OOOPs: Police Reporter Spreading Bullshit that "Ferguson Teen Attacked Cop" -RETRACTs STORY

[kpete]

ORIGINAL STORY HERE:
http://nypost.com/2014/08/19/witnesses-say-ferguson-teen-attacked-cop-before-shooting/

Yesterday [Monday], the controversy surrounding the conflicting stories of Michael Brown's death grew hotter, when Christine Byers, a police reporter with the St. Louis Dispatch tweeted the following information about officer Darren Wilson:

Christine Byers ✔ @ChristineDByers
Follow
Police sources tell me more than a dozen witnesses have corroborated cop's version of events in shooting #Ferguson
7:30 PM - 18 Aug 2014

https://twitter.com/ChristineDByers/statuses/501556693382094848


But she backtracked, tweeting this semi-retraction hours later:

Christine Byers ✔ @ChristineDByers
Follow
On FMLA from paper. Earlier tweets did not meet standards for publication.
10:50 AM - 19 Aug 2014

https://twitter.com/ChristineDByers/statuses/501788192727498752

Yeah, she was spreading this tale even though she's not reporting this story, or any other story -- she's taking a Family and Medical Leave Act leave from her job. But her rumormongering also spread like wildfire -- thanks to sites like The Blaze and (again) Gateway Pundit.

.........

Is local law enforcement just tilting the story the way law enforcement always does with local media, but the result this time is that right-wing propagandists with a national base are listening? Or does someone in this process actually grasp how the right-wing puke funnel works? It's probably the former, but the result is the same either way: rumors and disinformation, once they're out there, get enshrined as fact on the right, and that colors the story for all of Heartland America -- and, by the way, for any potential Darren Wilson jurors. Whatever's going on, it's clear that the other side always work the media more skillfully


http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2014/08/podunk-cops-cant-police-but-theyre.html#links
http://www.mediaite.com/online/reporter-claims-dozen-witnesses-corroborate-ferguson-officers-account-slightly-backtracks/
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43751_Jim_Hofts_Unsourced_Claim_That_Officer_Darren_Wilson_Had_an_Orbital_Blowout_Fracture_of_the_Eye_Socket

............
.

[4139]

1. I don't think she was the 'eye injury' reporter...

... She is the report that mike charged the cop.

[kpete]

4. thanks

you are right
...I was reading THIS STORY at the same time:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43751_Jim_Hofts_Unsourced_Claim_That_Officer_Darren_Wilson_Had_an_Orbital_Blowout_Fracture_of_the_Eye_Socket


going to take a break from all of this
later today


peace,
kp

[deminks]

21. The orbital fracture lie is making it's way through the right wing noise machine today.

How many "news" organizations will be fooled by this one?

[Jackpine Radical]

2. "Whatever's going on, it's clear that the other side always work the media more skillfully"

--I guess that's another way of saying that they k now how to systematically lie. It's really part of their survival strategy to distort the public's general conception of reality. They are like viruses that proliferate by tricking the immune system into mistaking them for friendly intestinal flora.

[Tommymac]

16. ^^^ This ^^^

[MohRokTah]

3. And yet when we put together stuff to get it out there, we are told by our own...

"wait for all the evidence".

The wingnuts do this shit so much better than the progressives.

[maxrandb]

5. No Shite

Saw a wingnut site post with over 200 comments that said the key witness had changed his story and is now saying Mike Brown attacked the police officer.

Of course, it was all bullshit, but it had over 200 comments.

Just watch, this "recant" story will make it to Hate Radio today. "some people have said......."

[watoos]

14. Yip, the same story

hit the local web site I post on in Pennsylvania. They use the same code words. They said on my local site that the witness[ b]recanted[/b ]his story.

[Rex]

6. I've been assured by the finest DU experts that the cops are completely on the up and up.

[HooptieWagon]

7. Quite obviously...

she was being used by PD/DA office to get their spin out into the public domain, without their having to be held accountable for its truthfulness. Sucks for her she was a pawn, but she should have known better and been more careful.

[winstars]

8. this lie was all over Faux last night, was checking to see how much lying, did not disappoint me.

[Gothmog]

9. The conservatives are citing this idiot reporter

[kpete]

10. more from Canada:

Dispatch reporter who tweeted corroboration of Darren Wilson’s account suddenly ‘on leave’?http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/65412

[Cooley Hurd]

12. THAT is weird!

Why the FMLA?

[johnnyreb]

11. "did not meet standards"... but we sent it ennyway.

PFFFT!!!

[blackspade]

13. FMLA?

She should be fired.

[MohRokTah]

18. Not the first time she's been wacky, either.

She reported an indoor cannabis grow as a "marijuana growth lab" in 2010:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_5eceb462-a63e-11df-8b1d-0017a4a78c22.html?mode=story

[ReRe]

15. We must all remember that Wilson's

... side hired a PR company a couple days ago. We're going to be hearing more and more and more bullshit defending Wilson from now on, so everyone keep that in mind as time goes forward.

[Tommymac]

17. A lily White PR firm no less.

But hey, anything to get the truthiness out.

[ReRe]

24. Lily white, as in...

... pure as the riven snow? Unlike any former PR organization? Honest as Abe? A pure "white" firm?

[Skidmore]

19. The head of the police union there was just on Ronan Farrow's show

asking that people allow Wilson is "due process." And then he went on to commend law enforcement in Ferguson on the "tremendous restraint" they are showing.

[ReRe]

25. I seen that, Skidmore

... He urged everyone to "withhold judgement until all the facts come out."

What he really meant was to withhold judgement until the PR firm he is working for saturates the media with their propaganda. He was from the Fraternal Order of Police, the FOP.

[bullwinkle428]

20. "A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth has a

chance to put its pants on." Classic example of that quote.

[1StrongBlackMan]

23. I wonder ...

was she on FML when she received the tips; or, did she take FML after she was informed that her previous reporting did not meet standards for publication?

[RandiFan1290]

26. Fox, Clear Channel, and rw radio have been pushing it all day.

This is the PR company in action. They know racist/rw media will back them.

[starroute]

27. I saw that when I was checking out the #Ferguson Twitter hashtag

I guess I'm insulated by mostly hanging out at DU and similar sites. We may have people here who defend the cops -- but nothing with the pure vileness of what's out there in the wild. It's been really horrifying to encounter.