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ABC issues non-apology for smearing Colorado tea partier

Jul. 20, 2012 2:13pm Meredith Jessup

While most of us recognize that today should be a day of prayer for the innocent victims of the senseless massacre at a Colorado movie theater, ABC News’ Brian Ross used the occasion to smear the tea party.

In case you missed it, here’s what happened this morning…

With only the name of the shooter having been released from police, Ross ignored the dozens of “James Holmes” who live in Colorado and honed in on one in particular — Jim Holmes — whose name was found on a local tea party website. Without verifying any information with authorities or the Jim Holmes in question, Ross went on national television with George Stephanopoulos to declare this “might be significant”:

The 52-year-old Hispanic Jim Holmes of the Colorado Tea Party is of course not the same man as the 24-year-old white lunatic graduate student who unleashed a hail of bullets on innocent men, women and children last night.

In a statement, the Colorado Tea Party Patriots denounced the ABC News report:

The Colorado Tea Party Patriots and the Tea Party Patriots are saddened to hear of the death and wounding of theater goers in Aurora, Colorado. The member of the Colorado Tea Party Patriots, Jim Holmes, age 52 is not the same person who has been identified as the shooter.

The attempts of some media organizations to characterize the shooter as a Tea Party member without having made any effort to contact our organization are shameless and reprehensible.

The innocent Jim Holmes spoke with Breitbart.com about his experience being falsely identified as a mass murderer:

“It was freaky,” said Holmes, describing his reaction when ABC News speculated that he was the culprit who entered a crowded theater and opened fire on dozens of innocent men, women, and children. He disconnected his telephone and says that he is worried about members of his family who might be contacted by the media.

ABC and Brian Ross have since offered an apology of sorts for their ~~gross incompetence~~ error:

“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,” the statement said.

On air later in the morning, Ross also said: “An earlier report that I had was incorrect that he was connected with the Tea Party. In fact, that’s a different Jim Holmes. He was not connected to the Tea Party and what we do know about him is he is a 24-year-old white male who went to Colorado for a Ph.D.”

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (36)

TheBoracle
Posted on July 25, 2012 at 1:45pm
Whs is there no conversation about George Stephanopoulos? He set up the question for Brian Ross. He knew FULL WELL what the answer would be; not to mention the producer.

Report this comment
Searchingforthelight
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 2:44am
Was this another attempt to discredit a tea-partier? Was this man actually mistaken for a member and
somehow brainwashed or computerized to develop PTSD? I’d read he had 20 thousand dollars worth of equipment. I don’t think he used his student loans do you? Who could use a type of computerized brainwashing and why would they? Do they do that in Cyber-wars?

Report this comment
Lucy Larue
Posted on July 22, 2012 at 4:44pm
I E mailed ABC and voiced my absolute disgust for Brian Ross and the shameless George Stephanopolous.
I hope everyone who comments here will please do the same. Merci!

Just go to there website and click on CONTACT.

Report this comment
GreatAmerican
Posted on July 22, 2012 at 4:02pm
As usual ABC’s Ross will not have to issue an honest and real apology. When does any liberal actually have to apologize? The mainstream media? Forget about it!

Report this comment
stooge4themall
Posted on July 22, 2012 at 12:23pm
holmes needs to hire a lawyer and sue their buts off. This is slander

Report this comment
Itsnakemo
Posted on July 22, 2012 at 7:21am
I would ask Mr. Jim Holmes to get a lawyer and sue this ABC nightmare. I would be willing to donate money for his defense fund. He could open up a web site and the dollars would come pouring in. I could give a small donation. You must do it now Mr. Holmes. You will get lots of support.

Report this comment
wntsmallgov
Posted on July 22, 2012 at 12:06am
I am glad that I moved out of New York.

Report this comment
- GreatAmerican
  Posted on July 22, 2012 at 3:59pm
  Did you move to a state that respects your freedoms?
  
  Report this comment
The0bserver
Posted on July 21, 2012 at 8:09pm
ABC doesn’t care. They know we probably don’t watch them anyway. I certainly haven’t. I stopped watching the so-called Big Three and CNN over 15 years ago.

Report this comment
piper60
Posted on July 21, 2012 at 6:02pm
Sue their pants off, and instead of making Ross pay money, make him go back to journalism school.

Report this comment
- americathebankrupt
  Posted on July 21, 2012 at 9:31pm
  I agree.Sue but the will probably be out of buisness by the time it gets to court
  
  Report this comment
- Itsnakemo
  Posted on July 22, 2012 at 7:23am
  Journalism school may be the problem. Our colleges are infiltrated by the left wing do-nothings. They are the leeches that suck off of the productive part of society like Tea Party people.
  
  Report this comment
ArmedPatriot
Posted on July 21, 2012 at 1:21pm
First off, thanks to Mr. Beck for your hilarious comment on this yesterday about a CO murder suspect named Brian Ross who may be the same man as the ABC News reporter Brian Ross but we’re not sure.
And seriously, PLEASE folks, go over to ABC News website and the comment email line to protest ABC News’s contemptible bias and demand that Brian Ross be fired for one of the most disgraceful examples of innuendo and mudslinging I have ever seen. I did yesterday.
And I hope Mr. Holmes sues their pants off!

Report this comment
- Sloaneranger
  Posted on July 21, 2012 at 4:51pm
  My sentiments exactly! I called for Brian Ross’s firing yesterday. Incompetency at that level cannot be tolerated! Ross was hoping for a Dan Blather moment…..desperately wishing it to be true and yet even when told it was not true because he wanted it to be true he still believed it. In Dan Blather’s case he was the one who made the story up in the first place and because of that he believed it. Now who is insane?
  
