Your dishonest liberal hack headline of the day comes from Tommy Christopher at Mediaite:
Republican Debate Crowd Boos Steven Hill, Gay Soldier Serving In Iraq
Here’s the truth, from someone who was there, Sarah Rumpf of the Sunshine State Sarah blog:
The debate included video questions that were submitted on YouTube, and one came from a soldier serving in Iraq who is gay and asked about the candidates' opinions on don't ask don't tell. There was audible booing after his question...however, please note that it was not the crowd booing. It was only one or two people.
I was at the debate, in the audience on the right hand side about halfway back… The person who booed was just a few rows in front of us. The booing got an immediate and angry reaction from nearly everyone sitting around him, who hissed and shushed at him. Lots of loud gasps, "Shhhh!" "No!" "Shut up, you idiot!" etc.
(Emphasis in the original.) Rumpf said via Twitter, moments after the incident occurred: “FTR that was ONLY 1 or 2 people who booed at the gay soldier's question & LOTS of people shushed at him.” FTR means “for the record.” It’s important to establish things for the record before Mediaite and the rest of the community-based reality go into mythology mode. At a minimum, it might spare us another lying-through-his-teeth Paul Krugman column, based on a lefty blog’s headline about a debate he didn’t watch.
Amusingly, Tommy Christopher actually updated his piece to mention the Rumpf account that completely disproves his headline… but left the headline in place. Now that’s journalism!
Here’s some more “headline journalism” in the Tommy Christopher mode, from various media sources:
Republican Debate Crowd Boos Steven Hill, Gay Soldier Serving In Iraq – Huffington Post. The body of the article goes on to correct the headline by noting the disrespect came from only “several members of the audience.”
GOP Debate Audience Boos Gay Soldier, Santorum Wants ‘Sexual Activity’ Out of Military – Business Insider. The body of the article also correctly notes it was only “several members of the audience.”
Republican Presidential Debate: Audience Boos Gay Solider, Sparking Controversy Online – Hollywood Reporter. The body of the article corrects the headline by noting it was “some people” booing.
At GOP Debate, Crowd Boos Gay Soldier’s Question On “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – L.A. Times. The L.A. Times deserves a pat on the back for making the effort to carry the distortion into the body of the article, claiming “Loud jeers were heard immediately from the Orlando, Fla., crowd, marking the third straight debate when the audience's reaction overshadowed the candidate's.” If you rely on the L.A. Times for your news, you would be under the impression it was the whole crowd, or most of the crowd, not just a couple of knuckleheads.
Here’s a clip of the event uploaded by the liberal Talking Points Memo. Do what the headline writers don’t want you to do, and use your own ears. There were six thousand people in that room. Does this sound like all of them, half of them, or even a sizable minority of a crowd that size?
So, there you have it, folks. Under standards applied only to conservatives, two or three people making asses of themselves indicts the 5997 people sitting around them, and of course the candidates who pander to such a mob of slavering homophobes. An accurate headline like “Several People In Crowd Of Thousands Boo Gay Soldier At GOP Debate” just wouldn’t send the same message, now would it? Don’t hold your breath waiting for such headlines to be written about a Democrat crowd.
Respectful thanks for your service, Steven Hill.
Update: I've seen Hill's first name spelled differently in various accounts, so due apologies if "Stephen" is correct.
