Big Government's "video proof" that Dems lied about racial slurs at tea parties falls apart
April 13, 2010 2:49 pm ET by Ben Dimiero
Ever since news reports surfaced a few weeks ago that tea partiers hurled racial slurs at Democratic members of Congress as they made their way through the tea party crowds on the Capitol before the big health care vote, Andrew Breitbart and several prominent conservatives have engaged in a concerted effort to prove that civil rights hero John Lewis and the other representatives are "liars."
Some lowlights from this effort include Breitbart claiming that Lewis was "squandering" his status as his civil rights icon by "lying;" Breitbart calling the Congressional Black Caucus "despicable;" Breitbart asserting that he doesn't care what Lewis "did 40 years ago, he's trying to rip this country apart;" and Breitbart saying that the CBC went "searching for....racism" by walking through the crowd. See, even if someone yelled the n-word at them, it's their fault because they were asking for it. Or something.
Throughout this effort, countless conservative blogs have posted a short video clip of the members of the CBC walking through the crowd as "proof" that Lewis and co are "lying." Like clockwork, Breitbart and conservative bloggers encounter their usual problem here: reality disagrees with what they are yelling about.
A reconstruction of the events shows that the conservative challenges largely sprang from a mislabeled video that was shot later in the day.
Breitbart posted two columns on his Web site saying the claims were fabricated. Both led with a 48-second YouTube video showing Lewis, Carson, other Congressional Black Caucus members and staffers leaving the Capitol. Some of the group were videotaping the booing crowd.
Breitbart asked why the epithet was not captured by the black lawmakers' cameras, and why nobody reacted as if they had heard the slur. He also questioned whether the epithets could have been shouted by liberals planted in the crowd.
But the 48-second video was shot as the group was leaving the Capitol -- at least one hour after Lewis, D-Ga., and Carson walked to the Capitol, which is when they said the slurs were used.
Whoops.
Breitbart goes with his usual response to being confronted with reality: stick to your guns and make things up.
Questioned about using a video on his Web site from the wrong moment, Breitbart stood by his claim that the lawmakers were lying.
"I'm not saying the video was conclusive proof," he said.
And here's Breitbart on Twitter earlier today:
Actually, Andrew, your website did (try) to provide video that proved there was no slur uttered. Here's noted buffoon Jim Hoft, writing at Breitbart's Big Government:
Yes, Hoft shouted "VIDEO PROOF" in all caps in the headline. For safe keeping, Hoft also used the video to claim that "These radical liars with [sic] stop at nothing to ram their socialist agenda down America's throat. And, the state-run media will report their racist filth without question."
Nice website you've got there, Andrew.
All in all, it's been a rough week for Breitbart's defense of tea party extremism. Yesterday, Fox News reported on swastika signs at tea party protests after Breitbart had attacked Nancy Pelosi for "blatantly" lying about them last year.
If he had any self awareness, it would probably be embarrassing to be Andrew Breitbart right about now.
In large noisy crowds like those at this event, a camera with audio won't pick up anything but individual shouts from people really close by and the overall crowd noise/chants.
It wouldn't pick up an individual shouting a smear a ways away from the camera. It wouldn't hear it at all.
In fact, it's not surprising at all that no camera operated by a nonpartisan group or by a lefty picked up that sound. Most of the cameras there were being handled by people on the right.
That means it didn't happen then!
Like is stated above, the microphones on the cameras picked up lots of sounds, the crowd was noisy, and disruptive.
Now who are you going to believe, congressmen in the Black Caucus, or a proven liar on his blog?
BTW, Fox is a member of the MSM . . . did they have a video disproving it?
If they did, they sure in heck wouldn't disclose it...does not fit the script at all.
It's ridiculous to question whether a single racist word was spoken to these black lawmakers when there is evidence of racism all over the Tea Bag leadership, all over the signs throughout the crowd, and all over the internet postings. Even John McCain is calling out his Tea Party opposition JD Hayworth a racist in campaign ads for his association with anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic groups also associated with the Tea Party. A Tea Party leader in Ohio named Sonny Thomas posted on Twitter the other day that there were so many "spics" around and asked where his gun was in the same tweet. Tea Party leaders in Georgia posted a sign calling Obama a "half-breed". I have heard some of the phone calls into Democratic lawmakers which include violent and racist rhetoric. The Wisconsin Tea Party the other day had to cancel a major speaker named John Eidsmoe for an event when it was found he had a long history of membership in white supremacist groups.
Breitbart and his legion of loons are making this all about the incident outside the Capitol Building where they know no tape exists because they want to distract from the mountain of evidence of racism from the Tea Party and it's leaders.
I just want to say that I'm sick of hearing this story over and over again.
The Teapartiers are scrambling all over trying to "disprove" this, but it fits right in with all of their rhetoric and various signs, right from the beginning.
The only remaining amazing part of this is that conservatives are acting INCREDULOUS that a racial slur could have been yelled. How is it so difficult to believe?
I'm not saying all Teapartiers are racist, but whoever thinks that racists aren't attracted to their "message", is either a moron or in denial.