Scroll for huge updates --- facts that prove these allegations are false at best, and were lies from the start
Previously:3/7/10: HuffPost smears Tea Party again: This time as racist and anti-immigrant; users unleash hate (HuffPost: "Approved!!!")
11/17/09: "Peace" activists physically assault peaceful Tea Partiers; how did HuffPost play it?
Also: 3/20/10: Did HuffPost claim that black people are "the laziest people ever"?
As shown below, HuffPost's splash headline on the afternoon of March 20, 2010, discussed President Obama's speech to rally House Democrats to vote for his healthcare takeover plan. Directly beneath that story, however, was HuffPost's latest smear against the Tea Party, using false charges of racism:
Let's take a nice close-up look at that teaser:
Note that the headline doesn't say "Members of Congress allegedly called...," or "Allegation: Members of Congress..." The headline makes a declarative, factual assertion.
Wow. That's some sign, hm? Unfortunately, HuffPost's ace Washington "reporter" who filed the story, Sam Stein (more on him a bit later), didn't ask the name of the protester who held that sign, to determine if he/she is actually a member of the Tea Party --- or is a leftist infiltrator. (Here are some of the many documented instances of radical leftists committing phony hate crimes, including racist threats, which are then falsely blamed on conservatives and the "right wing": 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.)
So did HuffPost have any proof that any member of Congress was called a "N****r" by one or more Tea Party protesters?
You be the judge. Here's the copy from the article describing the incident --- in its entirety:
A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'ni--er.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a "faggot," as protesters shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president's speech, shrugged off the incident.
Does not basic journalistic ethics demand that if one is going to smear an individual or group with a charge as incendiary as having used the "n" word, that the reporter provide one iota, one shred, one kernel of tangible proof?
In normal "news" rooms, the answer is yes. But apparently, HuffPost thinks it doesn't need any proof in order to smear people and organizations with charges of racism --- just as it did here, barely two weeks ago:
3/7/10: HuffPost smears Tea Party again: This time as racist and anti-immigrant; users unleash hate (HuffPost: "Approved!!!")
Ironically, it was only several months ago, on November 8, 2009, that a HuffPost published this screed by one of its "reporters," Jason Linkins, about another online newspaper's shoddy journalistic ethics:
In short, the facts Corsi obtained torpedo the premise of his piece, which, I remind you, is that the "shooter advised [the] Obama transition." Were this being written for a responsible journalistic entity, some creature called an "editor" would have stepped in and said, "Hey, Jerome, you realize that by your own findings, you article is complete horseshit, right?" But this is World Net Daily, written by and for complete charlatans.
Pot calling the kettle black, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Even more ironically, it was only several weeks ago that Ms. Huffington claimed that "no one approved by HuffPost" makes incendiary charges against others, to deflect Roger Ailes' recounting of the vicious ad hominem attacks on him, on her pages. (Of course, it turns out that Ms. Huffington was once again not quite telling the truth, as documented here). More, according to her:
[At HuffPost] there are guidelines that have to be followed -- and they include a prohibition on conspiracy theories or inflammatory claims. [...]
For context, it's good to remember that Glenn Beckdidn't come out of nowhere. He's the latest example of what the great historian Richard Hofstadter called "the paranoid style in American politics," which he defined as angry minds that traffic in "heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy," and that see "the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms... always manning the barricades of civilization."
Sound familiar?
Beck preys on fear, political instability, and economic suffering, which, in turn, means that Fox News profits from fear, political instability, and economic suffering.
So who is Sam Stein? Does he have any journalistic training at all, to have so grievously violated Ms. Huffington's "standards" and "principles"? Get this: Stein's bio claims:
"he has a masters from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism."
We at Huff-Watch have documented Stein's journalistic ineptitude on vital matters. If Stein is representative of Columbia's GSJ, then we'd argue its accreditation should be reviewed --- pronto.
So what kinds of user comments did this maliciously inflammatory, proof-less "news" story incite --- and which HuffPost chose to publish?
Here's a sampling of the peaceful, policy-compliant comments that users submitted in response to the incitement of this story, each of which appeared only because HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish it:
(Note: Users with more than 25 "fans," meaning they are not hit-and-run "trolls," whom Ms. Huffington likes to blame for "offensive comments," are bolded)
imright59 4 fans permalink
the time is right for fighting in the streets!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted 09:31 PM on 3/20/2010
nicole473 541 fans permalink
Yeah, let's hear all you baggers claiming that you aren't r@cist again.
This makes me want to kick all of their ugly_butts out of the country!!
Posted 08:49 PM on 3/20/2010
zee12 10 fans permalink
Bring out the dogs. Round them up. Take them at their words, which are direct threats of bodily harm, and throw them into jail. Include the editors, publishers, radio and TV persons at Fox news for inciting hate crimes, riots and treason.
They want rule of law, give it to them.
Posted 05:22 PM on 3/20/2010
DaveLister 138 fans permalink
Teabaggers are violent and racist. [...]
Posted 05:33 PM on 3/20/2010
intotheabyss 15 fans permalink
The only thing missing from this disgusting teabagger display of ignorance and hatred was their white hooded robes. They are nothing but belligerent cowards. There is nothing Republicans can say to justify this type of behavior. That any of them are even trying is a testament to how low they've sunk.
