HuffPost stands atop Colorado corpses to falsely smear NRA, et al

Another example of why we claim HuffPost is the Internet's #1 largest* inciter of hatred.
(*It is the #1 most widely-read, advertiser-supported "news" site in the world.)

Here was HuffPost's front page at 5:00pm on Friday, July 20:


Note the copy by the arrow: "Gun Lobby Counts On Short Attention Span: How You Can Help." A "news" story with this strange theme was also positioned just beneath that screaming headline:


We went to the story page, and found out that this "news" story was written by one of HuffPost's most notorious, malicious smear-merchants, Dan Froomkin, whom it claims is its "Senior Washington Correspondent."

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So upon what evidence did HuffPost (Froomkin) base that shocking allegation --- that the "Gun Lobby Counts On Short Attention Span"?

Did the "gun lobby" do or say something since the Colorado massacre that would give rise to such a shocking allegation? Not unless you consider something in this statement --- the only one that the NRA issued --- to constitute a secret message:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the community," an NRA spokesman told the Examiner. "NRA will not have any further comment until all the facts are known."

Did you see anything in there that would indicate the "Gun Lobby Counts On Short Attention Span"? Neither did we.

Turns out this "news" story is based on nothing but an empty accusation by a gun-control activist --- issued while the victims' bodies in Colorado were still warm:

The message here should be clear, said Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center, a group opposed to gun violence. "You put a military level of firepower in the hands of civilians, and this is the natural result," she said. "The lesson that other countries have learned is that you have to restrict access to these instruments that allow people to inflict so much injury and death so quickly." [...]

"The gun lobby is very effective at saying that 'Now is not the time to exploit these events for political purposes,'" Rand said. "Their goal is to delay so that the pressure comes off of policy makers, the immediacy fades and everyone turns their attention to something else."

Really? And upon what evidence does Rand base that shocking allegation? Nothing. Yet HuffPost ran this empty, inflammatory accusation as if it were a fact-based situation.

There is nothing more in the article that would give any credibility whatsoever to the inflammatory, baseless "news" headline that Arianna and/or her minions put at the top of HuffPost's front page, hours after the massacre.

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Is this the first time HuffPost ran such an irresponsible, inflammatory, false "news" headline, mere hours after a tragedy?

No. It is the latest of dozens of examples that we at HUFF-WATCH have documented, in which Arianna (as Editor-In-Chief) has written or signed off on "news" articles that incite hatred against the U.S. military, Israel and Jews, the Tea Party and conservative individuals and organizations --- based on a false, unprovable or decontextualized accusations.

It's also not the first time HuffPost has maliciously employed provable falsehoods in order to smear the NRA, in particular. In the above example, HuffPost published a screaming headline accusation that Gov. Palin favors letting those "on (the) no-fly list buy guns." Just one problem: as we documented in this expose', HuffPost's own article and source material prove Palin never said that.

In another example, HuffPost enabled Froomkin to maliciously libel the U.S. military, then to escalate his attacks --- even though they knew, or should have known that his accusations had been (or were being) debunked:

HuffPost falsely smears the U.S. military (again)
HuffPost published a screaming front-page headline (right) of a screed by Froomkin that accused the U.S. military of committing "collateral murder." HuffPost ignored the fact that the libel had been debunked by other blogs, and even by a show that it religiously covers, "The Colbert Report." Instead of issuing a retraction, HuffPost dug in its heels, and even enabled Froomkin to write a libel-filled follow-up screed, "U.S. Troops Gun Down Iraqi Civilians," which it (again) disguised as a "news" story.

Then, after the January 2011 massacre in Tucson, HuffPost conveyed the insinuation that Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and/or conservative activists were responsible for Jared Laughner's insanity --- even though the evidence pointed towards the radical left. We documented HuffPost's malicious, inflammatory bias and allegations in regards to the Tucson massacre in the following pieces:

HuffPost uses Rep. Giffords as a political prop to falsely accuse conservatives, Sarah Palin of inciting shooter

Arianna's continuing jihad against the reality of the AZ shootings

Then Arianna penned a blog article that used the legacy of a little girl who was killed in the Tucson massacre as a platform atop which to transform this tragedy into a discussion of poverty in America, using what she knew (or should have known) are deceptive statistics:

Arianna continues using a dead 9-year-old girl as political prop

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Want a real laugh, Part 1?

Arianna publicly claimed she prohibited conspiracy theories. Yes, really:

"[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 Beck didn'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."

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Want a real laugh, part 2?

Froomkin is one of Harvard University's "journalism accountability" watchdogs. From Froomkin's bio at HuffPost:

"Froomkin is also Deputy Editor of NiemanWatchdog.org, a website from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University devoted to encouraging accountability journalism."

Does Harvard also have Charles Manson editing a website on sober, peaceful conflict resolution? How about Michael Moore editing one on healthful diets?

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ACTION ITEMS

If you believe HuffPost should start living up to its repeated claims of nonpartisanship, particularly in its coverage of national tragedies, we urge you to do three things:

(1) Make your voice known to HuffPost's senior management here

(2) Consider writing or calling one or more of HuffPost's top advertisers, to let them know your thoughts on what their ad dollars are enabling.
An easy way to approach this is to scan our easy-to-use directory and find one or two corporations that you are a customer of, or have stock in. Your concerns will automatically be given considerably more weight. Also, request a follow-up after they've had a chance to review the evidence; don't let them off the hook, or sweep this under the rug.

(3) Forward the link to this story along to others who support responsible journalism --- particularly journalists!!!

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