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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

The Attack Was Not

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  October 24th, 2008 at 01:33 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The attack in Pennsylvania was no attack. The young lady either needs jail time or mental help or both.

For the members of the left now gloating, please remember we correct our stories. You do not.

[UPDATE]: Moe Lane here, and I’d like to offer an apology… to Constant Reader Han Pritcher, who I yelled at the beginning of the thread yesterday. I’m sorry, Han: I can only plead heat of the moment, coupled with righteous indignation at what appeared to be at the time a contemptible act of violence against a woman, which is something that pushes every button that I own. I regret any harshness that resulted: again, my apologies for the rudeness. As for everyone I banned… suffer. I enjoyed tossing all of you, I don’t regret it in the slightest, and you know and I know that the truth or falsity of this story wouldn’t have mattered to any of you at all.

And that last bit is most assuredly your problem, not mine.

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COMMENTS

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  • ScottWP

    the “fake but accurate” meme.

    I’m glad it isn’t true; I would hate to think things have gone that far.

    What in God’s name was she thinking?

  • Hooke

    You should really run a correction on
    this one

    Since Democratic and republican, christian and muslim Congresspeople were all targeted by the same attack, making it extremely unlikely that it had anything to do with partisanship, or specifically the Franken campaign, as was implied by your story. See the Star Tribune article.

  • Han_Pritcher

    I appreciate that. My views on violence against women mirror your own. My fiance means everything to me, and I would simply obliterate anyone who would harm her.

  • Moe_Lane

    However, I think that your comment at the end was pretty much all the “correction” that the story needed. Particularly since I consider the blackshirts we encountered protesting the RNC pretty much the extreme wing of the Democratic Party anyway. God knows you guys aren’t shy about trying to do own-goals.

    I believe that we’re finished, so you can stop threadjacking now? We’re finished, so you can stop threadjacking now.

  • ZootSuit

    As I posted here, I had my doubts about the woman’s story and apologize for not coming out stronger against her story. However, as Moe wrote, it is shocking to hear of something like that happening to a woman and our first instincts are to support her.

    That says something good about our humanity.

  • GremlinJones

    will apologize for calling me a psychopath for questioning the story? (I won’t hold my breath)

    Crazy what people will do in the heat of the fight. Pretty disgusting that she tried to push all the racial and sexual buttons here to inflame people – I hope she gets help.

  • Han_Pritcher

    But I was not willing to post further in that thread. Moe ordered me out, and given the heated nature of the thread I knew I wasn’t going to last the night if I continued.

    What I simply cannot fathom is why people like Tim accused me of excusing what the purported villain had done. The phrase “PMITA prison” should have told him and everyone else what I thought.

  • Tamblin

    Thank you for front paging this.

  • MikeO

    I called you a psychopath because of your “hide the ball” argument style.

    Oh, and I did that on a different thread.

    As I said, I know your kind.

  • Martin_A_Knight

    If the parties were reversed, the New York Times would keep reporting as if Todd’s story were true up until November 5th.

  • ifonly

    Thank you Erick – front-paging this is a very decent thing to do.

    I pray for that young woman; I cannot imagine what would compel her to do something like this.

  • Hooke

    I’m not trying to snark, but things that get run on the front page, especially inflammatory stories, should get corrected there as well. Doing so makes RedState more reputable, and I applaud Erick for doing so. But it’s not something that you can pick and choose.

    Considering that Erick made the issue of corrections part of his post, I don’t see this as threadjacking.

    And when TPM ran a story citing the CNN BS interview where they misquoted NR calling her incompetent and other nasty things, TPM ran the retraction immediately, and on the front page. Saying that the Right corrects stories but the Left does not isn’t helpful to anyone, IMO.

  • bk

    He has some experience in this sort of thing.

  • PaRep

    BADLY !!!!!

  • tankertodd

    What sets us apart from our Leftie archenemies (to our detriment in the short term) is that we value truth over politics. I’m glad to see Drudge and Fox update the story. Glad to see Redstate do the same.

    Let’s set the example for Kos and other bottom-dwellers.

    For this woman to pull this stunt is pitiful, but I’m glad that it got resolved immediately, in direct contrast to the Duke lacrosse travesty by a Democrat DA running for office. She needs to be criminally prosecuted and then the appropriate punishment and assistance.

