CNN's Sanchez and Velshi Omit Stack's Communist Sympathies

A trend is beginning to develop in the media reports concerning Joe Stack, the man who allegedly smashed a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas: his disgust for capitalism and support of communism must be ignored at all cost.

As NewsBusters previously reported, both Time.com and a blog posting at the Washington Post have conveniently skipped two crucial sentences at the end of Stack's suicide note:

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Clearly, Stack was no friend of capitalism. Yet, similar to other media members, CNN's Rich Sanchez and Ali Velshi addressed much of Stack's suicide note during "CNN Newsroom" Thursday EXCEPT for the part where he expressed his support for communism (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript):

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: What we were obviously doing, Ali, is trying to figure out who this gentleman was. The first question that comes to mind is, is there a possible motive that would lead someone to do something like this?

So back there while you were prepping your show, our staff starting doing a little research. Dave Johnson, one of my writers, said, "Look what I just found." So, we've been looking at this thing for a while. And CNN has now confirmed, we can report this.

What I have here is a six-page suicide note. A six-page suicide note, that is coming -- or I should say was left by the Web site that is administered by Joseph Andrew Stack. It reads like a very angry person, Ali. I don't know quite what -- how -- quite to put it. And what she just said about the fact -- I just -- just confirmed for me that she just said that there are IRS offices inside this building, right?

ALI VELSHI, HOST: Yes, yes, that's correct. IRS -- 100 -- 190 employees of the IRS worked in that building. 190? Kelly? 190.

SANCHEZ: She is reporting that this was, in fact, an IRS building. I can tell you that Joseph Andrew stack unequivocally had very serious problems with the IRS.

VELSHI: All right.

SANCHEZ: Let me read to you a couple of excerpts here...

VELSHI: Yep.

SANCHEZ: Because now we're going to get into the nitty-gritty of what the note actually says. He said, "There was a storm raging inside my head." He said, "Desperate times call for desperate measures. He said "We are brainwashed to believe there is freedom in this place. Remember one of these was no taxation without representation?" He addresses that several times in here.

Makes reference to the Wall Street situation. Something you and I have talked about. "Handful of thugs and plunders can commit unthinkable atrocities, and when it's time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and stupidity, the full force of the federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days, if not hours."

VELSHI: Wow.

SANCHEZ: Isn't that interesting? I knew you would think about it as I read it to you. Let me get you to this and we can break it up, I don't want to just do a read-a-thon for the viewers. But it's interesting to see what was in the guy's head.

"The joke we call the American medical system," talking about health insurance, "the joke we talk about the American medical system, including the drugs and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people every year and stealing from the corpses and victims that they cripple, and the countries leaders don't see it bailing out the vile and the rich cronies here." What are you hearing?

VELSHI: Anti-government.

SANCHEZ: Anti-government and anti-Wall Street. He talks about justice.

But let me cut to his own personal story. He starts talking about the second and third pages of how it begins in the 1980s. He had a series of problems with businesses.

VELSHI: Uh-huh.

SANCHEZ: And he got taxed for those problems. He did not believe that he should have been taxed for those problems. "I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie," he writes. "I learn that there are two interpretations for every law, one for the rich and one for the rest of us." There we are, going back to the same theme we talked about.

"Return now to the 1980s and here I was to a terrifying start as a wet-behind-the-ears contract software engineer. Two years later, thanks to the fine backroom midnight efforts, of some" -- listen to this. "Thanks to the midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen --" Tell our viewers who Arthur Andersen is.

VELSHI: This was one of the biggest accounting firms in the country that was tied into the Enron scandal that doesn't exist anymore because of the Enron scandal. Which is a big deal, obviously, in Texas. That plays out.

SANCHEZ: Absolutely. He's accusing Arthur Andersen, apparently. "We saw the passage of the 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706," so he goes after that. And here's the issue with taxes and now it will be a little bit more specific as I read to you some of the things he seems to be saying about this.

"During 1987, I spent close to $5,000 of my pocket change and at least 1,000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, Congressman, governor, slug that might listen. None did, and they universally treated me as if I were wasting their time."

He goes on to say, "I filed no return that year, thinking that because I didn't have any income, I didn't have money. Our sleazy government decided that they disagreed, but they didn't notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection, so when they attempted to get a protest filed in the court, I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because time had run out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice."

And finally -- this is how he closes it. This is interesting.

VELSHI: Yep.

SANCHEZ: And the whole thing tends to ramble.

VELSHI: Yes.

SANCHEZ: He's not a particularly artful writer, by the way. VELSHI: Yes.

SANCHEZ: But he closes by saying this, Ali. "I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man" -- this is an IRS building.

VELSHI: Wow.

SANCHEZ: Well, Mr. Big IRS Man, let's try something different. Take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

VELSHI: Wow.

SANCHEZ: With that he closes.

Not exactly, Rick, for here's Stack's REAL close directly from his suicide note:

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

How can these people in good conscience continue to ignore these two key sentences which make it clear that this was NOT a right-winger?

After all, in any other profession you could name, this kind of gross negligence would be illegal and could result in prosecution and/or termination.

Shame on all these so-called journalists that are working overtime to hide the truth from the American people.