ABC Interviews Friend of Giffords Shooter, Ignores Her Claim He's Liberal
A friend of the gunman accused of Saturday's tragic shooting spree involving Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was interviewed on Sunday's "This Week."
For some reason, her claims posted on Twitter Saturday that Jared Lee Loughner was a liberal went completely ignored (video follows with transcript and commentary):
PIERRE THOMAS, ABC SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Former high school classmates say Loughner never fit in.
(UNKNOWN): He is just off to himself and more of an outcast.
(UNKNOWN): A lonely kid just off to himself.
THOMAS: One friend he did manage to make, Caitlin Parker, said he became more peculiar in recent years. She recalled a strange encounter he once had with a wounded congresswoman.
CAITLIN PARKER: As I knew him more and more after high school, he got a little bit more odd. I mean, he was obsessed with the 2012 prophecy. I mean, he met Gabrielle Giffords once in '07 and told me he asked her some question that made absolutely no sense to me, but he said, "I can't believe she doesn't understand it. Politicians just don't get it."
One has to believe the reason ABC found Parker was because of her tweets on this subject Saturday:
When someone asked what she meant about Loughner being a radical - "L or R" - Parker responded, "more left." Her next message reiterated this, "I haven't seen him since '07. Then, he was left wing."
Yet ABC's Thomas, despite taking the time to interview Parker and name her specifically, either neglected to ask her about Loughner's political leanings, or chose to leave her answers on the cutting room floor.
If Parker or any of Loughner's other friends claimed he was a Tea Party member, a conservative, a Fox News watcher, or a listener of right-wing talk radio, do you think "This Week" would have omitted such a revelation or harped on it likely throughout the entire program?
Before you answer, consider that early in the show, host Christiane Amanpour said:
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Last year, with the immigration and health care battles at a fever pitch in this state, Giffords' office had been vandalized. And today, as the congresswoman's father rushed to her bedside, a reporter asked him if his daughter had any enemies. "Yes," he said, "the whole Tea Party."
But, in fact, the suspect in custody, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, has no known ties to the Tea Party or any conservative group.
Then why quote Giffords' father's statement unless it was to intentionally plant that impression in the viewer's mind regardless of its lack of merit?
Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
- Noel Sheppard's blog
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Comments
Ditto
Submitted by jdlybrand on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 1:33pm.
Ditto Pete Williams on MSNBC. He did point out that the shooter was anti-government. How's that for a hit job on the Tea Party? These people are scum suckers.
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
Markos Moulitsas could shoot
Submitted by Apache on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:48pm.
Markos Moulitsas could shoot a republican and the press would blame the tea party.
No suprises here . . .
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 1:38pm.
No suprises here . . .
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
More and more
Submitted by The_Pumpcrop on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 1:39pm.
I see and hear people who buy into everything the media puts out there. They have key words, like "The Manchurian Candidate", that set these libboes off, like "Tea Party", "Palin" "Ruch", "Beck", ect and they toss them into their reporting like stun gernades. That's what people hear, they stop paying attention, and start yelling and blaming The Right. Then the networks grin and CLAIME how balanced they are! Yeah, right..... Same as it ever was....s
He has a direct link to Rush Limbaugh.....
Submitted by NeoKong on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 1:44pm.
It was reported that on his YouTube account he repeatedly mentioned the "Constitution". Rush Limbaugh has also mentioned the "Constitution" many many times. What more proof do you need....?
You working for MSNBC, the
Submitted by Beukeboom on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:19pm.
You working for MSNBC, the NYT and/or Huffpo? :-)
I Think There is Sarcasm in That Post
Submitted by Poovey on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 3:43pm.
I know. Didn't you see my
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 11:02am.
I know. Didn't you see my smilie?
All these idiots are out
Submitted by ant on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 1:46pm.
All these idiots are out there on the airwaves wringing their hands about the "stoking of hate and violence" and , yet, they are the ones pouring gas on a fire.
Really REALLY
Submitted by miss911ninja on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 4:12pm.
Now I bet Kathy Griffin really, REALLY "wants to push Sarah Palin down the stairs," and Wanda Sykes really, REALLY "wants Rush Limbaugh's kidneys to fail!"
C'mon now, miss911ninja,.
Submitted by ant on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 8:12pm.
It's only fair! Remember when Sean Hannity called Obama's daughter a slut and Michael Medved said he thought the Christmas tree bomber was probably from Greenpeace?/ sarc button off/
LOL!
Submitted by miss911ninja on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 10:33pm.
I love sarcasm! It's so me.
ignorance in favor of hysteria
Submitted by jon_torlin on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 1:51pm.
I'm wondering how much of this was planned, given the reaction of the liberal media within minutes blaming Palin etc for what happened. Not to mention the deliberate ignorance of how much of a left-wing nut this guy is turning out to be. Even the father of the congresswoman was blaming the tea party, someone had to tell him to say that. It would be hard to believe this was some random act of violence, even if the guy was a nutcase.
It's almost like the flames are being stoked to burn really hot to cause a strong reaction. What concerns me is now that the hysteria of the dumbmasses are in full swing, the people that were being blamed for this will become targets themselves....by more left wing nutcases.
