The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

When ‘Balanced’ Journalism Is Bad

Posted on | October 4, 2013 | 113 Comments

As what point does journalistic objectivity shade into the “who are we to judge” posture of moral relativism? Do journalists have an obligation to call evil by its right name? These questions crossed my mind as I watched an ABC  Good Morning America segment about Kaitlyn Hunt, who copped a plea Thursday on felony charges involving her sexual affair with a 14-year-old girl.

The brief segment — a teaser of a longer 20/20 story that will air tonight — was balanced. It wasn’t a one-sided puff piece, the kind of gay victimhood celebration the mainstream media were doing back in May when this story first went national.

Our jug-eared hero Detective Jeremy Shepherd was interviewed, as was Jim Smith, the father of the underage victim in the case. But I was uneasy as the segment closed with George Stephanopoulos on the Good Morning America set with ABC’s legal expert, Dan Abrams, who said sex with a 14-year-old is a crime “as a technical legal matter.”

One quick takeaway: Kaitlyn’s mother Kelley Hunt Smith has “crazy eyes.” If you see the 20/20 segment tonight, watch her closely during the interview segments and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

The ABC News segment did not mention that the “Free Kate” phenomenon has been supported by the movement to normalize pedophilia. Whatever the specific legal considerations of Kaitlyn Hunt’s case, it is her status as a jailbait sex “poster girl” that has concerned me from the start, because I’ve been reporting about this movement for more than a decade. (See, “Promoting pedophilia: Attempts to legitimize adult-child sex on rise,” April 2002.) Nor am I the only one concerned about this problem. See Matt Barber’s September 2011 report, “Sexual Anarchy,” see Rush Limbaugh’s January 2013 monologue, “Don’t Pooh-Pooh the Left’s Push to Normalize Pedophilia,” and the article that inspired that monologue, Wesley J. Smith’s National Review item, “Normalizing Pedophilia.”

If you think this movement doesn’t exist, you’re not paying attention. Just this week, in fact, Martha Kempner published an article at RH Reality Check with the headline, “Should a 13-Year-Old and Her 12-Year-Old Partner Really Be Considered Sex Offenders?”

It is in this context that we must view the decision by ABC News to feature the Kaitlyn Hunt story in a “balanced” way. What is the value of reporting about a sex offender and giving “both sides of the story,” if not to inspire debate about the legitimacy of age-of-consent laws?

Because that’s what this is really about: Florida establishes the age of consent at 16. Kaitlyn Hunt was 18; the vicitim in the case was 14; and the law categorizes sex with a 14-year-old as a felony.

This was an open-and-shut case and Kaitlyn Hunt should have taken the first plea bargain the prosecutors offered. It only became a national news story because the Hunt family figured they could get gay-rights activists to support them, and get sympathetic coverage from the liberal media — and they were right. Both the state’s largest gay rights group, Equality Florida, and the state chapter of the ACLU came out in support of the “Free Kate” crusade, as did Chris Hayes of MSNBC and other left-wing advocacy journalists who, evidently, view sex with kids as the next frontier of their “liberation” campaign.

People need to wake the hell up. These people are evil.

And that’s just a Neutral Objective Fact.

 

Category: ABC, Kaitlyn Hunt, Media Bias, Sex

Kaitlyn Hunt’s Father Threatens Violence: ‘F–king Beat Him Till He Can’t Function’

Posted on | October 3, 2013 | 49 Comments

Steven R. Hunt Jr., whose 19-year-old daughter pleaded “no contest” to felony sex crimes today in Florida, erupted in an angry obscenity-strewn screed on Facebook, threatening violence against a person he called “f–king scum” but did not name:

“Now whoever likes to associate with all these low live f–ks make sure you pass that f–king message to him,” Hunt wrote in a message sent to the “Many Hearts One Family” Facebook group. “Post it everywhere. I want everyone to know I’m gonna f–king beat him till he can’t function. . . . SLEEP WITH ONE EYE OPEN BITCH cuz you’re about to meet your f–king maker. YOU won’t have any f–king hands to type anymore on your f–king keyboard or eyes to look at it.”

 

Hunts message to the Facebook group was posted on Twitter by Jeanette Runyon. Hunt is a former policeman with a criminal record for fraud.

UPDATE: This message from Steven Hunt was not sent tonight, as I had initially and erroneously believed.

 

Category: Kaitlyn Hunt

‘Isolated Incident’ in D.C. Today
UPDATE: Connecticut Woman ‘Had a History of Mental Health Issues’

Posted on | October 3, 2013 | 175 Comments

Consider this just a place-holder post, really. Some crazy lady went on a vehicular rampage in Washington, D.C., today. She reportedly tried to ram the gates at the White House, then led cops on a chase to Capitol Hill, where she rammed a police car before finally being shot to death. She reportedly had a child in the car with her, and the child was unharmed.

Who was this woman? What was her motive?
this point, I have no clue and don’t want to speculate.

Ace of Spades notices the New York Times trying to connect this incident to the “fiscal crisis,” but it’s silly to imagine that every kook who goes berserk is responding to political events. When I flipped out on psilocybin in 1979, you couldn’t blame the Carter administration.

Becca Lower points out that liberals are blaming this on the government shutdown, as if cops had been furloughed, which they haven’t.

Police are calling it an “isolated incident,” which means it’s likely just a nutjob, and I haven’t seen any headlines yet to suggest a political motive. Rather than try to start speculating or playing the blame game, I’ll just wait for updates. Please link any relevant reports in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter if there’s important developments.

Remember something I’ve said before: Until they ID the suspect, there’s no way to know the motive. Just chill for a bit, and we’ll see.

UPDATE: Well, this didn’t take very long:

A dental hygienist from Connecticut was the female driver who tried to ram her car into a White House barricade and was shot dead near the US Capitol after a high-speed chase through Washington streets Thursday afternoon, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Sources said Miriam Carey, who formerly lived in Brooklyn, was licensed to practice in New York and Connecticut and had a permit to work as a hygienist in Connecticut prisons. . . .
ABC News said the 34-year-old woman had a history of mental health issues. A task force of FBI and Secret Service agents was executing a search warrant at her Connecticut home, CNN said.

Just a crazy woman. Anybody got a photo yet?

(Hat-tip: Mary Fernandez on Twitter.)

UPDATE II: Photo of the deceased perp, Miriam Carey:

UPDATE III: Daily Caller has the liberal ghoul round-up:

Should I have held my tongue? I couldn’t resist:

UPDATE IV: Ace gets pretty brutal here. The, uh, demographic factors are being referenced. As soon as “Capitol shooting” made the headlines, some people imagined this had to be a story about a right-wing Tea Party gun nut. If that had been the case, this story would have gotten wall-to-wall coverage for weeks. Morning Joe would have been a three-hour telethon for gun control Friday morning. Chris Matthews and Piers Morgan would have been blaming the NRA.

But no, it’s just a crazy woman in a car who got shot by the cops, and the media will decide this is not an important story. Move along.

 


Category: Crime

Thug Family Values: Kaitlyn Hunt Plea Deal Prompts Bitter Rant by Her Father

Posted on | October 3, 2013 | 132 Comments

Kaitlyn Hunt’s family was featured on the Today show, May 23

The headline at Viral Read:

Kaitlyn Hunt Takes Plea Deal
in Florida Teen Sex Crime Case

Having sex with a 14-year-old is a crime in Florida, and the criminal sex offender Kaitlyn Hunt pleaded “no contest” today in Vero Beach, accepting the deal offered by prosecutors. It was the third such plea bargain Kaitlyn had been offered and, if she had taken the first deal back in May, nobody outside Indian River County ever would have heard of this foul-mouthed tattoo-covered teenage pervert.

Her parents didn’t think their precious little snowflake had done anything wrong, so they rejected the plea deal and decided to make their daughter The World’s Most Famous Sex Offender.

The Hunt family raised more than $30,000 from people who want to legalize sex with 14-year-olds (or at least, gay sex with 14-year-olds) while Kaitlyn flagrantly violated conditions of her pre-trial release, committed new crimes and, in the end, “Free Kate” did not go free.

Imagine my shock when I saw this statement by her father:

 

Oh, the poor little pervert! All those “vile, horrible and misogynistic tweets from a band of homophobic, racist haters”! Gee, Steve, I’d already finished my article at Viral Read when Jeanette Runyon sent that to me on Twitter, but I decided I needed to add just a few details at the end:

In a statement issued before Thursday’s hearing, Hunt’s attorney Julia Graves promised a campaign to legalize sex with 14-year-olds, saying that Hunt plans after her release from jail “to work with supporters and lawmakers toward a change in the law for teenagers attending the same school, no matter what their sexual orientation is.”
An attorney for Jim and Laurie Smith, parents of Hunt’s underage victim, issued a statement on their behalf: “It was never the intent of the Smiths to harm the defendant and this case was never about gender or sexual orientation. It was about age appropriate relationships and following the rules and laws of our society. They are relieved that this chapter of their life is behind them and that now they, and their daughter, can focus on the future.”
On Facebook, Kaitlyn Hunt’s father Steven R. Hunt Jr. released a bitter statement blaming the prosecution, which he said “used the law to beat up Kate,” the state of Florida (“because it perpetuates laws that criminalize adolescent behavior”) and the Smith family, saying that the victim’s parents “chose to hide behind moralistic ideas.”
Kaitlyn’s father is a former police officer who was forced to resign from the West Melbourne police department in 2004 after an internal affairs investigation found he “pressured a victim not to file a battery charge.” He was arrested on fraud charges in April 2012. He and Kaitlyn’s mother are divorced, and both have remarried.

Steven Hunt, arrested for fraud, April 22, 2012

Go ahead and read the whole thing. You’re a thug, Steve Hunt. Your family is despicable trash, and your daughter is a criminal pervert.

That ain’t my problem, Steve. It’s your problem, and it’s your fault.

Remember when you were going to shut down my blog? Fuck you.




 

 


Category: Kaitlyn Hunt

Canadian Muslim Arrested in Somalia After Reportedly Beheading His 4 Sons

Posted on | October 3, 2013 | 41 Comments

Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugged had this story, citing the Blazing Cat Fur blog and, to be honest, my reaction was, “You’re kidding me.”

Surely, this had to be some kind of right-wing Islamophobic urban legend spread by irresponsible Internet gossip-mongers. Because I constantly watch the news — my TV is tuned to MSNBC at this very moment — and if this really happened, you would think maybe the news would mention such an atrocious act of terroristic violence. But I checked around and discovered that this is actually true:

The mother of four young boys who were allegedly beheaded by their Somali-Canadian father says she doesn’t know of any motive for the killings.
Police in Somalia arrested Omar Hassan, 60, after the children, aged 11, 9, 7 and 6, were killed Monday, Qadro Addawe told The Canadian Press.
The alleged slayings happened in the central town of Beledweyne, about 330 kilometres north of the capital Mogadishu.
Speaking from Mogadishu, Addawe said Hassan was a taxi driver in Calgary and had returned home a few months ago.
She said the children had never been to Canada, but had Canadian citizenship through her estranged husband, who had migrated to Canada 30 years ago.
“They were born in Kenya, but they were Canadian because the father was Canadian,” she said.
A regional police commissioner told Agence France-Presse Wednesday that the children’s bodies were found near a village and have been buried.
The news service quoted Col. Isak Ali Abdulle as saying: “The man handed himself in and is in custody now. I think he is not mentally fit but we are questioning him.”

