Don't leave it to Cleaver, part 5
By Scott
if you've been following the case of the racial slurs fabricated on March 20 by black Democratic congressmen seeking to tar the Obamacare protesters on Capitol Hill, you know that media outlets instantly broadcast the allegations as facts based on a press release and/or statements made by Reps. James Clyburn, Emanuel Cleaver, John Lewis and Andre Carson. Andrew Breitbart has offered a reward now up to $100,000 for anyone who produces video or audio evidence of the purported racial slurs. Yesterday Washington Post ombudman Andrew Alexander reviewed the Post's contribution to the fabrication.
Alexander's column is, as one might expect, not entirely satisfactory. On the key point, however, Alexander concedes that the Post has no video or audio evidence to support the congressmen's allegations. Alexander writes: "If there is video or audio evidence of the racial slurs against Lewis and Carson, it has yet to emerge. Breitbart insists they made it up.' If so, they're good actors."
Alexander then discusses one reporter who saw Carson behaving in an agitated manner in connection with the alleged racial slur. Alexander professes to be impressed, but how utterly lame this is.
Alexander quotes a spokesman for Rep. Lewis, the most respected of the congressmen: "Through spokesman Justin Ohlemiller, Carson stands by his assertion. The spokeswoman for Lewis, Brenda Jones, insists he and his chief of staff heard repeated uses of the N-word. They are declining interviews, she said, because they don't want to 'fan the flames of destructive language.'" I guess it takes a big, big man to make such a heated charge and then not to back it up when called on it.
Alexander concludes his column with this observation: "Breitbart's $100,000 challenge may be publicity-seeking theater. But it's part of widespread conservative claims that mainstream media, including The Post, swallowed a huge fabrication. The incidents are weeks old, but it's worth assigning Post reporters to find the truth. After all, a civil rights legend is being called a liar. That aside, there's serious money at stake." Well, thanks.
Three weeks after the Post's report of the racial epithets, there is no evidence to substantiate them other than the congressmen's say-so. It is extremely unlikely that the incident occurred as alleged without video or audio evidence. With his call for additional investigation, Alexander somehow misses this basic fact.
Perhaps more understandably, Alexander also fails to take account of the great interest of the Pelosi Democrats in depicting the opposition to Obama's national socialism as racist, or of the efforts of the Democrat/media axis to do so. There is a scandal here hiding in plain sight, but it is beyond the Post ombudsman's powers of observation. |
