Posted on 10/16/2007 7:26:46 PM PDT by jdm
Earlier today, the port side of the blogosphere erupted in righteous indignation as reports that Air America radio host Randi Rhodes got mugged began to swirl. Many bloggers started blaming a nameless conservative mugger, and then began extending the indictment to the entire conservative movement. It served their prejudices to think that conservative meanies would lay in wait for Rhodes just to keep her from speaking Truth to Power, etc etc etc.
The only fly in the ointment? Rhodes never got mugged at all (via Michelle Malkin):
Air America radio host Randi Rhodes is temporarily off the air, but claims she was brutally attacked near her Manhattan apartment are bogus, her lawyer and a police source said today.
Fellow host Jon Elliott claimed on the liberal radio network that Rhodes had been mugged while walking her dog, Simon, on Sunday night. Elliot, who said Rhodes lost several teeth in the attack, waxed about a possible conspiracy.
"Is this an attempt by the right-wing, hate machine to silence one of our own?" he asked on the air, according to Talking Radio, a blog. "Are we threatening them? Are they afraid that we’re winning? Are they trying to silence intimidate us?"
A police source said Rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging. Cops from Manhattan's 17th Precinct called her attorney, who told them Rhodes was not a victim of a crime, the source said.
So what are we to make of this?
1. Air America lies, even when stories involve their own personnel. No one thought to give Randi a call to see how she was doing before Elliot decided to air his report? And no one thought to do so afterwards? The police ended up calling to see why no one reported the incident to them. That's just marvelous journalistic ethics.
2. Anyone who thinks that bigotry has no place in the liberal mindset has -- once again -- just received a material lesson to the contrary. Even without knowing anything about the attacker, several bloggers just decided that it had to be a politically motivated assault by a conservative. That's not leaping to conclusions, that's flying at jet speed to Paranoialand.
3. How long do you think it will take for these same bloggers to offer an apology -- one not accompanied by a litany of rationalizations about how mean conservatives are, and how it was impossible not to convict an entire class of people for an imaginary crime? Longer than the next time they trot out an argument for innocent-until-proven-guilty for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, I'd bet.
What an embarrassment, especially for Air America. They have once again demonstrated why no one listens to them, and it has nothing to do with the Fairness Doctrine. It has everything to do with credibility. They can't even do fact-checking with their colleagues, let alone anywhere else.
Addendum: I'm sorry to hear that Rhodes injured herself in a fall, and hope she feels better soon. I'm glad that she apparently still has all her teeth, too.
She probably looks slightly better.
What kind of a world do these libs live in where everything revolves around them. That they hold the torch of truth and we mean conservatives hide in the shadows to beat them up to shut them up?
That’s quite a fantasy they live in!
Jon Elliott’s already apologized.
She rants and raves so much when she’s on the air. She’s hard to listen to. Quantum leaps in reasoning and subject matter and half truth fueled theories are hallmarks of her show.
Personally I welcome the Air America folks with open arms to the marketplace of talk radio. Let Randi and her cohorts do their thing, and let the conservatives have their programming, and see what the ratings results will be.
Air America barely registers in the Arbitron ratings in some markets. The listeners are voting in deciding to go with the conservatives. I don’t always agree with some conservative talkers, but generally there is reasoned, logical discussion of the issues. Too often, Air America just screams and shouts one-liners such as Bush is the “Worst-—President——Ever”.
Deer in the Headlights,,,
I wonder how many of them said somethng similar when, i don't know, a conservative talker finds she has breast cancer or something like that.
She could have a drinking problem.
Frankly, his apology means nothing to me, because it's the easy way out. Liberals think all they have to do is say "I'm sorry," and it all goes away. This guy needs to work a little harder on not opening his big, fat mouth before he knows all the facts.
Agree 100%.
Verify what's happened before jumping to conclusions - conclusions designed to politicize what just sounds like nothing more than a routine accident.
On the other hand, there was an amusing thread titled, Let's face it, Hillary Clinton is the most FAKE person this country has ever seen...
Just in time for Halloween.
How did that go over?
Why isn't this liar suspended? (Mainly, because no one knows or cares who he is.)
If Rush did this, they'd want him prosecuted for a hate crime.
A redux of the Salem Witch Trials.
To who? And for what?
What a high opinion of herself... As if she is important enough to go to the trouble of roughing up... Who would bother?
http://gawker.com/news/developing/was-talk-show-host-randi-rhodes-jumped-by-14-ketel-ones-311453.php
Was Talk Show Host Randi Rhodes Jumped By 14 Ketel Ones?
When it was reported that a couple of hoods had jumped Air America talk show host Randi Rhodes and knocked out some of her teeth, leftists and wobblies cried foul. “Right wing hate machine!” said John Elliot, a fellow host on AAR. Maybe there is one of those but Air America has retracted its claim that she was mugged at all. “On Sunday evening, October 14, Air America host Randi Rhodes experienced an unfortunate incident hindering her from hosting her show. The reports of a presumed hate crime are unfounded.” Poor Randi! But maybe, suggests a reader, it was an alcohol crime?
Our own commenter GBH writes:
Randi Rhodes was no more assaulted by a right-wing fanatic on Monday than Dick Cheney was. She, in fact, fell down and injured her teeth outside of a Midtown Irish bar at around 6 o’clock Sunday evening after downing about fourteen Ketel One Bloody Marys. She was abusive to the barstaff and generally gross, crass, loud, and pretentious. I genuinely hope she has a speedy recovery. I never would’ve disclosed this (I believe that anyone should feel free to hang out at Irish pubs at any time and not be concerned about someone publishing their behavior) if Air America hadn’t grossly interpreted a drunken indiscretion and allowed it to be morphed into some bullish rhetoric on air. Whatever journalistic integrity the station may have ever had is now completely compromised. The manipulation of the public diminishes any cause, whether just or fabricated.
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