Last Wednesday, vandals smashed windows and spray-painted the home of Colorado pro-life activist Keith Mason, Newsweek/Daily Beast's Abigail Pesta noted in a July 2 post.
Mason, a leader of the Personhood Movement which seeks to change the legal definition of human personhood to begin at conception, was profiled in a June 25 story at the magazine's website. From Pesta's July 2 story (emphases mine):
Mason says he was awake at the time of the attack. “I was in the basement, catching a movie and having a beer, to just chill,” Mason says. “I heard a loud noise and thought one of our kids had fallen down the stairs. I ran through a bunch of glass and I saw red—it was surreal; I didn’t know if it was blood on the glass or what. It turned out to be spray paint. There was red paint all over the side of our house. They spray-painted coat hangers all over my sidewalk and door. We called 911. The police were there within three minutes.”
Mason says the vandals had “yanked down” the security lights on the home as well. “We got up and left and tried to find a hotel room, but they were all booked from the fires,” Mason says, referring to the wildfires forcing people from their homes in Colorado. “We literally knocked on a friend’s home at 4 a.m.”
Mason says his family has now moved to an undisclosed location and does not plan to return home.
[...]
Cheri Stottke, an investigator with Denver’s Westminster Police Department, confirmed the attack on Mason’s home and said police are searching for suspects.
The Newsweek story has drawn a stormy response across the Web, highlighting the gulf between both sides of the abortion debate.
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Pro-life activists criticized their opponents, meanwhile, with one site saying the Newsweek story, which it described as “fairly reported” and “balanced,” “scares abortion activists.”
On The Daily Beast, the story sparked a war of words as well. However, when some of the comments turned vicious and personal, the site closed the comments section.
Violent threats and vandalism targeting abortionists are, and rightly so, noted in the national media. It remains to be seen if the national broadcast media -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- pick up this story.
