We all know the story by now.  Rep. Andre Carson (D, Ind.) says that he and Rep. John Lewis (D, Ga.) were assaulted with racial slurs by Tea Party protesters as they walked down the step of the Cannon office building and headed to the Capitol on March 20.  McClatchy News reported that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D, Mo.) also told reporters that he heard the ‘N-word’ as he was walking a few yards behind Rep. Lewis.  “It was like a chorus,” Cleaver said.

Only problem is: Cleaver wasn’t there.  He didn’t walk behind Lewis coming down the steps of Cannon on the way to the Capitol.  He walked behind Lewis coming up the steps of Cannon on the way back from the Capitol.

Of course, Cleaver and Carson could claim that racial slurs were screamed both times by the Tea Party protesters.  If that’s the case, then they have contradicted their own narrative from two weeks ago when the AP ran a story with the headline:

Wrong video of health protest spurs N-word feud

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Over the weekend we highlighted Charles Blow’s column in the New York Times about his infiltration of the Grand Prairie, Tex., Tea Party.  We questioned why he even bothered attending the event considering that he never interviewed anyone there and seemed to have reached his conclusions about the Tea Party after reading his own paper’s poll on them.

This morning, Laura Ingraham picked up where we left off and grilled Mr. Blow on her nationally syndicated radio program.  One of the reasons we love Laura is that she rarely lets guests get away with obfuscation or ducking a direct question.  This exchange is particularly enlightening:

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Laura:  What was the worst display of overt racism that you witnessed.

Charles:  I didn’t say I had witnessed any overt…

Laura:  You called it a minstrel show, Charles.  Those are kind of loaded terms, don’t you think?

Charles:  Did I say that I had witnessed any overt racism…

Laura:  What’s a minstrel show?

(more…)

Charles Blow infiltrated a Tea Party event in Grand Prarie, Tex., on behalf of the New York Times.  But, apparently he wasn’t there to listen to the substance of the speakers’ speeches or to judge the content of the audience’s character, no, he was there because he is a black man and he was intent on doing a racial head count of the crowd:

I had specifically come to this rally because it was supposed to be especially diverse. And, on the stage at least, it was. The speakers included a black doctor who bashed Democrats for crying racism, a Hispanic immigrant who said that she had never received a single government entitlement and a Vietnamese immigrant who said that the Tea Party leader was God. It felt like a bizarre spoof of a 1980s Benetton ad.

The juxtaposition was striking: an abundance of diversity on the stage and a dearth of it in the crowd, with the exception of a few minorities like the young black man who carried a sign that read “Quit calling me a racist.”

According to Mr. Blow, the “visual Op-Ed columnist of the New York Times,” the sentiments expressed on stage by the scheduled speakers were insincere, born from a quasi-neurotic state of mind.  To hear him tell it, their mere inclusion in the program was a cynically veiled head fake from the organizers for past racial transgressions: (more…)

This is what it has come to.  In this “news” column from the AP on the Tea Party rally in Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nev., yesterday, the AP puts the burden of proof on Andrew Breitbart to prove that no one yelled the N-word at the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington last Sunday:

“Conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart disputed accounts that tea party activists in Washington shouted racial epithets at black members of Congress amid the health care debate, although he didn’t provide any evidence.” – AP, 12/27/10

Let’s first put aside the absence of basic logic dwelling within the idea that one can prove that something did not get said.

And, let’s also set aside, for a moment, the assault on Americans’ basic sense of fairness that is inherent in the “guilty until proven innocent” stance the AP is taking.

Let’s start with the AP’s clear surrender of any kind of impartiality when reporting about Breitbart and the Tea Party movement.  Political writer Michael R. Blood, who filed this report, needs to be taken off the Tea Party beat immediately.  If he can’t report a simple, straightforward fact like Breitbart disputing the accounts of racial epithets without the nonsensical caveat of “although he didn’t provide any evidence,” then how can he be trusted to fairly report on other activities from the increasingly influential political movement he is covering? (more…)

Headlines like the ones below tell the story:

“Democrats point fingers after stunning loss”

“GOP Win in Mass. Puts Dems on Offensive – Scott Brown’s Surprise Senate Victory Has Democrats Scrambling to Regain Footing”

“GOP Senate Victory Stuns Democrats”

“In Stunning Upset, GOP’s Brown Wins Mass. Seat“

Etc.

In one sense, yes, Scott Brown’s victory over Martha Coakley was stunning: In the bluest of blue states in the bluest region of the nation, voters rejected the Democrats’ — and Obama’s — agenda, sending a Republican to the Senate whom they hope will help stem the waves of left-wing socialism upon which our president, accompanied by a majority in Congress, has been bodysurfing since he came to office, despite campaigning as a moderate who would govern from the center. (more…)