Posted on 10/28/2008 2:58:08 PM PDT by CitizenM
If anyone can, please help me.
I have some friends in Pittsburgh who are both liberal and conservative. We had been chatting about the woman there who said she was attacked and a "B" etched into her face. One particularly liberal friend is now saying that the McCain people PRESSURED the news media there to run the story about the woman.
She has said this after I sent her the original article, and then sent the report that it was a hoax. I even commented how these "hoaxes" hurt us all, of both parties. But this woman INSISTS that now, in Pittsburgh, PA "all the media is scrambling because they gave into the McCain pressure."
How she knows this, I don't know, she gave no proof. She just said it is happening. I have been looking for articles in papers that state that any of the Pittsburgh media has claimed they were PRESSURED. I can find where it was reported that the McCain people (including Sarah Palin) called the woman just after the original report, but find none afterward saying the media felt any pressure to report this by anyone from the McCain staffers.
I did hear that the woman was not a McCain supporter, but actually a former campaign worker for Ron Paul. Is that true or not?
My friend is very liberal and, of course, is more concerned that the media was PRESSURED by McCain people, and that has turned her totally against even considering voting for him, which, actually, she had been doing. (Of course she won't listen to the stories, or believe the articles I have sent her about how Obama has pressured the media and tired to silence them, how he threatend networks if they ran ads he did not like, and how they have canceled interviews on stations where they were asked what Obama supporters felt were "hard" questions,etc. She calls those "smears", LOL. I am trying to address that.)
Naturally, this has caused me concern and I want to be able to counter the claim for others who still are on the fence about voting for either McCain or Obama. If it is true that McCain's people used Pressure about reporting this, it won't be well accepted and votes for McCain might be lost.
So - I need proof, and I think it would help many people if we knew if or not any press members are actually saying they were pressured in any way. Maybe that is they way they are playing CYA, but we need to know. Personally, I would also be upset if this is true.
If any of you find any stories confirming this, or know of any, or even heard of this, Please let me know, and print what you have found out so others can dubunk this if it is not true that any media was pressured to release this story.
Thank you, CitizenM
Facts are irrelevant. You won’t change her mind.
Leave her alone, she’s a lost cause. If she gnaws off her fingernails over that story, something will cause her to relapse in the next 5 days.
You’re better off calling voters and GOTV operations. In the time it takes to persuade a shaky single nut case, you could have 10 sure votes for McCain.
A Ron Paul worker? No idea, but for what its worth there were three mentions of Ron Paul on her MySpace page. No mentions of McCain. She was a McCain volunteer at the time of the hoax.
Michael Malkin, noted conservative, and others called “BS” on the story immediately.
McCain was notably quiet, so much so that FR was pissed at McCain.
Yes, the lying witch was a Ron Paul supporter.
You can also search FR for the story of the McCain supporter that was attacked by an Obama supporter in NYC.
The B cut into her face stood for BOZO or BIMBO!
She supposedly was kicked out of Paul’s camp due to something similar, a claim of somebody going after her for supporting Paul. I think some reports stated that McCain’s campaign had brought the event to the media’s attention, long before it was known to be a hoax. Probably because the media doesn’t cover anything like this as they would for the other side. It should have been vetted, first, in my opinion.
Does anyone really believe that McCain could pressure the media? If your friend is not willing to listen to the fact that the Obama campaign is in bed with the media and has tried to silence those who don’t comply, she probably wouldn’t be open to the truth if it jumped up and bit her. As for the girl’s campaign affiliation, I think she was a member of the Paul campaign and was kicked out for some bizarre behavior, at which time she joined the McCain camp. News reports have stated that she has a history of mental issues.
I have a few employees like this. They can't be helped or swayed, they fall under the definition of "Beyond Help". Don't waste anymore of your breath on politics with her, enjoy her for what she is, a friend. You'll be a lot happier and you'll have more energy left too!
You say your friend wants proof that McCain didn’t pressure the media ... you can’t prove a negative. Your friend is making the accusation, so the burden is on her to give the proof.
Michelle Malkin early on went with her story -- just hours after this broke.
The McCain campaign would have only done this if they were incredibly stupid and the Media would listen to them.
The Media has consistently attacked the McCain campaign -- with the exception of Fox News...
Now, I am sure the story was going to be reported anyway, which it was. But it is the issue of "Pressure" that I want to debunk.
I know this would have an impact with people in Pittsburgh, PA either way. Pittsburgh (my hometown)is pivitol in this race, and I know many there who are on the fence. All Pittsburgers, I am sure, would react one way or another and it could harm either candidate if the Pressure issue is or is not true.
I would like to have certainty to give friends that there was NO pressure from McCain people, and hope that is the case.
It is inaccurate to say that the McCain campaign “pressured” the media.
It has been noted that the McCain campaign hyped the story before the fact on the ground were clear. They promoted “incendiary” details of the story which, of course, later turned out to be completely false.
As others have pointed out, significant bastions of the conservative “blogosphere” expressed distrust of this story up front. It was foolish of the McCain campaign to dive in the way it did. You might say that they “pushed” the story, but “pressured the media”? That’s overstating the case.
You can’t win. Enjoy your friendship for whatever it is and don’t broach politics with her, or allow her to broach politics with you.
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