This week, right-wing talk-radio host Larry Elder (you know, the guy who is always accusing liberals of being “race baiters”) stunned the Internet with a photo of Ferguson cop Darren Wilson recovering in the hospital due to the severe injuries he received at the hands of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager he gunned down.
Proof at last that the valiant cop was only acting in self defense!
Except that it wasn’t proof of anything except Elder’s own lack of honesty and integrity. Because the photo isn’t of Darren Wilson. Rather, it’s a 2006 photograph of “freestyle motocross” personality Jim McNeil, recovering after a nasty “faceplant” accident (source photo here).
As bfuentes pointed out on Tuesday, it took a whopping 44 seconds to find the source image via a Google image reverse-search. But Larry Elder doesn’t have a spare 44 seconds, folks. He’s far too busy appearing as a regular on the Alex Jones Show (no joke – he’s become “Mr. Tinfoil’s” favorite guest), and working with his new publisher, World Net Daily, to prove that President Obama is actually an Indonesian Kenyan Muslim Alien (both the illegal kind, and the outer space kind...because why limit your insanity to the terrestrial plane?).
Elder posted the fake “Darren Wilson” photo on his personal site, and on his Facebook page. As pointed out by several other commenters this week, the phony pic has spread like wildfire among faceless (and brainless) right-wing bloggers and Facebook users. But Larry Elder has a face, a brain maybe, but definitely a huge listenership on KABC 790AM, the “flagship station” of Cumulus Media, where he gets the prestigious 3pm – 6pm drive-time slot.
Polluting the Internet with fake photographs meant to stir up racial hatred and defame the character of a young unarmed black man who was mercilessly gunned down by a trigger-happy cop goes beyond “opinion journalism.” What Larry Elder engaged in by passing around that fake photo is fraud. If you have a problem with what he did, and if you believe that it’s irresponsible of KABC/Cumulus to give airtime to a man like that, please – let the responsible parties know your feelings.
Larry Elder: elder.laurence@gmail.com
Dana Riley (Larry’s full-time assistant): driley@larryelder.com
Rosemary Jimenez (Larry’s producer at KABC/Cumulus):
rosemary.jimenez@cumulus.com
rosemary_jimenez77@yahoo.com
Beverly Zaslow (Larry’s co-producer): bev@bevzaslow.com