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:
kurtsloan
soapmama99
LaMar's Loud Daughter 