vermonters are pretty much fed up with their judges and their culture of creating law according to a liberal/socialist agenda ( Civil Unions were rammed down the throats of Vermonters), Cashman is simply out of touch with the people of Vermont but very much in touch with the Liberal idealists who run the Vermont judiciary. Cashmans paramount duty is to protect the public. Child molesters ( known in Vermont as diddlers)have no known cure for their malady. They just keep reoffending. The only program remotely proven to rehabilitate child molesters is one in Boston involving electro-shock conditioning, and for Liberals, that is cruel and unusual punishment.

Republican Governor Douglas called for Cashman's resignation. Our local newspaper, the Caledonian Record, called for Cashman's resignation in its editorial.

The down side is that the Liberals in Vermont do not realize that the judiciary SERVES the people. We pay their salaries, and they act like a bunch of 18th Century British Aristocrats who try to tell the people of Vermont that they are ignorant, and that we as a people do not really understand the principles of "enlightened" rehabilitation WHEN in fact they impose a moral tyrrany on the public. All the public wants is for its children to be safe, and soon these diddlers on the street will not even make it to jail or the courthouse. The danger is that they will be executed and left in the ditches of our Green Mountain State because judges won'y keep them off our streets.

This is no laugh, two years ago an out of state habitual child molester, who was a friend of the Vermont Liberal bureaucracy moved to Ryegate Vermont from out of state, and managed to circumvent the Vermont requirement to have his name and residence published by the State Department of Corrections.When Ryegate residents discovered he lived in town within yards of a school bus stop, some of them torched the guys car. Soon thereafter they moved away.

This whole issue needs to be taken seriously by Vermonts socialist liberals, or they will have some very serious situations on their hands,involving residents who merely want to keep their children safe. The morality challenged politicos of Vermont can afford to spin this issue away only at the price of a growing social disorder.

69 posted on 02/03/2006 3:36:56 PM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Bubba182

Another bump. Good info, thanks!


70 posted on 02/03/2006 3:39:58 PM PST by Indy Pendance
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: Unrepentant VN Vet
Typical liberal NAMBLA member from Vermont.It was just about sex after all.The judge and the writer of this column are under the false impression that a child molester could ever be reformed.If a scumbag rapes a child he's the lowest form of scum who deserves to die a painful death.
71 posted on 02/03/2006 3:42:49 PM PST by rdcorso (There Is No Such Thing As A Neutral Person During A War With Radical Islam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Indy Pendance; Jim Robinson
Welcome!

It looks like Will Hunter is a activist lawyer in the mold of Ron Cubie, William Kunstler or Lynn Stewart. I would discount his article as his weirdo coefficient is very high.

72 posted on 02/03/2006 3:47:25 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Anti-Bubba182

I agree. Again, thanks for posting additional info, it's very helpful


73 posted on 02/03/2006 3:54:21 PM PST by Indy Pendance
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson
Okay, I read the whole thing and it is a piece of liberal horse manure.

Yes, the judge certainly DID sentence the admitted rapist-pedophile to 60 days. Although the story intones that the "10 years" part of the sentence doesn't get coverage, that part of the sentence is irrelevant because the plea deal limits jail time to 90 days. OF COURSE he'll be out in 60. The author wants to hype up the fact that the perp goes back to jail if he fails to seek "counseling" - - as if the perp might forget, or thumb his nose at the scumbag judge or something.

And yes, the judge certainly does say that he doesn't believe in punishment:

What Judge Cashman actually said was “I keep telling prosecutors, and they won’t hear me, that punishment is not enough.” The judge said that he had “started out as a just deserts sentencer,” but he had “discovered it [retribution] accomplishes nothing of value … doesn’t make anything better, . . . and costs us a lot of money.”

This liberal mouse, Will Hunter, can spin the story any way he wants on behalf of his Democrat Party - - complete with gratuitous swipes at Bill O'Reilly, Free Republic, and "the Sun Myung Moon-financed Washington Times" - - but the reality remains unchanged. The judge sentenced the confessed serial rapist of a little girl to 60 days in jail because he is more concerned that the perp get treatment than he is about the family getting justice.

Judge Edward Cashman is a despicable liberal scumbag who MUST be removed from his bench.

74 posted on 02/03/2006 3:55:17 PM PST by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muir_redwoods

"............I don't care about treating or rehabilitating the bastard, let the little girl's father and uncles handle that if he's ever released."



Why leave the Grandpa out? (Snarled the proud grandfather of four.)

No point in leaving really serious work like this to the inexperienced.


75 posted on 02/03/2006 4:05:02 PM PST by Unrepentant VN Vet (I can't really accept a welcome home until the last MIA does.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Lancey Howard
LAWYER TARGETED BY RAID ASSERTS HIS INNOCENCE

This shows where Wil Hunter is coming from.

76 posted on 02/03/2006 4:07:57 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: somniferum; Jim Robinson
Well, maybe he'll whine about my suggestion that there should be a thrid rope for Will Hunter. Is that "intollerant enough for you, Will?

What a clueless moron.... This will get his dander up:


77 posted on 02/03/2006 4:14:23 PM PST by demkicker (democrats and terrorists are familiar bedfellows)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Vision
"It's sad a journalist doesn't understand the need to back up his article's premise with any evidence. That's some good ol' fashioned lefty reporting there."

Well get this from the referenced article in the Guardian:

Quote:

The crimes were two counts of aggravated sexual assault (based on admissions that the defendant had, over the course of four years starting when the child victim was 6 years old, licked the child’s vagina on multiple occasions and placed his penis in the child’s mouth at least once) and one count of lewd and lascivious conduct (based on an admission that the child had stroked his penis “quite a few times”).

After revealing a padded set of what the actual molestation facts indeed were, the reporter simply goes on to whip up more of his liberal/socialist double think.The reporter doesn't even seem to be capable of understanding what had been done to the mind and heart of this little girl, now propably emotionally warped for life! The reporter did not even acknowledge the child as a human being , as if she was some kind of animal pet to be cast aside in the circumlocution of his ideological arguments

Conclusion: The reporter and all of his similar thinking socialist/liberal cronies and judges are DUMBER THAN A BOX OF ROCKS!

78 posted on 02/03/2006 4:21:00 PM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson
If any one wants to sound off about this article, the Vermont Guardian's News Editor email is:

editorial@vermontguardian.com

79 posted on 02/03/2006 4:27:50 PM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Unrepentant VN Vet
"Why leave the Grandpa out? (Snarled the proud grandfather of four.)"

As one nearing the same exalted status myself, I think it best if men like you and I simply got to sit back, keep the hot-headed youths from allowing the matter to progress to quickly and offering sage criticism so as to effect the greatest moral improvement in the miscreant's character as he readies himself for real judgement.

80 posted on 02/03/2006 4:28:07 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopechne is walking around free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-100 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson