My apologies for re-re-posting this, but if you were not aware of a particular slur that CNN Crossfire host Tucker Carlson has been spreading for years now, you will be hopping mad after you read
this and
this.
Briefly, a five-year old girl, Valerie Lakey, was dragged to the bottom of a swimming pool and literally disemboweled while her father flailed helplessly. She lives, but will require feeding machinery for the rest of her life. The problem arose from a faulty drain made by the Sta-Rite corporation of Wisconsin. Several other children were harmed by the same mechanism, which could have been made safe by a cheap manufacturing change.
John Edwards successfully represented Valerie and won her huge damages in this case, as he describes in his book. Some details of the case are also available at Salon:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/07/13/lawyers/
Tucker Carlson knows the details of this case, but ignores them so he can continue to refer to Mr. Edwards as a "jacuzzi lawyer." He has been made aware of the actual tragic details on air and in writing, yet persists in lying.
If you feel as strongly about this deception as I do, please contact CNN: http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?7 and PBS (he has been given a new show, "Unfiltered," thanks to Republican pressure on the CPB and to friends of his father's, a former head of PBS)
http://www.pbs.org/tuckercarlson/feedback.html
http://www.pbs.org/aboutsite/aboutsite_emailform.html
and Jacuzzi Whirlpool Bath, http://www.jacuzzi.com/about/contact_us.html
Be polite but unyielding. This is a misrepresentation that Mr. Carlson seems to have made his personal "talking point" crusade, and he should be reprimanded. Here is a sample letter I sent to Jacuzzi if you need help getting started.
Dear Jacuzzi Whirlpool Bath:
Your fine company should be aware that a Mr. Tucker Carlson, employee of CNN, has been repeatedly defaming the Jacuzzi Whirlpool Bath corporation in an attempt to disparage Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards.
Mr. Carlson repeatedly refers to Mr. Edwards as a "jacuzzi lawyer," the implication being that Mr. Edwards won damages for the rich leisure class. In point of fact, the incident Mr. Carlson uses to make this claim has nothing to do with Jacuzzi. Instead, he refers to a horrific case in which Mr. Edwards won damages from a swimming pool company whose faulty drain disemboweled and nearly killed a five-year-old girl, Valerie Lakey. There are more details of this sad case at this website: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/07/13/lawyers/
His viewers are likely to believe that a Jacuzzi product nearly killed this poor girl.
I urge you to contact Mr. Carlson's employers, CNN and PBS, and request that he stop using his pulpit as a TV commentator to make this negative association. It defames Jacuzzi Whirlpool Bath as well as Mr. Edwards and the others involved in that tragic lawsuit. You may be able to contact Mr. Carlson through CNN's Washington bureau at 202-898-7900.
I appreciate your consideration,
...