Children beheaded by their father? Just another random coincidence.

In related news, a Democrat finally used the word “jihad.”

But he wasn’t talking about Omar Hassan.

 

 


Category: Atlas Shrugs, Canada, Crime, Islam, Somalia

Mark Levin Threatens March on D.C.

Posted on | October 3, 2013 | 37 Comments

The Obama administration’s disgraceful stunt, putting up barricades around the World War II Memorial and having its SEIU goons hire protesters at $15 an hour to harass veterans, has inflamed sentiment against the Democrat propaganda campaign. (The mainstream media are endeavoring to ignore the facts, being too busy promoting Democrat propaganda to report the news.) Ace of Spades is livid:

Hey Barack Obama — you didn’t f–king build that. Someone else did, and someone else is paying for its upkeep.

Also livid with rage, Mark Levin:

I want to say this loud and clear to the people on Capitol Hill who are listening, to this administration. You lay one damn hand on one of those World War II vets at that memorial and I’ll bring half a million people to that damn memorial! You got that?!”

Audio via The Right Scoop:

The permitting process would, I suspect, require at least a month.

OK, so how about Monday, November 11?

UPDATE: This sentiment was pretty popular:

 


Category: Barack Obama, Budget, Mark Levin

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 10.03.13

Posted on | October 3, 2013 | 7 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Tom Clancy Dies, 66

Tom Clancy, 1947-2013 RIP

Author of Hunt For Red October and Rainbow Six, other best-selling novels; founder of computer game maker Red Storm Entertainment dies in Baltimore hospital


Iran’s Cyberwar Commander Assassinated
Found dead in the woods near Tehran with two bullets in his heart

UNSC Urges Immediate Humanitarian Access To Syria
More than two million have fled the country



POLITICS
White House Talks Fail To End Shutdown Gridlock

“I am exasperated because this is totally unnecessary! All I ask is for the GOP to kneel!”

Boehner leaves talks complaining that the Democrats will not negotiate; Democrats predictably blame everything on GOP

FBI Raids, Shutters Infamous Online Drug Trade Site

DIRNSA’s Admission Of Misleading Numbers Adds To Obama Administration’s Blunders

Federal Judge Orders Monitor For Sheriff Joe

STAR Test Dumped; Gov. Brown Ignores Federal Threats, Signs Order For New School Exams

Reid: Help Kids With Cancer? Why Would We Want To Do That?

Montana Democrats Get A Senate Candidate As Lt. Gov. John Walsh Decides To Run

ObamaCare Regulation On Digital Patient Records Raises Security Concerns



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Spikes On Gulf Coast Pipeline News, Slips In Asian Trade: NYMEX $103.69, Brent $108.92
US companies Add 166K Jobs In September As “Sluggish Recovery” Continues
Burlington Stores IPO Has Strong Debut
US Retail Group Expects Slightly Brighter Holiday Sales
Partial Victory For BP In Lawsuit Over Settlement
Draghi Warns Banks Long-Term Loans Can’t Replace Capital
Bing Adds Pinterest Collections To Image Search
Dell Gives Up On Windows RT
Facebook, Cisco Target Local Businesses With Free Wifi For Check-Ins
Target Follows Walmart With Launch Of Prepaid Mobile Service
“Grand Theft Auto Online” Launches



SPORTS
Road Warrior Rays Advance To ALDS

Fernando Rodney celebrates the Rays’ victory over the Tribe

Tampa Bay’s pitching, defense unfazed by hostile Cleveland crowd, stifles Tribe 4-0

Alabama Safety Clinton-Dix Gets Indefinite Suspension For Violating Team Rules

Service Academy Games To Continue

Book Claims NFL Crusaded Against Science

Penguins Goalie Vokoun Out 3-6 Months With Clot

AFN Goes Dark, Troops Overseas Denied MLB, NFL TV

Penske Inks Keselowski Through 2017

Red Wings Make Eastern Conference Debut With Win Against Sabres

Bolland Scores Two, Lifts Leafs Over Flyers

Avs Rout Ducks In Roy’s Coaching Debut

Nationals Coaches Wait In Limbo As Club Searches For New Manager



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Harper’s Bazaar November Cover Girl Is Jennifer Lawrence

But is it really art?

