Color me surprised.
The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded.
Reporter David Singleton was the first to report this allegation, based on his own account. News organizations all across the country repeated the allegation, including the Burlington Free Press, which penned an editorial accusing Sarah Palin of inciting hate.
The only hate Sarah Palin has incited is from the left and it’s directed at her.
Agent Bill Slavoski said he was in the audience, along with an undisclosed number of additional secret service agents and other law enforcement officers and not one heard the comment.
“I was baffled,” he said after reading the report in Wednesday’s Times-Tribune.
He said the agency conducted an investigation Wednesday, after seeing the story, and could not find one person to corroborate the allegation other than Singleton.
Slavoski said more than 20 non-security agents were interviewed Wednesday, from news media to ordinary citizens in attendance at the rally for the Republican vice presidential candidate held at the Riverfront Sports Complex. He said Singleton was the only one to say he heard someone yell “kill him.”
“We have yet to find someone to back up the story,” Slavoski said. “We had people all over and we have yet to find anyone who said they heard it.”
Will the Times-Tribune be printing a retraction?
[Times-Tribune Metro Editor Jeff] Sonderman said, “We stand by the story. The facts reported are true and that’s really all there is.”
That’s really all there is.
A reporter invents a story. The story is repeated again and again. The story is used to support allegations of inciting hate reminiscent of church bombings during the civil rights era. But the story is false, and the paper refuses to acknowledge that the story was fabricated.
And that’s all there really is.
It’s true if they say it is.
I told you, the truth is relative in this game.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Assasination plots are not that new. Wonder what it was in for the reporter who fabricated the story.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:02 am
I certainly agree that we should wait for a reality check before jumping to conclusions by things reported in the press … think WMDs and Iraq.
But this was just one claim out of many regarding violent and hateful speech at Palin rallies … and many have been documented in a plethora of videos.
Charity, don’t expect a political campaign predicated upon fear to generate anything but hate … that is what it’s intended to do.
October 17th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Your headline is made up. You don’t know what the reporter heard or didn’t hear. Is what he reported so hard for you to believe?
I heard Sarah Palin say Obama “pals around with terrorists.” Are you going to say that’s made up too? I didn’t hear McCain reject that hateful lie the other night.
And how many posts have you written about the Downing Steet memo? You seem to be missing the forest for the trees.
October 17th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Charity don’t need no steenkin’ facts. Remember, it’s the Democrats that are the true party of racists, right? And Palin’s a genius too, probably because she hears those same crazy god-voices that Charity does. It’s only lying when liberals do it. When cons do it, it’s a partisan witch hunt or the liberal media’s fault.
The idea that she could be wrong about any of this (especially her perverted ideology) never seems to occur to her. It’s all our fault. Buckley and the other so-called conservative intellectuals are right. The movement has been hijacked by idiot whackjobs incapable of thinking or introspection.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
The movement has been hijacked by idiot whackjobs incapable of thinking or introspection.
I don’t think this phrase applies to Charity, and I don’t think that kind of language advances your position.
It is infuriating to see what neo-cons like George W. Bush have done to this country, but cooler heads make better arguments, and it’s always better to be respectful in comments on someone else’s blog.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
“Buckley and the other so-called conservative intellectuals are right.”
Well, in this case it appears that his son is backing Obama now…so he must be wrong as well.
October 20th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Charity,
Here is an admittedly-leftist website, with several instances of genuinely vile attacks on the organization ACORN. Link
Although it is not a direct link to instances of threats to Obama which were shouted out at McCain and Palin rallies, it is an example of the bullying/threatening nature of many McCain/Palin supporters.
ACORN is an organization to empower the poor, give them a political voice, help them to register to vote, and so on. It is in no way an organization which promotes fraudulent voting. By law, ACORN must remit all voter registrations they collect, even ones blatantly fraudulent,e.g. Mickey Mouse. What they do is highlight ones which they believe or suspect to be fraudulent, to alert those in charge of verifying the registrations. There has been at least one case where the highlightings were ignored by the authorities, who then accused ACORN of submitting fraudulent voter registrations.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
‘God” allegation made up by Charity Tensel
Sorry, Charity. I’ve looked for hard evidence of a “god” but I haven’t found it. I must therefore conclude absolutely that you made up the whole thing.
Really, what other reasonable conclusion is there?
October 20th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Oooh, ya got me, Odum. Except…
“We have yet to find someone to back up the story.”
Can you say the same for the God thing?
It’s interesting that you people keep bringing God up on this blog. Funny, I always thought this blog was about politics.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Yeah, who has backed up the God story? I’m curious. God is fair game, Charity. Remember, he told you to stop blogging last year and then went ahead and changed his mind…
October 21st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Haik:
“The movement has been hijacked by idiot whackjobs incapable of thinking or introspection.
I don’t think this phrase applies to Charity, and I don’t think that kind of language advances your position.”
I think it most certainly applies to Charity, in that the reality she believes in doesn’t seem to really exist outside of her own mind and Townhall.com. Things are only bad when the liberals do it.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 am
Yeah, JD, God is very relevant to this post, this post about a reporter making up a story about something he heard at a Palin rally. Very relevant, indeed.
Wait, how is that again?
So, JD, are you saying that I am the only person who has ever said that God is real? Wow, you really need to get out more.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
“are you saying that I am the only person who has ever said that God is real”
Are you saying that one reporter you targeted is the only one who said someone shouted “Kill Him” at two different Palin rallies?
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
“So, JD, are you saying that I am the only person who has ever said that God is real? Wow, you really need to get out more.”
No, not at all. Like the rest of ‘em, outside the voices in your head, you haven’t offered any proof, that’s all.