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Anderson Cooper Goes After ‘Anonymous Internet Trolls’ Pushing Conspiracies About Newtown And Gun
Mediaite ^ | 1/15/13 | Josh Feldman

Posted on 01/15/2013 6:27:07 PM PST by Nachum

Last week Anderson Cooper took on some of the more ridiculous conspiracy theories about the tragic Sandy Hook shooting, one in particular claiming that the shooting simply never happened. But tonight, Cooper took on perhaps one of the most shocking theories of all: the whole shooting was a gigantic conspiracy to take away people’s guns.

Cooper reminded viewers of the Florida professor who has been pushing the conspiracy theories, and revealed that said professor reacted to his initial report with a blog post attacking Cooper for “wanting to cause him harm.” Cooper said that the professor has his rights to free speech, and just wanted to hold him accountable for his comments. The professor is also part of a growing conspiracy that the media is falsely reporting on the shooting in a concerted effort to take away people’s guns.

Cooper patiently debunked theories about the media coverage of the shooting, and brought on two guests, one of whom was the family member of an Aurora shooting victim, to address the conspiracies. Cooper pointed out much of the evidence cited is based on initial reporting, which Cooper admitted can often be inaccurate. Alex Seitz-Wald said many conspiracy theorists are taken in by confirmation bias and ignore any evidence that contradicts their conspiratorial beliefs.

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; agenda; anderson; anonymous; cnn; cooper; guncontrol; internet; newtown; nwo; propaganda; sandyhook; secondamendment
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To: concerned about politics

Did it cross your mind that the news media may not be lining up people who are a nervous wreck, bawling and in tears, to do INTERVIEWS with? It isn’t good television if every question is answered with “sob sob sob”. Plus, the ones who are a wreck aren’t making themselves available for interviews.

And why can’t you believe that some people are good at handling loss? Maybe they are faithful believers who, while grieving, also have a firm conviction that their lost children are in heaven waiting for them.


81 posted on 01/15/2013 10:19:58 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Boogieman

I’ve been somewhat ignoring them, because I thought they were harmless.

But they are not harmless. THey make the entire conservative movement look like idiots. And they make it that much harder to argue for sound gun rights policies, because the media points to THESE lunatics and calls them the face of the gun rights movement.

So people who want to keep guns legal are all said to be hateful idiots who denounce grieving families for not “crying enough” or not “behaving properly”, or for being “stepford wives” or “actors”. (Every one of those was said in THIS forum by people who I assume claim to be conservatives).

It is an embarrassment to this site to treat these conspiracy theories with anything but derision and scorn. Do they really think kids are NOT DEAD? That an entire community faked a shooting, hired John Goodman and other actors, all to push gun control, and that law enforcement and first responders and teachers and hospital personnel all went along with this, pretending that kids were dead when they aren’t?

If not, what is their point? That we shouldn’t care about 20 dead kids because the parents act weird? How insulting is that! It plays right into the “conservatives are heartless bastards” meme.

So now, when I see some idiot claim that a grieving father is “just wrong” because he actually laughed at something, I’m going to call them out for their uncivil, ill-mannered accusations.

I’m sick and tired of supposed conservatives making us all look like nutcases. It’s time to put sanity back into the movement.


82 posted on 01/15/2013 10:29:19 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: potlatch

Did you watch the video? Do you think it looks like a rifle, or as boogieman noted, isn’t it just a shotgun?

I can’t fathom why people are taking the initial, horribly inaccurate reports from the news media, and pretending they are the MOST ACCURATE part of the story. First reports are almost always wrong.

Of course, I bet some people still think Ryan Lanza did the shooting — after all, that’s what the news told us.


83 posted on 01/15/2013 10:31:22 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: max americana

Can’t even keep the conspiracy straight. You actually think a guy got on the news to talk about his dead kid, and NOBODY would notice that his kid didn’t go to the school?

THen how do you think his kid got SHOT? Or do you believe the idiots who see Emilie’s sister and insist that Emilie was still alive with Obama after the shooting?

And if you DO believe that, who do you think they buried in Utah?

Some conspiracy — they take a kid that isn’t dead, who doesn’t go to the school, pretend she is dead, then pose her with the President of the United States, and after all this they bury her alive in Utah.

Sometimes, you just have to spell out the conspiracy so you can see how completely ignorant/ridiculous/absurd/insulting it is.

And I didn’t even touch on how the pictures of the Parker family have them all doing the “devil’s horn” sign, or how their children don’t have legs.


84 posted on 01/15/2013 10:48:46 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Boogieman

I’m beginning to believe that is true — but it still doesn’t excuse the vast majority of sane conservatives who, either out of fear, or a desire to get along, refuse to call out these idiots for what they are.


85 posted on 01/15/2013 10:50:23 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: CharlesWayneCT
It was just an observation. Thought it was strange all the media interviews seemed alike.... no tears, little stories, and fresh physical appearance.

Would expect some differences in how they reacted. Also odd (imo) to give media interviews so soon.

86 posted on 01/15/2013 10:53:14 PM PST by opentalk
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To: CharlesWayneCT

The United Way of Western Connecticut had its webpage offering condolences to the Sandy Hook victims cached by a Google search bot before the shooting event. I expect United Way and you to call many people who question why they posted a page on a horriffic event before the event happened names and demand I be ignored for stating facts and such questions.

