I was shocked to see earlier today this tweet from Ana Marie Cox - alerting me to what is appears to be a right wing smear job in its infancy on murdered census worker Bill Sparkman:
anamariecoxWhat I'm reading: Was Census Worker Bill Sparkman A Child Predator?: Shared by Ana Marie Best... "http://bit.ly/3inNFP"
(note - I had to add the quotes around the link)
The right wing appears to be trying to kill two birds with one stone.
- Deflect criticism from Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann for their inflammatory hate speech and wild, outrageous accusations against the census and census workers.
- Portray gay people generally as child predators.
We should have predicted this kind of attack would be coming.
The link in Ana Marie's tweet is to an article whose purpose is clearly not journalism, but appears to be an attempt to get the RW self-reinforcing meme started that Sparkman was a child predator.
Riehl World View:
Was Census Worker Bill Sparkman A Child Predator?
Update: Before any more people start going bonkers that I'm accusing Sparkman of anything, take a breath. ... . ...All I'm doing is looking at any and all possibilities. ... Why strip him naked and bind and gag him, which has serious sexual overtones?
I have no idea what happened, but from the reporting I've seen, neither does anyone else. If he adopted a boy as a single man, or was married and split with the wife and kids, who knows. But I never assume I know a story or motive until I know it. Right now we don't. I'm simply speculating on one possible alternative, however impolite.
Someone may as well say it given some peculiar details. The strangest quote I've seen in all the reporting around apparently murdered Census worker Bill Sparkman is this one from his Mother located in Florida.
“I have my own ideas, but I can't say them out loud. Not at this point,” she said. “Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just waiting on the FBI to come to some conclusion.”
She didn't say she had been advised not to speculate. Being in Florida she has nothing to fear from Kentucky locals, so why the secrecy? ...
The condition of the body and his being naked also seems curious. Why strip someone down to their socks only to kill them? Finally Sparkman's bio and work history suggests at the least he was not just your average guy. No teaching degree, no full-time means of employment and no wife or kids so far as I am aware. But he certainly did gravitate towards children. I can't help but wonder if this wasn't a revenge killing disguised to look like something else. If he did have issues in this regard and messed with the wrong kid, it isn't as if something like that can be ruled out until we know more.
So with no specific evidence whatsoever, Riehl feels the need to publicly - and oh so INNOCENTLY I'm sure - simply ask the question, was Sparkman a child predator?
Riehl - if you are simply SPECULATING - in a way that could be defamatory of a murdered person unable to defend himself - maybe you just shouldn't go there.
I don't think the quote from the mother is strange at all. It is a giant stretch to read between the lines of the mother's quote and get from that "my son is a child predator". Completely unreasonable supposition or conclusion.
It's exactly the way Beck does it. I'm not saying Obama is Hitler, but Obama is acting just like Hitler. Followed by faux outrage! How dare you accuse me of playing the Hitler card! I don't say "Obama is Hitler", I said Obama is just like Hitler. There's a big difference!
Little boys.
And tomorrow morning, they will ping-pong it around between Drudge, RedState and FreeRepublic and there will be the obligatory shout-out about the story on "Fox and Friends", Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck. And in 12 hours it will be around the world. Looks like the anatomy of your basic right-wing smear.
The one other thing that caught my eye here is that I had read about Sparkman at this post on Democratic Underground. Note how it includes a blockquote from a Fox News story, which included this bit (see bold):
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman's son, other family and friends."
Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."
http://www.foxnews.com/...
If you click on the link to the Fox News story, look what it says now:
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement.
Kelsee Brown, a waitress at Huddle House, a 24-hour chain restaurant in Manchester, when asked about the death, said she thinks the government sometimes has the wrong priorities.
What is missing from the Gary Locke statement? This is what is missing - the part of Locke's statement about Sparkman's son:
"Our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman's son, other family and friends."
Does the current Fox News story reflect that it has been edited? I can't find that.
Could it be the case that Gary Locke did not include that part about Sparkman's son in his statement, so that's why Fox News may have deleted it from their story? Some error lead to its initial inclusion?
The full quote with reference to the son IS in this AP yahoo news story:
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman's son, other family and friends."
Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."
Now Riehl is saying that Sparkman did not have a wife or son "as far as he knows". (Did he check? At all?)
Certainly having a son makes Sparkman more sympathetic, and doesn't really fit into Riehl's suggested narrative that we all sit back and ponder whether or not Sparkman was a child predator.
Did Fox News remove that bit from its story? If so, why?
Isn't this grossly irresponsible of Riehl - to try to cover his ass saying - oh I haven't actually DONE any RESEARCH - and WHO KNOWS what the truth is - but right now we simply can't disprove that Sparkman could be a child predator. Disgraceful!
UPDATE: Ana Marie Cox has nothing to do with this other than she pointed it out on twitter and I saw it there, or I never would be reading anything from this Riehl guy. I'm sure she does not agree what what he posted! She must be quite the reader to have come across it. She was pointing out its stupidness, and I'm doing the same. Since it is starting, I thought we should get out ahead of it, instead of just sit by and watch it happen.
UPDATE 2: Everyone, please. I know this is infuriating and disgusting. But please do not just do the same thing and fill the comments with statements about Beck, Riehl, etc. Please please. I was hoping we could find a way with our knowledge, abilities and connections as a community to get out AHEAD of a smear for once and take the spin off or defuse it entirely. All constructive suggestions welcome.