Keith Olbermann:Debunking Breitbart's "Occupy Rape List"
Keith Olbermann
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/15/1065161/-Debunking-Breitbart-s-Occupy-Rape-List-
You saw the video of his mad rant against Occupy, then you saw the "list"cobbled together in far too much of a hurry to rationalize the rant, then the new video from World Net Daily of all people, showing Andy Breitbart drinking before the rant (and breaking, in cartoon fashion, his wine glass).
http://campusprogress.org/articles/exclusive_video_andrew_breitbart_to_occupiers_stop_raping_people/
What you have not seen are the facts behind the transparently dishonest "list" with which Breitbart is trying to smear Occupy as rapists. Sadly, it appears his people's efforts consisted of finding stories in which both the word "Occupy" and some report of sexual misconduct.
It doesn't look like anybody bothered to read the links. Nearly every one of the stories shows Occupy participants were the victims and not the alleged perpetrators, or the incidents had nothing to do with Occupy.
On Countdown tonight we had - and we will continue to have - as much fun at possible with Breitbart's on-camera meltdown in front of a group of Occupy Protestors at CPAC last weekend. The first night we mashed it up with video of Charlton Heston from "Planet Of The Apes" and Breitbart-lookalike Andrew Keir in a compelling sci-fi film called "Quatermass And The Pit." Tonight we mixed Andy with Sam Kinison's epic classroom rant from "Back To School."
But however hilarious Breitbart's self-destruction might be, the subject of rape itself is no laughing matter. The allegation that a political or cultural group condones or encourages rape and sexual assault, against anyone, is virtually as serious a charge as can be levelled. Yet nearly just as bad, is to fabricate, twist, and alter facts, to make it seem like such a charge against such a group has credence.
Mr. Breitbart and his websites have now promulgated a list of what his people boast are 17 rapes at Occupy protests between October 16th and November 19th. 17 stories and links, headlined "Rapes and Various Sexual Crimes" and all of them attributed to Occupy.
It turns out Breitbart and his people have padded this, by listing some stories twice. And in nearly every case, Breitbart's crew has twisted nearly every one of the allegations in the stories. The idea seems to have been to make as long a list as possible, and assume that your supporters will never bother to link through to the stories, let alone follow-up to find their true outcomes.
Those who do bother will find Mr. Breitbart and his colleagues, are lying:.
(snip)
So. Seventeen stories Breitbart claims are cases of Rape at Occupy. Just reading the stories, googling the names of those identified, following up - this only took me about 70 minutes. The final result:
-- Two stories on the list were duplicates.
-- One story turns out to have been about consensual sex.
-- One case, in Scotland, led the Occupy group to disband for the sake of safety.
-- One case of an arrest for child porn, with Occupy immediately banning the alleged perpetrator.
-- One case of a girl disappearing -- ignoring the fact that she was home and unharmed a month later.
-- Four cases in which police said neither the victim nor the assailant were apparently even associated with Occupy.
That leaves seven others stories, all of which show police identifying Occupy participants as the victims, six of which show police identifying the alleged assailants as not being Occupy participants.
That is the evidence that Andrew Breitbart has submitted to rationalize his irrational attempt to smear the Occupy movement and Occupy members, as rapists, and to brand anybody who points out his dishonesty, his twisting of the facts, and who bothers to actually read the stories that disprove his own contention, as a rape denier or rape apologist. What Mr. Breitbart and his fellow propagandists have done, in fact, is to take at least eight women, eight members of Occupy, who were raped or otherwise assaulted, and blamed them.
But he is not just perpetrating the classic fabrication con of the dishonest man for whom facts are malleable and can be ignored when they are inconvenient. More importantly, Breitbart is exploiting rape victims, blaming rape victims. And no woman, no man - conservative, liberal, or indifferent - can abide this despicable attempt to take individual human suffering, and by lying at the top of his voice, try to score cheap political points.
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