That’s what guilty people do when they get caught. They call names and enlist others to ignore anyone who ask questions. Look at former Live United partner, Lance Armstrong. That guy denied everything until he nearly admitted it. And a number of people who accurately questioned his ability to tell the truth were called names along the way.


87 posted on 01/16/2013 1:07:45 AM PST by SvenMagnussen (TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY)
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To: ilovesarah2012

The video shows a shotgun.


88 posted on 01/16/2013 3:49:58 AM PST by Figment
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To: max americana; Bshaw
Supposedly...but there never was any record of an Emilie Parker in the school.

Where did you hear that she wasn't??? Her name is listed with pictures in all the records that I have seen. Please post this "supposed" source of yours.

89 posted on 01/16/2013 4:54:55 AM PST by Uncle Chip
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To: SvenMagnussen
Hey Sven, I've also seen the Sandy Hook story cached on Google dated 9/11/2001 --

Am I supposed to believe that Google knew about it 11 years ago. Don't be so gullible .

90 posted on 01/16/2013 5:12:25 AM PST by Uncle Chip
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To: CharlesWayneCT
But they are not harmless. THey make the entire conservative movement look like idiots. And they make it that much harder to argue for sound gun rights policies, because the media points to THESE lunatics and calls them the face of the gun rights movement.

Yep -- they think that the mark of conservatism is to believe that an entire town of reasonable people, kids, parents, police, pastors and all could carry on a charade and still be doing it a month later.

In an effort to show that they are capable of seeing through LSM propaganda they fall all over themselves for You Tube videos made with LSM news clips by unemployed anonymous dope-smoking bumbleheads.

91 posted on 01/16/2013 5:33:14 AM PST by Uncle Chip
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To: SvenMagnussen
"The United Way of Western Connecticut had its webpage offering condolences to the Sandy Hook victims cached by a Google search bot before the shooting event."

OMG, you must be on to something big. Look... a Google search bot "cached" webpages about Hurricane Sandy on October 1st, 3 full weeks before Hurricane Sandy came into existence! So, either the government is producing hurricanes with Karl Rove's weather machine, or google must secretly own a time machine!


92 posted on 01/16/2013 6:00:38 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: opentalk

“Also odd (imo) to give media interviews so soon.”

The poor families just can’t win. The conspiracy nuts are questioning the existence of the victims because not enough of the families are rushing to do interviews, but you think it’s odd that even a few of them have done interviews. Whatever they do, some people are going to look at it as evidence for their own theories.


93 posted on 01/16/2013 6:05:12 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: CharlesWayneCT

No, it doesn’t excuse them. We should be ridiculing these theories just like we ridicule the 9/11 truthers’ theories, not tolerating them with silence.


94 posted on 01/16/2013 6:09:11 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: concerned about politics
You, fellow FReeper, hit the nail on the head.

While I think that some massive conspiracy ventures into tinfoil hat territory ... neither pols nor the media have the intelligence to pull it off, or the ability to keep quiet about such a thing ... I certainly can imagine a few people walking around touching matches to tinder, just to see what happens.

There's plenty of tinder laying around, as well.

95 posted on 01/16/2013 6:09:17 AM PST by wbill
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To: CharlesWayneCT

“If not, what is their point?”

Most of them won’t give a straight answer to that question, I have found. If you try to pin them down on the implications of their theories, they just don’t answer. It’s all about “unanswered questions”, which is of course meaningless. There will always be unanswered questions about any historical event, that is why people can write books about things a hundred years later and still find new aspects to investigate.


96 posted on 01/16/2013 6:13:59 AM PST by Boogieman
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To: CharlesWayneCT
If the helicopter arrived "much later" then how did it film the cops chasing the suspects running from the school up into the woods and capturing them?

And what happened to the guys they captured?....And the kids left off in a strange mans front yard?....and the laughing parent? The nurse with two different stories,... the teacher saying the shooter's mom was an excellent teacher who worked there......and

97 posted on 01/16/2013 6:14:53 AM PST by wesagain (The God (Elohim) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the One True GOD.)
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To: CharlesWayneCT

you don’t seem to want to find out who the smiling fellow was that took a few seconds to get himself into looking very grieved, from laughter. we’ve been lied to so much that I’m of the opinion that everything needed to be looked @ w/a curious eye. Sorry you get so upset @ curiosity toward 0bama and his ways so easily. Take a deep breath.


98 posted on 01/16/2013 6:29:16 AM PST by stickywillie
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To: wesagain

“And what happened to the guys they captured?....And the kids left off in a strange mans front yard?....and the laughing parent? The nurse with two different stories,... the teacher saying the shooter’s mom was an excellent teacher who worked there......and”.........hush, you’re not supposed to ask questions around here with the new monitors. There’s nothin’ here, just believe the dominant liberal media and obama & be silent.


99 posted on 01/16/2013 6:35:32 AM PST by stickywillie
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To: CharlesWayneCT

BTW, CharlesWayneCT you are reminding me of another great debunker of conspirancy, CNN’s great investigative reporter and well known harbinger of troof, AndersonCooper!
But hey you’re not doing much here but attacking the messagers, why don’t you go against type and try to find some answers to the many inconsistencies as well as a lot of obvious leftist role playing and advocacy pushing regarding the SH shooting. Also don’t forget there are also the typical anti-disinfo put out to disarm truth seekers like the idiot blogger “goldbug” who took a flyer on the Crisis Actors stuff like you mentioned.


100 posted on 01/16/2013 7:49:22 AM PST by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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