Anderson Cooper Goes After ‘Anonymous Internet Trolls’ Pushing Conspiracies About Newtown And Gun

Mediaite ^ | 1/15/13 | Josh Feldman

[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.

[potlatch]

Barbara Olson wrote about it in “Hell To Pay”, I believe that’s the right book as I read several of hers.

Hillary’s thesis, “There Is Only the Fight” was based on her admiration for Saul Alinsky. It was kept hidden until the Clintons left the White House and only allowed to be seen by researchers since. That’s how we know the little we know about it.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Posted 11-Dec 2012:

I wish I could know that you were joking. But sadly, too many people here are not.

So, how did you know to look for that 2 days before the shooting?

Oh wait, you mean you actually looked for that AFTER the shooting? THen how do you know it was from before the shooting?

Oh, because it says 11 Dec?

THe question you have to ask yourself is — how did I know that you were going to raise this point back on December 11, 2 days before the shooting.

After all, it is clear I wrote this on 11 Dec 2012 — it says so right at the top of the post.

Are people really this clueless all the time? Or just on internet postings?

[Uncle Chip]

Actually what she says pours water on that fire.

She sees the kids running to the firehouse, Lanza's car that had been searched because all the doors were open, the broken glass window beside the door, the eery quiet, and then the gunshots followed by the kids streaming out of the school. And another mother was there with her.

The hoaxer conspiratists can't deal with what she says and how she does it because she is too credible. What she sees corroborates the timeline of the police dispatch.

[CharlesWayneCT]

According to the conspiracy theory, that can’t be true, because some news organization told us the rifle was in the trunk, before anybody really knew what was happening. And we all know that news organizations never ever get their facts wrong, especially when they are rushing to judgment.

That is, until they start reporting things that contradict the conspiracy. Then they are clearly lying.

And all those times they come out with later reports based on the results of investigation — well those are the biggest lies of all, because they had time to think about the lie.

See, a conspiracy theory is easy. You pick a few ridiculous reports from before people know anything, throw in the 1st hour’s speculations, and then any thing that contradicts that is just part of the conspiracy.

Yes, it appears people are that gullible.

[potlatch]

OK, you’ll have to forgive me because I am hearing impaired and cannot understand all they say. I watched, they seemed puzzled by the open doors of the car, etc. Then I read some comments that talked of sweatshirts that might have been used to hide rifles by multiple occupants !!

I assumed the comments were about what was said in the video. Just shows you how things can seem different when you can’t properly hear! Thanks for having patience with me.

[potlatch]

Charles, I’m open to any knowledge - why have we seen all the videos of the police opening the trunk and taking out a rifle. It was dark and flashlights were moving around but they did show that.

[potlatch]

— or maybe you were being satorical/sarcastic, and I misunderstood?

[Boogieman]

Well, I like to assume that at least some people are just confused by the media reports, or some misleading youtube videos they have seen. Others, though, are definitely convinced of the conspiracy emotionally, and will fit together whatever evidence they feel fits their preconceived story, and reject anything else, with no real adherence to logic.

I’m actually a fan of a good conspiracy theory, there are a few that I have my pet speculations about. There just aren’t any good conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook, so why pursue an exercise in foolishness?

A big part of the foolishness is the rush to theorize before there has been any official reports, hearings, or evidence released. The theorists are claiming a cover-up, before they can even point to the official “cover story” that contradicts their theory. Say what you will about the other conspiracy theorists, but the JFK crowd waited for the Warren Report to come out, and the 9/11 truthers waited for the 9/11 Commission report to come out too before they went wild with speculation.

I guess they don’t want to be prudent and wait because the left is using Sandy Hook to push gun control urgently. I don’t think they have really thought through the idea that spouting conspiracy theories will somehow counteract Obama and the left’s agenda though. As far as America is concerned, Sandy Hook happened, and we might as well figure out how to stop gun control in the America we live in, rather than stick our heads in the sand and pretend we can wish the event away.

[max americana]

“That was weird as hell! Was his kid supposedly killed?”

Supposedly...but there never was any record of an Emilie Parker in the school.

[Boogieman]

“It’s just unfortunate that these particular idiots seem to be on “our” side.”

Some of these “idiots” are not on our side, I am sure. I believe that there probably are “internet trolls” pushing the most ridiculous theories, but that they are probably the Obot crowd, pretending to be right wingers in order to tarnish us as nutjobs. There are probably a few with FReeper accounts trolling these threads doing just that.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Nothing you mentioned was an oddity. They are all normal things. I have no idea why you think they are "odd". Or why you can insist on "facts" for which you have no evidence whatsoever.

For example, why would it be weird if there was only one shot of the kids being led out? They are all small children, and remarkably maybe the media is still relatively good about some types of privacy. And the area was cordoned off and controlled by the police, so it's not like there was a bunch of people with cameras there ready to shoot pictures.

On the other hand, there isn't just one picture either.

For example:

There are dozens of pictures of kids and their parents leaving the school. You remember one because it is the one that best conveys the image of kids evacuating the school, so it's the one used the most. Doesn't mean it is the only picture.

And there is actually a video of the kids being led out, from which it appears the iconic picture is cut.

The kids were taken down a closed road to the firehouse, and kept inside away from cameras, so most pictures are of kids being led away with their kids.