    I guess the tip off for many of us was the backwards “B.”

  • Martin_A_Knight

    [n/t]

  • quill67

    I also notice she is from College Station, Texas. I don’t know if she is a student at Texas A&M, but if she is I am very embarrased. Every Aggie used to know the Aggie Code of Honor:

    ?An Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do.?

    If she is an Aggie, she should know this. She not only filed a false report, but by her actions, she was trying to influence the election–stealing people’s votes. This is just as bad as voting twice and worthy of lengthy jail time.

  • Moe_Lane

    “Defensive” would imply that I agreed with you.

  • Hooke

    .

  • MuskegonCritic

    It’s pretty remarkable how civilized the American people are during an election year. On both sides they exercise an amazing amount of self restraint, though tempers run high.

    America is awesome.

  • bk

    Was she trying to turn people off toward Obama?

    –or–

    Was she trying to make it look like McCain people planted it and therefore help Obama?

  • Moe_Lane

    NT

  • JLenardDetroit

    October 23rd, 2008 18:55/CDT we are sure this one will get a full anal-probe type investigation by the MSM.
    …
    HOWEVER, if the ATM tapes do show fraud on her part, and therefore filing a false-report, I’ll WANT HER PROSECUTED ALSO (not EXCUSED like Democrats do on their side – excuse away Criminality). – ME

    Was worthy of repeat, and again, and again, THIS WOMAN MUST BE MADE EXAMPLE OF! but also reminds me of excuses that keep being made, and now the woman has a book coming out, for the false accuser of the Duke team in that rape case (of much more serious and direct accusations of identified persons).

    The MSM will indeed attempt to provide the “Guilt by association” angle they dismiss if implied with Obambam to Ayers, Wright, Rezco, etc… and stretch the concept to imply/suggest (if not out-right state) that since this event was fictional that somehow that means ALL “accusations” against Lefties should be dismissed as “false.”

    There is still a McCain bus with a bullet hole in it (did someone need to be killed for that to matter?)… The persons home that could’ve caught fire when signs were fire-bombed has not been dismissed as incorrect (and actually still ignored by MSM), McCain/Palin supporters in NY where still verbally/physically assaulted during a march, phrases calling Palin a C* (IN PRINT ON SHIRTS) still go unreported as hate, etc… and on… and on… and on…

  • E_Pluribus_Unum

    To this little jewel…

    Saying that the Right corrects stories but the Left does not isn’t helpful to anyone, IMO.

    I would answer with this thought.

    The Right corrects stories. The left does not. If once on a thousand times the left runs a correction on the same front page where they delivered the smear, or once in the lead televised news slot, I’d be shocked.

    As for what is helpful to whom, I’d say that giving the left and Right media moral equivalence is not helpful to anyone. I bet you think that Georgia and Russia were both equally responsible for Russia’s invasion (which is what Obama apparently believes, since he says so).

  • Raven

    You don’t carve something in your face out of stupidity, usually…

    (though I must admit of 2 cases where people did similar things: 1 guy carved stuff in his leg and a woman blew her foot off with a shotgun trying to get rid of a corn…)

  • kowalski

    Or more accurately, I love Drudge and I sometimes fear him. He’s a great guy and his news is always fresh and current or funny, but there’s one big problem that he has, and always will have, because he’s self-edited:

    When he makes mistakes, they’re usually mistakes that happen because he was trying to “get there first” on a really big story without Editors, as he likes it.

    There are special rules that apply to Drudge’s big splashy headline stories as a result, especially where politics is concerned. In general, the bigger and splashier the headline on Drudge, the longer I give myself just looking at it in my chair, wondering: “what if this isn’t true?” before I click on it.

    It’s happened before, and there should be a rule:

    On anything that seems almost too big to be true on Drudge, wait 24 hours or at least disclaim it if the story has a lot of very nebulous qualities, as this one did.

    Finally, one thing should be made clear: Matt Drudge is not a reporter. He’s not an essayist, he’s not an analyst, and he’s not a commentator. He’s not a blogger, either. He’s not a professional for anyone other than Matt Drudge, Inc.

