UPDATE: ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross apologized about his mistake earlier today.
“Earlier I reported incorrectly that the shooting suspect might be tied to the Tea Party. I apologize for the mistake,” he said via Twitter.
Here’s the original blog post:
The Colorado Springs-based state director of Americans for Prosperity said he was “shocked and disgusted” by comments on ABC linking the Tea Party to a deadly mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater.
“I am shocked and disgusted by the knee-jerk reaction of ABC reporters Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos suggesting the Tea Party might be connected to the mass shootings,” Jeff Crank, a conservative radio host, said in a statement.
“Their haphazard reporting is not only shameful but shows a clear lack of journalistic ethics and standards. Tragedy after tragedy seems to be exploited for political gain by some,” he said.
Crank is accusing ABC of “politicizing the issue in promotion of their own personal political beliefs” instead of focusing on the victims and families.
“Simply put, ABC crossed the line and should apologize,” he said.
“I pray the perpetrator of this violence will be brought to justice. Until then, we should focus on joining together as Americans to overcome this tragedy and comfort those who have lost someone and are grieving.”
Here’s video the ABC report:
They did NOT say the incident was Tea Party related, they said he might be a member of the Tea Party. There is a huge difference. When they introduced it, they even said it may not be him, and when they knew it wasn’t, they corrected themselves. If he was a possible member of say, the Occupy Movement, do you think that ABCNEWS wouldn’t have reported it?
ABC already apologized, so now Crank is the one playing politics with this horrible tragedy.
Yes, there is a difference. However, what was the need to bring it up in the first place? That was as senseless as the shootings, placing an innocent person at risk.
this is what TEA PARTY DOES tha affect america
and puts jobs overseas!
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/19/politics/senate-bring-jobs-home-bill-blocked/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
ABC News had already apologized before Crank demanded an apology:
“Editor’s Note: An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.”
Was the apology on-air like the original false statetment?
Unfortunately, ABC often comes to their audience with a pre-established mindset. Anything that supports the mindset, goes on the air instantly. Their viewers always need to remember this behavior, and always independently verify ABC’s “facts”. Since I don’t like to work this hard, I always begin with a trusted news source – which isn’t NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, or their “felow media travelers”.
It was wrong to report, but why does Jeff Crank matter again? Let’s see, he couldn’t win elected office…..his local group numbers possibly in the low 100′s (on a good day) can’t muster a serious crowd when it’s protesting an event it considers “AN OUTRAGE!” and he has nonsensical demands of our leadership that honestly can’t be enforced. If it wasn’t for Koch money flowing through AFP (presumably directly from an off-shore hidden tax-evading account like Bermuda or Switzerland) he’d be nothing at all.
How about we stop giving him the publicity he needs to survive?
A $450,000.000 wildfire. A sinister massacre.
ALL, within weeks of each-other and a seventy-mile radius?
No greater indictment, for fraudulent and oppressive “Powers-that-won’t be”.
The Divinely-anointed House of David, -ONCE AGAIN- calls for
the immediate resignations of The Pharaoh of The United States,
the party-subservient “Governor” Hickenlooper, and “Mayor”
Steve Bach, along with ALL City and County “officials”. Further non-compliance, shall result in severe and lasting consequences.
There are 14+ people named “James (or Jim) Holmes” in Aurora. Mentioning–nay, SUGGESTING–that *maybe* the deranged gunman was affiliated with the Tea Party was egregiously irresponsible, ALTHOUGH HARDLY SURPRISING, given that it was ABC. I have disagreed with Jeff Crank’s statements/behavior before, but not this time.
“Brian Ross and the editors who allowed these comments to be aired should be fired immediately. News agencies have a responsibility to report the truth and when political activism clouds their judgment, they have ceased to be reporters. And repeatedly demonizing a legitimate political movement like the Tea Party by falsely associating it with violence is unforgivable.” – Dustin Stockman
http://dustinstockton.com/2012/07/the-colorado-tragedy-and-the-tea-party/
teabaggers watch faux news so how did they even find out what abc was saying…and if you want accurate reporting of FACTS, you sure as hell don’t watch faux news.
daytripper23: It’s seldom a bad idea to keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Fox News can get kind of boring, since I’m already a member of the choir.
Daytripper…right on! He doesn’t seem to be the least bit concerned about the victims or their families..only the tea party? What a shallow sociopath he must be! And so sad, with so much tragedy and sorrow in Colorado, this is all he can offer? Politics? Pathetic. Not the solution, he’s a big part of the problem.
Really, Jeff Crank? 12 innocent people have been brutally slain, 58 are in the hospital, some barely clinging to life, and the first thing that comes to your mind is anger about ABC’s erroneous report that the shooter may be a teabagger?!? We have families whose lives are forever altered by this staggering act of violence and you want to make it about you and your hurt feelings. Well, it’s not about you – it’s about the unspeakable sorrow that many of our fellow Coloradans will be enduring for a long time to come.
Jeff,
U know I love ya, man,
but this is silly.
You aren’t a Tea Party guy. You don’t represent the Tea Party. You don’t share our values.
o
You speak for the Koch brothers, who pay your salary. And Dick Armey.
You are like a lobbyist for the 1%ers.
o
But thanks for speaking up in defense of us actual Tea Party folks.
Really.
I heard the shooter might be an ABC staffer.
Or was that an NBC staffer?
Or a CNN staffer?
I’ll issue my retraction tomorrow…
Crank was going on and on this moring about the right to have guns:
He essentially has made the shooting into a poltical issue, Ok but FACT
Automatic assualt rifles were banned until 2004, (loo it up)
Why does anyone need a automatic assualt rifle
This is so typical of the Liberal Mess Media. Any lie to slander Republicans. They have absolutely no morals or shame.
The person who was associated by ABC as being the shooter — James Holmes of Tea Party fame — was the victim of ABC’s amateurism.
Has every person who knows the the innocent James Holmes (or who has an association with him) been directly informed by ABC that Mr. Holmes was not involved in this tragedy? Is Mr. Holmes clean and clear when it comes to being “googled” next year or 10 years from now?
The political bias of ABC news – - all of the MSM in fact — has become so culturally embedded in those organizations that they are now dangerous.
And their arrogance is so deep that they cannot even think to go see the falsely associated Mr. Holmes and apologize to him in prime-time and on camera.
“politicizing the issue in promotion of their own personal political beliefs”.
Ironically enough, something Crank is an expert at.
Mike Bona,There is no such animal as an semiautomatic assault rifle. Fact of the matter you could not buy a real (automatic) assault rifle since 1934 without a class 3 license. Clinton banned ugly guns for a few years and the yuppies cheered. However, semiautomatic firearms are selling well now, in fact flying off the shelves.
Liberals love to treat hearsay as facts, and facts as hearsay as evidenced in the responses in this forum and their defense of this nonfactual “news” organization.
They have no problem with these entities and their politicians using their bully pulpit to relentlessly go after individuals, groups and countries like Israel they are prejudice against. Spreading hearsay and falsehoods because they dont like the genetics, political thoughts or fundamental beliefs of people not like them is fair game to liberals and progressives.
MikeBona,
To answer your question of “Why does anyone need a automatic assault rifle”?
The Obama administration and Eric Holder thought that it would be a good idea to sell over 2,000 semi automatic rifles to the Drug Cartel’s and illegal aliens in Arizona. Since the president and the DOJ thinks this is a good idea I think it is a good idea I should have one to match their firepower since Arizona is a border state and we have drug cartels here in the springs.
Or do you agree with the DOJ that only criminals should have a right to buy these guns?