Another viral video broke this morning on Big Government, in this video, two students working on a project see Congressman Etheridge leaving a Nancy Pelosi fundraiser. As the Congressman approaches them, one student (who was holding a video camera) asked Etheridge if he supported the Obama agenda.


When you watch the video you see:

  • Etheridge approached them. The student with the camera was recoding from the time one student said hello, and did not move until the congressman swung at him.
  • The two students were polite throughout the entire incident.
  • The question asked was not pro-Obama or anti-Obama, it was simply “Do you fully support the Obama agenda?”

Now look at the coverage. This is from the Charlotte Observer:

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, was leaving a fundraiser in Washington headlined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when two guys with video cameras met him, according to a blog post on Big Government, a site affiliated with conservative commentator and publisher Andrew Breitbart.

The message of that last phrase is since it was published by a website owned by Andrew Breitbart, who is one of those crazy conservatives, it’s not to be trusted. Unless Breitbart is hiding somewhere behind the camera, he had no involvement in making the film.  Additionally, as someone who has written for both Big Government and Big Journalism, the editors of the sites get the posts edit and decide which posts go up and when.  And while I am sure that Andrew puts my posts on his refrigerator each time they appear, as the head man, Breitbart is in charge of general direction; his is the “face” of the sites, etc, like the head of any business. There was no reason to include him in the story in a cheap attempt at guilt (?) by association.

… Etheridge asks “Who are you?”

Etheridge repeats the question several times as he tries to swat one of the cameras out of his face.

“He goes BERSERK!” reads text on the clip, which includes a couple of edits.

Etheridge continues asking who the men are and as they refuse to state their names, Etheridge holds one by the wrist and grabs him by the back of the neck.”

The kid grabbed by Etheridge looks frightened; rather than refusing to give his name he looks more like a frozen deer, staring at the headlights of an oncoming automobile.

David Sessions, of Politics Daily intentionally or not, makes the same mistake:

After being ambushed by two young men wielding a video camera on a Washington street, Democratic Rep. Bob Etheridge of North Carolina knocked the camera from the hand of one of them. The young men, who refuse to identify themselves to the seven-term congressman and blurred their faces in the video they posted of the incident, tell Etheridge they are “students” and ask whether he “fully supports the Obama agenda.”

Ambushed? It was a very polite question asked by two kids who had a camera on a Washington, D.C. street. This was not Mike Wallace with a film crew knocking at his door at 7 a.m. Then Sessions tries to give the impression that this was some sort of conservative sting operation:

… the video, which Monday morning had only about 300 views on YouTube, was mentioned in a blog post on the site Big Government, the source of a video sting that embarrassed the community advocacy group ACORN last year.

Other than being a not-particularly-pertinent bit of background information about Big Government, what has that got to do with Etheridge’s actions? The sentence was added just to give the impression that this was, somehow, a set-up. Sessions is doing his best to protect a Democratic Congressman whose eat wasn’t considered to be in jeopardy — until today.

The Congressman’s statement itself while seemingly contrite is loaded with bias:

I have seen the video posted on several blogs.  I deeply and profoundly regret my reaction and I apologize to all involved.  Throughout my many years of service to the people of North Carolina, I have always tried to treat people from all viewpoints with respect. No matter how intrusive and partisan our politics can become, this does not justify a poor response. I have and I will always work to promote a civil public discourse.

Treat people from all viewpoints with respect? OK Congressman, what exactly was their viewpoint? “No matter how intrusive and partisan our politics can become?” Well the college students didn’t state their viewpoint, so how was their question partisan? Are you a mind-reader?

The Etheridge incident shows that the liberal media is still more concerned with telling their story — advancing the “narrative” — than with telling the truth. Any time a Democrat is criticized it is assumed that the source of the criticism is some evil right wing cabal.  We do not know the politics of the two college students who questioned Congressman Etheridge; the MSM simply filled in the template’s blanks.

That’s not journalism, that’s creative writing.