    He’s an aggregator of news and a reporter of other people’s reporting. That means that anything you see on Drudge is at best a secondhand story. The bigger and more important a secondhand story seems to be, the more important it is to verify it.

    BTW I’ll leave the psychoanalysis of this woman to another, less-qualified individual. ;) The McCain campaign did the correct thing by being cautious, and they should be applauded for that.

  • PaRep

    Carved her Initials in the top of his hand, Needless to say he was drunk & on something else, But the end of the story is he ended up killing himself

    People like this HAVE SERIOUS DEMONS!!!

  • Enough_is_Enough

    and proven to be so.

    But i wonder. What if this had been some 50 years ago. Could we have seen lynch mobs in the streets.

    And we wonder why not all black people have yet gotten over slavery and Jim Crowism?

  • Martin_A_Knight

    [n/t]

  • mcc410x

    Oh, and her arrest photo has her wearing a University of Tennessee sweatshirt. Not sure what that says, perhaps it was the “Volunteer” part of it.

  • terilyn

    that I wish I had been more firm in my belief that she was lying. I’m so glad, truly, that it was not true.

    What on earth was her goal?????

  • ETCartman

    At the time, I too, like Mr. Lane, wanted heads on a stick, especially one belonging to the Capo de Marxistas, Barack Hussein Obama for inciting the entire thing with his “get in their faces” line.

    Seeing this as a hoax gives me only slight pause to the fact this scenario is indeed possible with extreme moonbats, but the story should have been vetted much more before anyone went to press.

    Kudos to those who saw right through this girl’s disregard of many things, including the possibly of inciting the beginnings of an actual race war.

    My request: Mentally deficient, criminal intent, looking for the proverbial 15 minutes, or a combination of all three, this girl should first be charged with whatever the maximum can be under Pennsylvania law and then undergo a battery of psychological tests to ensure competence to stand trial.

  • Hooke

    Are you sure you know what that means? I pointed out that a news blog that does not correct it’s stories when they turn out to be BS hurts it’s own credibility.

    Making the categorical statement that the Right corrects it’s stories and the Left does not is not helpful to discourse because it is easily shown to be false. Actually, I guess it could be seen as helpful to the left since undermining the credibility of a blog like RedState can only be in the interests of the left.

    Your statement, that the number of false stories run and then not retracted is significantly higher on the left than the right is a statistical argument, and if you want to make that you’ll have to show some numbers.

    As for Georgia and moral equivalence, did you really think I was going to fall for a straw-man? You’ll have to do better than that.

  • iamregistered

    [Such a pity. - Moe Lane]

  • MJCole

    …but it’s clear you don’t apologize for them. How about retracting that “douchebag” remark?

  • Adrian2112

    or is moe lane kind of an assh[*]le?

    [Translation: Victory! - Moe Lane]

  • bs

    …all of which seem to want to be able to tapdance back to DKos and sing about getting banned from Redstate.

  • Moe_Lane

    :pause:

    Huh. Your coat’s brown.

    :ka-snick:

    Be a little less confrontational, next time. Dong ma?

  • MJCole

    Someone on this site posts an insult based on an untrue story, then retracts without an apology…and I’m being confrontational. Very interesting.

  • MJCole

    “…and I’m being confrontational when I call them on it.”

  • David_Hinz

    She has done this sort of thing before.

    From the Pittsburgh Post-Dispatch

    In March, Ms. Todd was asked to leave a grass-roots group of Ron Paul supporters in Brazos County, Texas, group leader Dustan Costine said. He said Ms. Todd posed as a supporter of former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and called the local Republican committee seeking information about its campaign strategies.

    “She would call the opposing campaign and pretend she was on their campaign to get information,” Mr. Costine said last night. “We had to remove her because of the tactics she displayed. After that we had nothing to do with her.”

    About a month earlier, he said, Ms. Todd sent an e-mail to the Ron Paul group saying her tires were slashed and that campaign paraphernalia had been stolen from her car because she supported Mr. Paul.

    “She’s the type of person who wants to be recognized,” Mr. Costine said.

  • PaRep

    It’s the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

    But No biggie

  • David_Hinz

    I looked right at that link, SAW gazette and WROTE dispatch…

    whoa..