Once again, the rightwing blogosphere and news media got way ahead of the facts and made complete asses of themselves. Here's the wingnut Current Events on a crime in Louisiana:
Yes, they were attacked. Yes, it was brutal and stupid. No, they weren't wearing Palin buttons -- nothing like relying on some obscure Louisiana blog as a source. No, police say it probably wasn't politically motivated. In fact, Jindal's office sent out a statement (which, to their credit, HE includes in the updated post) saying they were "not aware of any evidence" that there was a political motivation to the attack.
In their rush to play the victim card, they wound up creating a Ashley Todd-type hoax for Allee Bautsch. She's likely blameless in the rightwing media firestorm, as almost everything they reported was unconfirmed rumor that backed up the conclusion that they'd already decided upon.
"The results of the investigation aren't conclusive, but at this point, characterizing the incident as anti-Republican is unsupported by the available facts," writes Steve Benen. "It appears, then, that a brutal assault was seized on by partisans in the hopes of scoring some political points. Bautsch and Brown weren't just victims of an attack; they were pawns for conservative bloggers to exploit."
Benen's probably right to say that some on the right exploited this, but I don't think it's true of the entirety. We know that the right is populated by people who believe what they want to believe, facts be damned. It's not that they're dishonest (at least, not in their initial gullibility -- I doubt we'll see a lot of retractions), it's that they consistently fail to think critically and seem incapable of approaching the unknown as unknown. You don't have to be a mindreader to come to that conclusion; if their readers believe it so easily, it's no huge leap to say a lot of the people reporting rumor as fact believed it too.
That said, there's no proof that this wasn't politically motivated. We probably won't know for sure until the assailant or assailants are caught. But there's no evidence at all to suggest it was. Still, the reactionary right jumps to the most terrifying conclusion, because that's what they do -- they panic and claw their eyes out at the drop of a hat. I'm surprised they haven't started a campaign to waterboard somebody -- anybody -- to get to the bottom of all this.
No wonder they thought invading Iraq was a great idea; they had the same amount of evidence for that as well.
Friday evening outside of a $10,000-per-plate Republican fundraiser at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans, a top fundraiser for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal --along with her boyfriend -- were assaulted as they walked to their vehicle parked two blocks away.
New allegations of a political motivation for the brutal beating have surfaced on the local Louisiana blog The Hayride.Two people at the Brennan’s event have now confirmed that the protest had largely broken up by the time it ended, but we also understand from someone who visited Allee Bautsch in the hospital Saturday morning that she and Brown were followed and attacked expressly because they had Palin pins on (she heard one of the attackers say “Let’s get them, they have Palin pins on” -- so the attack WAS politically motivated as its victims understood it. It was not a mugging, it was not an argument gone wrong and it was not a bar fight.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune is reporting Allee Bautsch suffered a broken leg and her boyfriend Joe Brown suffered a concussion, a broken jaw and a broken nose in the attack. Bautch required surgery over the weekend with an estimated 2-3 month recovery time.
Yes, they were attacked. Yes, it was brutal and stupid. No, they weren't wearing Palin buttons -- nothing like relying on some obscure Louisiana blog as a source. No, police say it probably wasn't politically motivated. In fact, Jindal's office sent out a statement (which, to their credit, HE includes in the updated post) saying they were "not aware of any evidence" that there was a political motivation to the attack.
In their rush to play the victim card, they wound up creating a Ashley Todd-type hoax for Allee Bautsch. She's likely blameless in the rightwing media firestorm, as almost everything they reported was unconfirmed rumor that backed up the conclusion that they'd already decided upon.
"The results of the investigation aren't conclusive, but at this point, characterizing the incident as anti-Republican is unsupported by the available facts," writes Steve Benen. "It appears, then, that a brutal assault was seized on by partisans in the hopes of scoring some political points. Bautsch and Brown weren't just victims of an attack; they were pawns for conservative bloggers to exploit."
Benen's probably right to say that some on the right exploited this, but I don't think it's true of the entirety. We know that the right is populated by people who believe what they want to believe, facts be damned. It's not that they're dishonest (at least, not in their initial gullibility -- I doubt we'll see a lot of retractions), it's that they consistently fail to think critically and seem incapable of approaching the unknown as unknown. You don't have to be a mindreader to come to that conclusion; if their readers believe it so easily, it's no huge leap to say a lot of the people reporting rumor as fact believed it too.
That said, there's no proof that this wasn't politically motivated. We probably won't know for sure until the assailant or assailants are caught. But there's no evidence at all to suggest it was. Still, the reactionary right jumps to the most terrifying conclusion, because that's what they do -- they panic and claw their eyes out at the drop of a hat. I'm surprised they haven't started a campaign to waterboard somebody -- anybody -- to get to the bottom of all this.
No wonder they thought invading Iraq was a great idea; they had the same amount of evidence for that as well.
