To: chartseer who wrote (117647 ) 11/15/2011 3:06:36 PM From: joseffy 2 Recommendations Respond to Gabrielle Giffords Special Ruined by Gratuitous Attack on Sarah Palin, Tea Party Mark Whittington | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 11/15/2011news.yahoo.com ABC News "20 20" special with Diane Sawyer that chronicled the struggle of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to regain her faculties after a brain injury as the result of a shooting in January was-for the most part-heart-warming and inspirational. was ruined by a gratuitous attack on tea party opponents of health care reform and on Sarah Palin toward the end of the one-hour special. A short segment showed Giffords confronting an angry crowd of constituents at a town hall meeting. Palin was shown briefly, as was the infamous cross hairs map . shown without context or detail. As Giffords is deservedly a national heroine because of how far she has recovered, the segment gave the clear impression of tea partiers as an angry mob and Sarah Palin as the cause of the shooting . ABC News and Sawyer committed journalistic malpractice dredging up the old accusations without also showing evidence that debunked them. Palin and her map had nothing to do with Giffords' shooting, as was implied in the segment. Jared Loughner, Giffords' assailant, was an insane man who likely never heard of Palin and certainly was unaware of the cross hairs map. Yet ABC chose not to mention this. Giffords has gotten the best health care available in the world, including many hours of physical and occupational therapy. Under Obamacare, this kind of treatment would be less likely to be available to Americans, even with the ability to pay. the mainstream media had to take its partisan swipe , lending a discordant note to what otherwise was a beautiful story.
