Monday, June 14, 2010

Who You?

He's a citizen of the US asking questions of a Congressman, that's who.

Unfortunately, Congressman Bob Etheridge, a Democrat from North Carolina, thinks it's ok to assault citizens on the street:



You insufferable prick.

h/t Hot Air Headlines.
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11 comments:

Bob S. said...

I hope the student files assault charges against that arrogant jerk.

6/14/2010 09:06:00 AM
Bob said...

@Bob S.: I don't know if he'll be able to; congressmen have immunity from prosecutions if they are transiting to/from an active session of Congress, I believe. Patrick Kennedy used this loophole to avoid a DUI arrest a few years ago.

6/14/2010 09:09:00 AM
wally said...

You're right, Bob, he was an insufferable prick, but in his defense, the Congressman behaved pretty badly too.

6/14/2010 03:44:00 PM
Bob said...

@wally: come off it, Walt. If the congressman involved had been Joe "You Lie!" Wilson and the young men with the cameras a pair of Daily Kos bloggers, you'd be howling for Wilson's blood.

6/14/2010 03:49:00 PM
wally said...

Uh-huh. And would you have done a blog entry about it?

6/14/2010 03:57:00 PM
Bob said...

@wally: Oh, it's entirely possible I'd be reacting like many on the Left and in the MSM are, more interested in identifying the two "students" than getting worked up over a congressman assaulting a citizen.

6/14/2010 04:03:00 PM
wally said...

Which MSM would that be, Bob? Just for fun, I checked the websites of the major networks, The New York Times and the Washington Post, as well as Politico and the Daily Kos. They all reported the incident in a straightforward manner. ABC's site did end its story with a quote from a Democratic politician questioning the identity of the students. But it did lead with a non-ambiguous headline: Congressman Assaults Students. And the Washington Post did have a blogger who questioned the student status of the victims. But in none of these examples were the MSM pubs "more interested in identifying the two 'students' than getting worked up over a congressman assaulting a citizen."

Just doing a little fact-checking for ya, Bob. No need to thank me.

6/14/2010 05:35:00 PM
Bob said...

@wally: here's a selection of the stories I was following on Google News:

Bob Etheridge Video: Congressman Gets "Touchy" with Camera Crew, Then Apologizes for How He "Handled" Them.

Dems defend Etheridge, attack Breitbart.

So, who were the young men hassled by Bob Etheridge?

Video: Lawmaker jostles with student.

Get that? Jostles. I even commented on that one.

The New York Times actually ignored the story until Etheridge apologized, then had to play catch-up.

Rep. Bob Etheridge's assault on student has plenty of precedent.

In that story, the "precedent" cited concerned an incident from the Civil War era.

Just some examples. I can probably find others. Shouldn't have to, though.

6/14/2010 05:50:00 PM
Bob said...

@wally: and you might ask yourself, had the congressman in question been a Republican and the two "students" a pair of Code Pink activists, would there have been only 523 stories on the subject in Google News, or would it more likely have been 5023? That's a little MSM technique called ignore the story, and The New York Times engaged in it on this story up until the time that Etheridge issued his apology.

6/14/2010 06:17:00 PM
wally said...

Ah, this is fun. Bob, every single one of your citations is labeled "blog" or "opinion". You once admonished me for judging Fox's news operation based on Hannity and Beck. Remember? Opinion is opinion. And some of your citations are follow-up pieces asking about the identity of these "students", after the publication in question had already run straightforward articles on the incident. None of them excuse or belittle the behavior of the congressman, except for the "jostles" headline, and even there the blogger goes on to say "Having been a college student, I can vouch that we are annoying, and, sometimes, our journalistic techniques lack subtlety. But that is no excuse for batting away people’s cameras and grabbing them. One of the things you hand in at the door of Congress is your ability to assault reporters." As for the New York Times engaging in "ignore the story," all the major news sources online that I could find, including Fox News and the Washington Times, first reported this story today, June 14. The New York Times article is dated 2 pm today, so if the story was suppressed by a liberal cabal, it was only for a few hours at most.

Bob, this story ran "above the fold" on every MSM site I looked at. And yet you can say that the fact that there are "only" 523 stories is evidence of "ignore the story"?? You're twisting yourself into a pretzel in order to making a bogeyman out of MSM.

6/14/2010 07:31:00 PM
Bob said...

@wally: your analogy stinks. You tarnished all of Fox News as right-wing based on the ideology of two pundits, and further, admitted that you don't even watch Fox News to begin with. That the MSM is leftist (in the 90% range) has been established by numerous polls and studies down through the years. I regularly use MSM news stories, it's hard to avoid doing so, so I'm familiar with their tricks and biases.

The Etheridge story was posted on Big Government at 4:55 on Monday morning. I blogged on it i9 the 7:00 hour; most of the conservative blogosphere was up to speed by 9:00 a.m., and the MSM was covering it steadily. The New York Times, however, didn't mention the story until 2:00 p.m., only after Etheridge apologized. This reeks of ignoring the story. NY Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt has chided the paper in his column about ignoring the ACORN story when it was news, and the NY Times (among many others) ignored the John Edwards scandal.

6/15/2010 12:57:00 AM

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