Consider that this comes just after the heels of the Constitution being read aloud, and the health care repeal(it better be delayed instead of put off indefinitely), what's next to come? Emotions are running really high and that's something the liberals love to capitalize on.
This is just the beginning.
-Jon
I Was Listening to Rush This Morning ( The Rock Group)
Submitted by Poovey on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:01pm.
and the lyrics in the song Freewill hit me "Blame is better to give than receive".
That about sums it up!
I read somewhere that this
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:08pm.
I read somewhere that this creep also had read Lenin and Hitler's books...........did anybody else catch that?? I guess that would make Sarah Palin and the Teabaggers responsible for his heinous crime...................
Yes, the shooter listed Mein
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:09pm.
Yes, the shooter listed Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto as some of his favorite books.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Like I said somewhere last night...
Submitted by Dave. on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:14pm.
...(Twitter I think it was) when the MSM gets through re-creating this turd, he is going to be a card-carrying John Bircher and avid TEA partyer.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Some left-wing people are
Submitted by redfish on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:16pm.
Some left-wing people are anti-government too... anarchists, for instance...
Liberal media is spinning
Submitted by Beukeboom on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:20pm.
Liberal media is spinning this frantically.
Of course they are! So far
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:27pm.
Of course they are!
So far it seems that the shooter . . .
As an active Tea Partier, none of the above sounds like anyone I've ever met or seen at the seven Morristown NJ Tea Party events or the 2009 Washington DC 9/12 Tea Party.
Note to fools - Tea Partiers are not anti-government, we are anti-BIG government.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
So he's 'anti-government',
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:48pm.
So he's 'anti-government', but he was mad because Gifford didn't support Obamacare??? That reminds me of a lib/progressive that I was talking to before the election..............he told me he was a 'progressive', but actually he was an 'anarchist'............but since that wasn't really a viable choice, he was a big Obama fan. When he got done telling me that................I KNEW that the guy was a total delusional moron!!!! Of course, when I pointed it out to him, he just told me that Bush was an idiot..........
George Stephy channeled loud and clear
Submitted by Texndoc on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:30pm.
He was on with Amanpour and channeled loud and clear that his underlying theme will be the Republican Congress changing their agenda.
Praise to George Will for simply stating "You people do this every time something like this happens."
"For some reason, her claims
Submitted by Kat Outta the Bag on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:32pm.
"For some reason, her claims posted on Twitter Saturday that Jared Lee Loughner was a liberal went completely ignored..."
I think we all know what reason that is.
Fascination of the Elites
Submitted by ajkrik on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:36pm.
6 people were killed beside this woman being shot. Why is everyone focused on her? These other people are equally victims of this tragedy.
The media are obsessed with elites. Celebrities, politicians . . . elites that the general public endorses by being so focused on this stuff. Tragically people are being killed by violent acts every single day in this country (forget including the world) and yet the media (and even Noel) are focusing on making some advance in the political game of "hearts and minds".
I get how NB is covering the reaction of the skeeve media, but this is really kind of over the line. This woman Parker is not in a position to be an authoritative source of whether this douche bag was "liberal" or "left". Her opinion on that is subjective and not a source of fact. Her contribution to the story is nil, but the media want to promote their bias.
Politicians are now celebrities. As long as we focus on personalities and not issues and effectiveness of government it's all entertainment we'll remain in decline as a country.
ajkrik
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:39pm.
I get how NB is covering the reaction of the skeeve media, but this is really kind of over the line. This woman Parker is not in a position to be an authoritative source of whether this douche bag was "liberal" or "left".
If someone came forward to claim that the shooter attended Tea Party protests, then you can bet it would have been reported, no matter how flimsy the claim.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
You're right.
Submitted by ajkrik on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:49pm.
It's just that the media being skeeves doesn't mean that we have to engage in the same kind of game.
A more clear story will emerge in time about this guy and the hypocrisy of the msm will ultimately hurt their credibility. I'm saying that I appreciate that NB goal is to highlight the hypocrisy, but we don't need to escalate this debate . . . it's disrespectful to the 6 people and their families to be so focused on the politics of this.
"Left wing and quite liberal" are obviously code words for Palin
Submitted by SickofLibs on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:39pm.
.
Go Sarah Go!
Submitted by BBallleaper on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:40pm.
Target every stinking communist, socialist and leftist trying to bring this country down! People die every minute of every hour of every day. Some die peacefully and some die violently. But I am not responsible for their deaths and neither are you! This is an ideological war against political forces that would deprive us of liberty and freedom. NO compromise. NO negotiations. I want to WIN! I want America back!
It is the dishonesty of the left and the media
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 2:59pm.
which are not separable; the left and the media are the same entity.
The media refuses to admit that this LEFT-WING nut job chose to shoot Giffords (and a bunch of her constituents, don't forget). Consider the parts as a whole:
There are bunches more, but why bother wasting the space?
The left and media don't think these weren't unseemly because they focused right-ward. Just go read a blog like Redstate.com and compare it to the PuffingtonHost. The LEFT has the adolescent trash mouth and hate, NOT the right.