I watched a couple videos from that day, and you see kids being led around. The school was in lockdown, and they were not evacuating anybody. It would be easy to wait until you have school buses, and take the kids out the back and down the street to the firehouse.

If you watch the vids, you'll see that the school is isolated, and the only way out is past the firehouse. Most everybody including the press were kept out by the firehouse, and most of the video and pictures are from there. Only a couple reporters were close enough to the school (that's where we get the evacuation picture people see), and they well could have been told not to take pictures of the kids.

The people on the scene reported that there were waves of kids; the picture is then meant to be representative of that.

What is the point of the question, btw? Are you suggesting that there were no kids at the school? Do you think there are NOT 20 dead kids? If not, do you think that someone picked 20 kids, put them in the school, and let the rest stay home, and that 600 families are all complicit in this?

Exactly WHAT part of the conspiracy is fed by this question of the evacuation of the kids?

The unanswered questions are all on the part of the people pushing the conspiracy. They just throw a lot of questions around, and let people assume that "questions" means something bad.

Which is why we have to ask -- what is the point. Do you think there were no evacuations? Do you think there were no kids at the school? Do you think they were all killed? What is the conspiracy?

[CharlesWayneCT]

Video of child describing evacuation

Here is a video interviewing a child who evacuated -- her evacuation was a "run" she says to the fire house.

Many of the videos mention that the kids have all been evacuated already; they were held in lockdown, but the reports were from later in the morning.

[rolling_stone]

the real point to be understood is millions of people do not trust our government that has repeatedly lied to us and done unspeakable deeds...fast and furious- benghazi etc....its what makes conspiracy theories possible.

the government is doing nothing to restore confidence but acting to erode it further

[CharlesWayneCT]

Don’t forget that one of the locals was really Actor John Goodman, of “King Ralph” and “Rosanne” fame.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Don’t forget that one of the locals was really Actor John Goodman, of “King Ralph” and “Rosanne” fame.

[DKM]

"The pravda media was unconcerned when conspiracy kooks repeated the “Bush Knew” mantra (including Sen. Hillary Clinton from the floor of the Senate)"

Slightly off topic, but there was a pic of Hillary holding up a newspaper saying the same, but I cannot find a copy of it anywhere on the web today...

[CharlesWayneCT]

There were ambulances up at the school. There was an entire triage set up in the school parking lot. There are pictures of that from the helicopter.

The helicopter was NOT there “almost from the beginning”. It arrived much later. In the shots from the helicopter, most of the parents are already there, you can see hundreds of cars parked out on the street, dozens of officers milling around everywhere. Clearly not “minutes after the shooting”.

No wonder you think it is some conspiracy, you have been given useless inaccurate pieces of information.

But let me ask you — what part of the conspiracy is tied to the question about the evacuation of 600 kids? Do you NOT believe that 600 kids were taken from the school to the firehouse? If not, where do YOU think they were? Do you think they were all at home, and their parents brought them later? Were all the families part of this conspiracy? Do you think all the kids were killed, and they are hiding it? Do you think there were only 20 kids in the school? How do you thnk they chose which 20 kids would be slaughtered?

Or do you think the 20 kids were killed, the town decided to stage this to hide the murders, and they moved the dead bodies into the school?

Seriously — what is the conspiracy about the evacuation? Do you really think the school wasn’t a school, that there were not kids in the school, or what?

[Boogieman]

It wasn’t a rifle, it was a shotgun. Some media sources misidentified it as a rifle on the first day, but if you watch the video, it is clearly a shotgun.

“Adam Lanza brought three weapons inside Sandy Hook Elementary school on December 14 and left a fourth in his car, police said. Those weapons were a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle and two handguns — a Glock 10 mm and a Sig Sauer 9 mm.

In the car he left a shotgun, about which police have offered no details. Lanza used one of the handguns to take his own life, although police haven’t said whether the gun was the Glock or the Sig Sauer.”

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/18/us/connecticut-lanza-guns/index.html

[CharlesWayneCT]

So, what part of the conspiracy is played out by having actors posing for the actual parents? Do you think that nobody in the school knows who the real parents are, and would therefore catch the imposters?

Or do you think the entire town is part of this conspiracy? And the media is all going along?

Why do you think that an actor is a better spokesperson for a cause than a truly grieving parent?

Why do you think they are actors? Do you think that when a person suffers a tragedy, they will never again laugh at anything?

Have you never seen grieving people before? Are you totally unaware that laughing is part of the grieving process for many people? Have you never heard the phrase ‘nervous laughter’?

You have absolutely nothing here. There is nothing to be here. It is all some bizarre lunacy. It is a sad, pathetic, and exasperating display of ignorance.

[CharlesWayneCT]

maybe you should teach a class on the appropriate grieving methods. It is clear that many people have no idea the wide range of methods people have to handle loss and grief.

Many people simply segregate the loss, and shut it out, and refuse to think about it. They tell nice stories, without letting themselves remember that their child is gone; any tiny little thing will set them off in an emotional dispair, like if someone walks up to them during the story and says “I’m so sorry your child is gone”.

Most of this conspiracy theory is based on a childishly ignorant lack of understanding of the range of human emotions.