Bazaar Art magazine debuts



Coroner’s Report On Cory Monteith: Shooting Heroin, Slamming Booze Before Death


Amanda Bynes’ Mom Breaks Her Silence


Mia Farrow, Eight Of Her Children Speak Out About Their Lives


Vanessa Simmons On Pregnancy: “I Was So Nervous Telling My Dad!”

Empire Readers Vote Beendict Cumberbatch, Emma Watson Sexiest Stars On Earth

Sinead O’Connor’s Open Letter To Miley Cyrus

Lacey Chabert Is Maxim’s November Cover Girl

FX’s “Wilfred” To End After Fourth Season

Daniel Radcliffe’s Next Trick Is To Make Harry Potter Disappear

Casey Kasem’s Family Feud: Wife Won’t Let Family, Friends See Him?

George Clooney Hooking Up With “Croatian Sensation” Monika Jakisic After Stacey Keibler Split

Sinatra-Farrow “Love Child” Laughs Off Rumors

Melissa McCarthy To Star In “Female Bond Role”

Stagehand Strike Scraps Opening Night At Carnegie Hall



FOREIGNERS
Dozens Of Migrants Dead After Boat Sinks Near Lampedusa
Leader Of Greece’s Far-Right Golden Dawn Party Jailed Before Trial
15 Dead As Suicide Bomber Attacks Pakistani Anti-Taliban Militia Leader
US, Japan Agree To Revise Security Treaty For First Time In 16 Years
Mob Attacks Russian Embassy In Libya
PRC’s Xi Sidesteps Southeast Asia Pressure Over South China Sea Disputes
US: Burma Must Do More To Curb Anti-Muslim Violence
General VK Singh Says Government Keeping Army Restrained On Pakistan Issue
Gambia To Pull Out Of British Commonwealth



BLOGS & STUFF
Aewl’s Abode: Shutdown Day 1…And Day 2
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Government Shutdown Day Two – It Can’t Kill Me, Lord, And It Can’t Kill Me
Michelle Malkin: Seedco – ObamaCare’s Fraud-Stained Navigators
Twitchy: Barry-cades Confirmed – Park Service Says Obama Administration Ordered Closure Of WW2 Memorial
Chicks On The Right: Why Would Democrats Want To Help A Kid With Cancer?
American Power: State Governments Reduced To Lying About ObamaCare Rollout
American Thinker: Death Panels And The WW2 Veterans
The Necropolitan Sentinel: ObamaCare Watch – How Do You Destroy Us? Let Me Count The Ways
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, October 2
Jammie Wearing Fools: Florida ObamaCare Navigator Says Rollout Is “Dead As A Doornail. It’s A Mess.”
JustOneMinute: The Great And Powerful Obama
Pat Dollard: Failed Program – Day Two Of ObamaCare Worse Than The First
Protein Wisdom: “We Will March On Washington Against Your Tyranny. You Have Been Warned.”
Shot In The Dark: Tear Down This Wall
The Jawa Report: When You Dig Yourself Into A Hole, Don’t Make It Worse
The Lonely Conservative: Soviet Propaganda – Any Of This Sound Familiar?
Megan McArdle: Untangling ObamaCare’s Web Glitches

Category: Live at Five

The Bill Schmalfeldt School of ‘Ethics’

Posted on | October 2, 2013 | 63 Comments

After his Monday meltdown, we might have hoped Bill Schmalfeldt would spend a day or two recuperating, but such hopes were inevitably disappointed. Instead, the deranged cyberstalker spent Tuesday and Wednesday ranting about how John Hoge’s “STALKING AND HARASSMENT” and “FALSE CHARGES” were driving him to an early grave. Because, you see, Bill Schmalfeldt is a pitiful helpless victim.

