Shocker: Media Rushes To Blame Colorado Shootings On Tea Party Member
Via Breitbart, here’s an exchange which was broadcast on ABC News between anchor George Stephanolpoulos and investigative reporter Brian Ross who were covering the shootings in a theater in Aurora, Colorado during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
The movie has gotten some (rather silly, I think) political attention of late because of the name of one of the characters. Stephanolpoulos and Ross were quick to push the shooting into the world of politics too:
Stephanolpoulos: I’m going to go to Brian Ross. You’ve been investigating the background of Jim Holmes here. You found something that might be significant.
Ross: There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.
Stephanolpoulos: Okay, we’ll keep looking at that. Brian Ross, thanks very much.
That’s…some pretty thin gruel. Jim Holmes is a pretty common name. That there’s a guy involved in the Colorado Tea Party with the same name as the shooter is evidence of exactly nothing, and it’s the worst sort of agenda-driven reporting to leap to that conclusion and mention it on live television before any sort of confirmations are made.
By the way, a search of the FEC individual contribution disclosure database shows all sorts of contributions from people with the name James Holmes to Democrat committees and candidates. Should we leap to conclusions about them too?
Even if the James Holmes in this tea party group is the same guy as the theater shooter, Ross didn’t know that at the time he made the accusation on air.
Update: It’s been confirmed that the shooter and the tea partier are no the same person. ABC News has apologized.
I’m thinking the tea party Jim Holmes might have a pretty good case for defamation.
Tags: brian ross, george stephanopoulos, media bias, tea party