Posted 02:27 PM on 3/21/2010
hardcenter 5 fans permalink
We can no longer dismiss the Teabagger/Repugnican thugs as simply ignorant and classless. Which they are. They are morphing into something truly dangerous and the sooner someone in authority with some sanity moves to get the situation under control the safer we will all be. [...]
Posted 03:14 PM on 3/21/2010
PansyRose 4 fans permalink
These tea baggers are actually quite sad. They are mostly uneducated and unable to keep up with the changing world. The main thing they hate is having a black man as President. They want to go back to the early 1900's when minorities and even women had no rights. They just cannot understand today's world. All they can do is hate and want to kill someone. [...]
Posted 03:06 PM on 3/21/2010
shigeru permalink
[...] They are racist, hate filled people who long to return much of the US to the fabled days of the ante-bellum South. When rich men were oligarchs and everyone else was a slave, indentured or chattel.
Posted 05:20 PM on 3/20/2010
Politiplasm 8 fans permalink
I'm sure these same people were overjoyed at the murder of MLK. They aren't gone just yet.
Posted 06:39 PM on 3/20/2010
H321 86 fans permalink
It was never about healthcare. Obama blew open to seedy nature of these once-closeted racists and bigots and want folks like me to be hanged and murdered for the crime of having brown skin.
Posted 07:25 PM on 3/20/2010
Erdgeist 106 fans permalink
These same dregs, apparently, have not read the Constitution either which begins with "We the People" which is a wonderful expression of democracy and socialism -- not capitalism and individualism.
Posted 08:01 PM on 3/20/2010edgarcaycedoc 92 fans permalink
bluemirror 44 fans permalink
The Tea Party movement is threatning violence if the bill passes.
Posted 08:10 PM on 3/20/2010
What is it that T-b@ggers have been telling us?? "It's not about race." NOW we know it indeed is about race. It also is about homophobia. It is about anything that the T-b@ggers oppose, and anyone who oppose them are (expletive deleted--both "N" and "F").
Posted 05:23 PM on 3/20/2010
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A reminder of HuffPost's claims that it upholds the highest levels of journalistic integrity
"We are increasingly seen... as an Internet newspaper, not positioned ideologically in terms of how we cover the news."
- Arianna Huffington, May 22, 2009
"[T]he news is not right-wing news or left-wing news, it's the news. And that will be the sensibility, that will basically permeate our news coverage."
- Arianna Huffington, May 3, 2005
"A lot of the discontent with traditional journalism is because too many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned."
- Arianna Huffington, July 29, 2008
"[Huffington] is offended and bewildered by the suggestion that other news outlets think she's getting a free ride. She sees herself as the future of journalism, not the end of it."
- Time interview with Arianna Huffington, May 19, 2009
Oh, if those claims were only true --- what a different site HuffPost would be.
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UPDATE 1, Mar. 23: GatewayPundit compiles vital evidence that shows what HuffPost alleges did NOT happen
And Jim Hoft, GP entrepreneur, takes square aim at HuffPost in particular:
MEDIA FRAUD– More Proof That the Leftist Media Lied About Racist Attacks On Black Reps While They Ignored Vulgar Attacks By Lib Politicians
Excerpt:On Saturday the leftist media reported on a horrible story from their sources at the anti-military Jew-hating conservative-hating Huffington Post. The media claimed that members of the Congressional Black Caucus were called n*ggers and spat on by tea party protesters as they walked from the Longworth office building to the Rayburn office building. At least one report said that it was “a chorus” of racist hatred. Reporters from ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX News, (including Bill O’Reilly), MSNBC, etc. reported on this horrible story.
Unfortunately, it was a fake. They had no evidence… Nothing. It was totally made up.
In fact, a video was later released that proved that there was no “chorus” of racist hatred and no one screamed the n-word. It was all a lie.
Now here is more proof.
There were several cameras filming the democratic representatives as they walked to the Rayburn Office Building. And, the representatives had at least two cameras filming the entire event. (It was almost as if they were expecting something to happen?)
Read it all... and see all the pictures, and all the videos. Awesome work, Jim.
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UPDATE 2, Mar. 25: More evidence at GatewayPundit shows what HuffPost alleges did NOT happen; all the radical leftist political violence that HuffPost chose not to cover
Call Off the Race Hustlers… The Black Caucus Members Lied
Also, here is a special report by Black-And-Right about radical leftist violence and terrorism.
More: "Unhinged: The Mugshot Collection," by Michelle Malkin, and "The Media's Myth of Right Wing Violence," by the Media Research Center.
Funny, we've never seen any of these items covered at HuffPost, or attributed to the radical left.
.
Posts
dwt I'm a fan of this user 27 fans permalink
It's not about ideas or actual issues with these brown shirted, jack booted cretins.
It's all about race and homosexuality.
These so called Teabaggers are incapable of rational thought. They are purely and simply the absolute bottom sucking dregs not only of our society, but of humanity in general. [...]
Posted 09:49 PM on 3/20/2010