Post Ombudsman Calls for ‘N-Word ’ Investigation
By Don | April 12, 2010
Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander examines the allegations made against Tea Party protesters last month and calls on the paper to assign reporters to thoroghly investigate the charges which have yet to be proven.
From the Washington Post
Demonstrators at the Capitol were loud and angry on March 20 as they jeered House Democrats preparing to approve landmark health-care legislation. Before the day ended, The Post and other news organizations had reported a series of incidents so ugly they were denounced by congressional leaders of both parties.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, a black Democrat from Missouri, said a protester spit on him. Rep. Barney Frank, the openly gay Democrat from Massachusetts, was heckled with anti-gay slurs. Two black Democrats, Reps. André Carson of Indiana and John Lewis of Georgia, said protesters subjected them to racial epithets. The episodes were recounted for days in Post stories and columns. Much blame was directed at Tea Party activists.
But many readers, echoing conservative broadcasters and bloggers, insist the reports were exaggerated or that the events simply never took place.
Post reports were "based on no proof at all and without even offering any evidence," District reader Clarice Feldman charged in an e-mail.
Conservative commentator and blogger Andrew Breitbart has accused Lewis and Carson of fabricating claims of racial epithets to "create the impression that the 'tea party' movement is racist." He initially offered $10,000 to the United Negro College Fund for video evidence of the slurs. It's now $100,000. "They didn't expect someone would challenge them on this," Breitbart told me. "What idiot would challenge John Lewis," a civil rights movement icon? "Well, I'm that idiot."
Alexander then goes on to address the spitting and gay epithet charges before circling back to the "n-word" issue.
If there is video or audio evidence of the racial slurs against Lewis and Carson, it has yet to emerge. Breitbart insists they "made it up." If so, they're good actors.
Roxana Tiron, a reporter for the Hill newspaper, said she was talking with a congressional staffer inside a House entrance to the Capitol when a "trembling" and "agitated" Carson said he and Lewis had just been called the N-word by protesters outside. "He literally grabbed me by the arm and . . . said 'You need to come out with me,' " imploring her to step back outside to listen to the taunts. Post reporter Paul Kane was nearby and witnessed Carson's reaction. "It was real. It was raw. It was angry. It was emotional. And he wanted it documented," recalled Kane, who said U.S. Capitol Police prevented them from going outside. Carson later told the Associated Press the protesters had chanted the N-word "15 times." Breitbart told me the "phantom 15 words" is "beyond absurd."
Through spokesman Justin Ohlemiller, Carson stands by his assertion. The spokeswoman for Lewis, Brenda Jones, insists he and his chief of staff heard repeated uses of the N-word. They are declining interviews, she said, because they don't want to "fan the flames of destructive language."
Breitbart's $100,000 challenge may be publicity-seeking theater. But it's part of widespread conservative claims that mainstream media, including The Post, swallowed a huge fabrication. The incidents are weeks old, but it's worth assigning Post reporters to find the truth. After all, a civil rights legend is being called a liar. That aside, there's serious money at stake.
Alexander clearly believes the Carson and Lewis verson over what Andrew Breitbart claims really happened which was nothing, but he is correct in calling for a further investigation of this alleged incident.
The media continues to harp on this weeks after the rally occurred despite the lack of video evidence and even though there were plenty of video cameras on the scene at the time.
I don't expect the Post to find any evidence to back up Reps. Carson and Lewis and I suggest they should take a look at the reports from CNN on the Tea Party to gain a better perspective of who is really supporting them rather than turn unsubstaniated claims into gospel truth.
http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/p...investigation/