Posted on 01/11/2002 6:34:31 PM PST by kattracks
Retired New York City firefighter Kevin O'Kane says that reporters from all the major news organizations were present when a clay sculpture of three of his FDNY brethren raising the American flag over Ground Zero was unveiled on Dec. 20 in Brooklyn.
But only one reporter bothered to mention that the racial make-up of the trio had been altered, he told NewsMax.com in an email complaining about the cover-up on Monday.
For the next three weeks the mainstream press breathed not a word of the fraudulent tribute, even as firefighter O'Kane struggled in vain to get coverage of what he and many of his brethren felt was a politically correct travesty that cheated three rightful FDNY heroes out of their due.
"I called one newspaper after another," O'Kane told NewsMax.com Friday. "Nobody wanted to cover this story."
On Tuesday NewsMax.com broke the story of the hero firefighter's complaint; how he and his brethren were livid that higher-ups in the FDNY had decided to tamper with reality to reflect - not the world famous photograph of the three Caucasian fireman who actually performed the deed - but a more politically correct version that replaced two of the white firemen with an African-American and a Hispanic. (See: Racial Changes Made in Ground Zero Firefighter Tribute)
After the NewsMax report, the story caught fire on talk radio in venues like Al Rantel's KABC broadcast in Los Angeles. By Thursday the Weekly Standard had its own version of the story on its web site, where it was picked up by Fox News Channel's Brit Hume.
But it took till Friday for the story to explode, when WABC radio's Sean Hannity featured a full hour interview with firefighter O'Kane and civil rights activist Lawrence Guyot, who argued that replacing the white firefighters was a good idea. (O'Kane and Guyot will continue the debate on Fox News Channel's cablecast "Hannity & Colmes" Friday night.)
Minutes after Hannity's interview ended, the Associated Press picked up the news that NewsMax.com reported three days earlier, sending the story richocheting around newsrooms all across the country.
"Given that those who died were of all races and all ethnicities and that the statue was to be symbolic of those sacrifices, ultimately a decision was made to honor no one in particular," Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon told the AP.
But the three firefighters who actually raised the flag - Dan McWilliams, George Johnson and Billy Eisengrein said through their lawyer that they were "disappointed."
"It's become something political as opposed to historical," attorney Bill Kelly told the AP.
The bogus sculpture unveiled in December will be cast in bronze in April and put on permanent display at FDNY headquarters unless enough public pressure is brought to bear, O'Kane told NewsMax.
"My fear is that the word won't get out and that this fraud will be erected and future generations will come to regard this politically correct sculpture as a historic fact."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
I can't remember WHEN Newsmax had an original story; most of it looks like they get it right off FR, IMO.
What about CBS? Dan Rather's face could be digitally re-mastered to allow for more blacks on CBS. Dan would look great as a black. Why not?
Too many white faces on the pages of most newspapers? Add some tint, and turn them black. Politically correct balance. What could be better? Who would object?
And for the history books? The folks who flew planes into the WTC shouldn't be represented as only middle easterners. How racist. Throw in some Irish, Blacks, and Germans for this history books.
Yeah, love is hate. War is Peace.
What about CBS? Dan Rather's face could be digitally re-mastered to allow for more blacks on CBS. Dan would look great as a black. Why not?
Too many white faces on the pages of most newspapers? Add some tint, and turn them black. Politically correct balance. What could be better? Who would object?
And for the history books? The folks who flew planes into the WTC shouldn't be represented as only middle easterners. How racist. Throw in some Irish, Blacks, and Germans for this history books.
Yeah, love is hate. War is Peace.
You got that right! I didn't hear sh@t until it was unvieled!
Tragedy in the Aftermath of 9-11 Terrorist Attacks is
Far Worse than Hillary Being Booed
Off the Stage at NYC Firefighters Benefit Concert
reporters from all the major news organizations were present when a clay sculpture of three of his FDNY brethren raising the American flag over Ground Zero was unveiled on Dec. 20 in Brooklyn.
For the next three weeks the mainstream press breathed not a word of the fraudulent tribute
"I called one newspaper after another," O'Kane told NewsMax.com Friday. "Nobody wanted to cover this story."
But it took till Friday for the story to explode...
Minutes after Hannity's interview ended, the Associated Press picked up the news ...sending the story richocheting around newsrooms all across the country.
Until Associate Press newswire service ran the store for three weeks the mainstream media continues to spike the story. That is the story. But the lamestream media will spin it as breaking news when they do report it. And they will report it.
A story within a story. Both stories need to be reported together. Spread the combined story far and wide on the Internet. Has Rush jumped on this?
Mr. O'Kane should have taken three minutes to post an exclusive "Breaking News" story on FR, titled "NY Hero Statue Disses Heros In Act of Political Correctness" and it would have taken two days MAX to get this story out, inclding NewsMax and H&C and O'Reilly and Rush etc...
We are the new MEDIA, JimRob has built it and you must come.
uck-fay the media!
Are you stupid or something? Don't you know it's more important to patrol the boundaries of SC to ask people not to spend money there because they fly a Confederate flag? LOL!
Seriously, the Black leaders don't marry the mothers of their children.
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