  Report this comment
tylertxsteve
Posted on July 21, 2012 at 12:30am
are we sure he not part of the OCCUPY WALL STREET

Report this comment
- ArmedPatriot
  Posted on July 21, 2012 at 1:33pm
  If he had been they never would have aired the link to the story. This goes beyond error or incompetence. It wa a deliberate and malicious slander on the part of a contemptible excuse for a reporter who is an advocate for leftwing politics. Note how under the radar ABC’s retraction was–they got the link out there and they want to keep it out there. As mark Twain says a lie can get round the world quicker than the truth can get its shoes on. . This was a calculated and deliberate calumny on ABC and Ross’s part.
  
  Report this comment
- Itsnakemo
  Posted on July 22, 2012 at 7:27am
  If it is correct, the money that he spent on this project in the last few months is 15,000. dollars. I think he was part of the Black Bloc, I repeat, I think he could be. They wear the gas masks, the black clothing and threatened to blow up bridges in NYC. They are the killer fringe from OWS. They should follow the money trail to see where the money for this operation came from. I’m just saying, do some investigating.
  
  Report this comment
FatPolice
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 10:46pm
Progressives: Always Forward, Never Straight.

Report this comment
- The0bserver
  Posted on July 21, 2012 at 8:11pm
  Forward to the rear. Who says they are “progressive?” It begs the question.
  
  Report this comment
BalancedReasoning
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:54pm
Hope Brian Ross does not have to hide in his home in Connecticut because of his “chief investigative” smear against an innocent Patriot … these comments may be too fiery hot for him to handle … maybe that is why his house on Lucas Road caught fire November 2010…

Report this comment
EliotD
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:01pm
Tell ABC to fire Brian Ross, and why! http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=ABCNews.com%20comments

Report this comment
- ArmedPatriot
  Posted on July 21, 2012 at 1:24pm
  I did yesterday. Flood ABC with your outrage. This bias crap needs to STOP. And to use a catastrophe like this to gin up hatred against a decent and honorable politcal faction he doesn’t happen to lke is unspeakably almost unimagineably apalling.
  
  Report this comment
- ArmedPatriot
  Posted on July 21, 2012 at 1:27pm
  The Blaze should post this link with the story. I emailed my outrage yesterday.
  
  Report this comment
rbowers
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 5:17pm
I loved Glen’s sarcastic report of Brian Ross being a convicted sex offender, but it having not been confirmed that it’s the same Ross as the senior investigative reporter for ABC News. Do a search for “ABC News and contact” and e-mail ABC and let them know how you feel: I did.

Report this comment
RockyRoccocco
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 4:36pm
Gee….I wonder if ABC news will now investigate what classes Jim Holmes took in preparation for his PHD, what professors at Colorado and how they influenced him. Of course, no they won’t. This, despite the fact that activism on college campuses have been clearly more divisive, volatile and caused more violence than so called activism in any Tea Party event.

Report this comment
flamegonesilver
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 4:32pm
This should come as no surprise to me. Lazy-Lame-Scream-Media. IDIOTS

Report this comment
OLD AND BROKEN
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 3:58pm
It just goes to show you that the Left Lame Stream Media is like a spring that is so tit and so ready to be sprung with its Propaganda that anything, anything at all will trip it. They just can’t help themselves because this one just may be the one, the one that they have been waiting for, to show the whole world that they are right and it is the Tea Party that is the evil ones and not them…

Report this comment
BurntHills
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 3:40pm
AbsoluteBastardCommunists. ABC.

Report this comment
bobbie22
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 3:30pm
I hope this Tea Party Jim Holmes, sue for defamation, and lies. If he does just tell me where to send the donation. .. Enough is enough

Report this comment
- Highland
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 3:37pm
  Amen.
  
  Report this comment
Tom K
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 3:29pm
It is PAST TIME to stop this nonsense and SHUT DOWN the Lame Stream Media, one network at a time, if necessary. A.B.C. MUST fire Brian Ross immediately OR America must boycott EVERY company that sponsors ANY Program or Event on A.B.C. Hit these irresponsible jerks in the wallet where it hurts. FIRE Ross or get SHUT DOWN. Time to stop playing “patty-cake” with these jerks. America wants some real JOURNALISM !

Report this comment
WAKEUPUSA2012
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 3:00pm
This whole thing reaks of false flag mind control. The UN wants our GUNS. Now I bet they ratifey the treaty ;(

http://secretarcana.com/hiddenknowledge/monarch-programming-mind-control/

http://vigilantcitizen.com/

Report this comment
- hypnos
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 3:21pm
  Chicago gun laws some of the toughest in the country. Murder rate up 40% so far this year for chicago.
  
  Report this comment
beefrank
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 2:56pm
The Chicago attack machine is just warming up to not ‘let this crisis go to waste’.

Report this comment
- Highland
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 3:38pm
  Yes, indeedy. It must be time for more limitations on the Second Amendment.
  
  Report this comment
stage9
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 2:26pm
Don’t expect a retraction. They accomplished what they set out to do which was to cast the Tea Party as a violent fringe group. Truth was never the objective. The “seed of doubt” was.

That’s how propaganda works.

GOEBBELS’ PRINCIPLES OF PROPAGANDA
13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.
a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.
b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment
c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness.

14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.
a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses
b. They must be capable of being easily learned
c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations
d. They must be boomerang-proof

18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.

19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.

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