In between ranting about Hoge, Schmalfeldt also repeatedly sent Twitter messages to Ken White of Popehat (I counted 43 such messages in about 24 hours), who responded by reminding Schmalfeldt of his well-documented history of vicious harassment:

This refers to a threatening Facebook message that Bill Schmalfeldt sent to a Wisconsin woman in 2011:

“Now . . . you’re going to wind up being the Monica Lewinsky for Jeremy’s Bill Clinton unless you start telling the truth and start telling it quick. I’m done fucking around, and I am not going away. You’ve already had “the media’s” interest in this case explained to you. Now, do you wanna play dumb and lose your kids? Or do you wanna play smart and keep what you got? I am not making any threats. I am just trying to help you avoid a shit storm for some giggling fuck who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you. Do you really want to be dragged through the mud for THIS giggling shitwit. I’ll wait to hear from you. But I send what I have … EVERYTHING … to the Wisconsin Media tomorrow.”

Is that “a trick of investigative reporting,” or is that harassment and attempted extortion? Do investigative journalists routinely threaten potential sources with harm to their children? John Hoge answers that question with an emphatic “no.” But criticizing the helpless victim Bill Schmalfeldt, is not journalism:

What I linked there was Bill Schmalfeldt’s rather notorious December 2012 article attacking Patrick “Patterico” Frey and Ken White, which you can read for yourself. OK, so why was Schmalfeldt attacking Frey and White? Because Frey was the defendant in a nuisance lawsuit which Neal Rauhauser had encouraged Nadia Naffe to file, and White was one of Frey’s defense attorney:

Bolstering my conclusion that this was a politically motivated attack were the admissions by Neal Rauhauser (the hatchet-man associate of Brett Kimberlin) that he had arranged counsel for Naffe. Rauhauser proudly trumpeted his silly but telling hope that the lawsuit would accomplish his (and Kimberlin’s) long-held goal of costing me my job.

Why would Bill Schmalfeldt be publishing personal contact information of the defendant in a lawsuit and one of his lawyers?

What had Frey or White done to deserve such treatment from Schmalfeldt? One might suspect that Schmalfeldt was acting in concert with Neal Rauhauser and Brett Kimberlin to help them accomplish their “long-held goal” of getting Frey fired from his day job.

One might suspect this — it would be a common-sense surmise of the available evidence — but it’s impossible to say for certain what Bill Schmalfeldt’s motive was, because Bill Schmalfeldt is both crazy and dishonest. Attributing rational motives to a madman is always risky, and nobody can accept the word of a proven liar. But, according to the Bill Schmalfeldt School of Journalism Ethics, a mere suspicion justifies all manner of “investigative reporting” tricks, such as the threats Schmalfeldt made against a man named Doug:

All Doug had done was to “like” a Facebook page that contained negative comments about Bill Schmalfeldt. Therefore, Schmalfeldt threatened Doug that he would “dig deeper into your background and find out what there is to find about you,” unless Doug would agree to “tell me everything you know about [a certain person’s] relationship with the [Knot My Wisconsin blog]. Is [the person] Jerry Fletcher? WHO is Jerry Fletcher? I want it all Doug.”

You see the typical deadline — “5 pm today, October 26, Eastern Time” — attached to the angry demand that Doug must supply the requested information, or else Bill Schmalfeldt would publish (presumably derogatory) information about Doug.

Go ask any professional journalist in America if they have ever used this type of tactic, especially in pursuit of so trivial a goal as discovering the identity of someone associated with a blog. Who is Jerry Fletcher? Why on earth would anybody care?

Perhaps Bill Schmalfeldt can explain all this. But I doubt anyone will take his explanation seriously, because Bill Schmalfeldt is crazy.

 

Category: Bill Schmalfeldt
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