ABC’s Irresponsible Reporting
This Kind of Irresponsible Reporting INFURIATES Me – I’ve been reflecting on the shooting this morning and trying to learn more about it. Imagine my surprise (and honestly DISGUST) when I came across the following.
Here we are still trying to gain an understanding of the tragedy that befell Aurora, Colorado, last night and cost 12 people their lives and changed the lives of 50 other movie-goers, their families and communities probably forever, and ABC News decides to make it political with no proof.
ABC News Reporter, Brian Ross, on “Good Morning America”, before all facts were in, or statements from the police, or anything proven, decided to announce on the air and over twitter that “There is a Jim Holmes, of Aurora Co., page on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes, but it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.”
REALLY?!? WTF?!? Because there is a Jim Holmes from Aurora, CO, in the CO Tea Party and the shooter’s name is “James Holms” they MUST be the same guy, right? To state outright that “we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes, but it is Jim Holmes of Aurora, CO” is ridiculous! No proof, just similar names, so let’s get our political agenda out there! Is this really what they are calling reporting today?
As shown in the source article below, they found 208 (!) people named “James Holmes” in and around the Aurora/Denver area, so OF COURSE the shooter and the Tea Party member HAD to be the same guy!
The ABC News web site later retracted the statement stating “Editor’s Note: An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.”
BUT one of the things that burns my butt is that the accusation went out on national TV and via twitter, but the retraction appears to have been posted only to their website. (Note I’m taking the articles word for this as I didn’t see any retraction on Twitter from them, but I may have missed it.)
I am sorry but this is shoddy “reporting” at the least and to use this tragedy before all the facts are even known to push personal agendas (why else even bring up the Tea Party, they were not part of the story at all until he made them part of the story) is outrageous to me.
Can we please just put away the politics for a while and concentrate on figuring out how to help those who were hurt and the families of those who were killed? Is that really too much to ask?
Source:
Once Again, President Obama Only Tells Part of the Story
I’ve been thinking about these comments a lot in the last few days, and I gotta say, I think I get where he’s coming from but I think he’s only partially correct in his line of thought, let me expand on that.
Where he has some valid points: If you built a successful business then you needed the people who worked for you, who supplied your materials, who taught you your skills and business sense, who delivered your product, who built the roads and electrical lines and sewers that supported your business. All of the pieces that are required to run a successful business rely on the input of others to make it happen. Here he is right.
Other valid points: Yes, many people work hard, and yes many people are smart… so why are there more financially successful business people like I believe he’s trying to put down in this comment?
Two sets of factors: ones we have no control over and ones we do…
Factors We Don’t Control: Luck and Natural Opportunity … There is no doubt that some successful people can trace back to one or more events in their lives when luck was in their favor or life presented them with an opportunity that they jumped at. But there lies the key… “that they jumped at”.
Have you ever had the chance to invest your money in something, but didn’t feel good about it so you didn’t and then it took off? I had the opportunity early in my life to invest in Blockbuster Video and thought “eh, it’s just another video store” – WHO KNEW?!? Which leads me to our “Factors we do Control”.
Controlled Factors: Willingness to Take a Risk, Drive (or Desire if you will) and Gumption (Man-made Opportunity) – I submit here that you can look at the majority of financially successful people and look at their work ethics and you’ll see not just smarts and hard work, but also a drive to succeed, a desire to win, a willingness to take that risk to be successful (or fail miserably!) and the personal gumption to go out, knock on doors and create their own opportunities. Personal traits that should be REWARDED for those willing to take those risks and make their own opportunities.
I’m sorry President Obama, but once again we see you only looking at part of the picture and using that information to divide the populace further along classes.
You were supposed to be the president that could pull everyone together, but so much of what you do seems to be bent on alienation and partial facts.
It’s really sad if you stop to think about it.
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