I really believe that the insanity is on the left, not the right. Compare G-8 protests vs the Tea Party meetings and even the Congressional town-hall meetings. The latter were NOT violent.
In short, the LEFT needs to start policing ITS members, not the right. And the media needs to be called to account (hats off to newsbusters.org) for not only failing to police this, but aiding and abetting the puerile behavior.
Dennis Prager
This might be instructive to
Submitted by redfish on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 3:11pm.
This might be instructive to the media:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCRtPgXLjbw
Let's Go Greek, Let's Go Wild
The video is saying that politicians will not get us what we need, so we need to take back things for ourselves.
They also need to read the history of anarchism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism#Propaganda_of_the_deed
Left kills themselves
Submitted by griv on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 3:12pm.
and blames the right. Happened all through history. Hitler did this A LOT. Democrats are worse than NAZIs. The NAZIs were at least hard working.
Youtube site
Submitted by NiftySwell on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 3:28pm.
His personal youtube site shows a flag burning video as his only favorited video.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Classitup10#p/a/f/0/3L1lsLU-kUw
Once again out of the gate calling the guy a right wing nut, the old stream media looks for the angle they want to report instead of the facts. Once again when the facts come out they will only ignore them and stop reporting if they do not reinforce their anti-conservative progressive stance. He is either an anarchist or a communist from looking at the mix of reading material and references he makes on his site.
Here is a paste of his fav's.
Books: I had favorite books: Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Wizard Of OZ, Aesop Fables, The Odyssey, Alice Adventures Into Wonderland, Fahrenheit 451, Peter Pan, To Kill A Mockingbird, We The Living, Phantom Toll Booth, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Pulp,Through The Looking Glass, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha, The Old Man And The Sea, Gulliver's Travels, Mein Kampf, The Republic, and Meno. -------------------------- I would label these as mostly progressive books that are probably favorites of most of the Huffington post, NBC news crowd. A very eclectic list but I am missing the Rush, Beck, Palin, Robertson, Buchanan connection that people are attempting to make. Meanwhile, the Sheriff was about the fastest to pass judgement on the reasons the guy went off and wins the award for making judgement calls without facts, I guess objectivity is not so important to the voters in his county. A frustrated Lib is just as likely to take a swipe at a pol that he feels has let him down as an opposite party fellow is. The fact this guy reached out to her in '07 indicates he felt they had a common interest and wanted her collaboration or to hear his opinion. Not too often people waste time on deaf ears to their cause.What's more depressing?
Submitted by MinneMike on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 4:36pm.
As tragic as the horrible shooting by this young lunatic, it only becomes more depressing that the MSM and progressives try to score political points.
It appears to me that the true viterol rheteric is coming from the media and liberals in their slanderous accusations at Sarah Palin, Glen Beck, Rush and others. Do they have no dignity? Wait, I know the answer.
This Kid Has Schizophrenia
Submitted by boscokraft on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 5:00pm.
This kid was not making any kind of political statement. He will be found to be schizophrenic. This illness peaks in young adulthood, and is often aggravated by chronic cannibis use. Its hallmarks are disordered thinking, hallucinations and paranoia. To have the so-called educated elite left blame Sarah Palin or the Tea Party or anyone else is absurd. They may be well educated in lterature, but do not understand science or medicine.
This kid should have been under treatment (maybe he was, I dont know). But if you want to blame someone, blame a system that does not institutionalize these people until they are adequately treated.
Tyrannies are built on the blood of martyrs
Submitted by ArrowSmith on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 5:10pm.
The days of calm, rational discussion are OVER. The left have made it quite clear that they are going to use the blood of the martyr to launch their overthrow of America, starting 1/8/2011.
Then why quote Giffords'
Submitted by mamabear on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 8:02pm.
Then why quote Giffords' father's statement unless it was to intentionally plant that impression in the viewer's mind regardless of its lack of merit?
Well, I think you quote him because he's her father and that's what he said. We just got done with a really bitter campaign season in which Giffords was challenged strongly by the Tea Party. If her dad says they were her enemies, it is probably because the last year of her life has been devoted to defending herself from them! That doesn't mean the Tea Party tried to kill her, but there doesn't have to be any shady leftist manipulation to explain her father's statement. When a politician is attacked, it is pretty rational to look to politics for an explanation, and to look at her political opponents first. If there's no evidence that the shooter was related to the Tea Party or influenced by their rhetoric, that will become clear. Until then, looking for explanations in the most obvious places is just that.Of course liberal hate, fear, and dishonesty---
Submitted by matthewdean on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 8:09pm.
are superceded by by their honest reflections in a moment of crisis?
Not likely.
MD
For some reason, her claims
Submitted by livfreeordi on Sun, 01/09/2011 - 8:23pm.
"For some reason, her claims posted on Twitter Saturday that Jared Lee Loughner was a liberal went completely ignored..."
Come one!!
Are you REALLY surprised?
The MSM is what it is... and seems oblivious to the path to self destruction that it has chosen.
We just have to get the WHOLE truth out!
Just chalk this up as another incremental decline in the MSM's credibility .