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tenderfoot

(8,424 posts)
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 09:19 PM Jun 2016

POLITICSNevada Reporter Who Falsely Claimed Sanders Supporters Threw Chairs Just Got What He Deserve

I didn't write the headline...

A veteran political reporter who spread a viral lie demeaning Bernie Sanders delegates at the Nevada convention is now looking for a new job.

Jon Ralston, who has been called “The biggest fish in Nevada” by Politico, has been let go by PBS after the network cancelled his show “Ralston Live” on Tuesday.

Ralston became nationally reviled after the Nevada Democratic Convention, in which he famously propagated the oft-repeated lie that Bernie Sanders’ delegates threw chairs in a fit of rage after state party chair Roberta Lange disqualified a large number of delegates from participating and refused to hear their appeals.

While Ralston’s insistence of Sanders supporters throwing chairs was secondhand, as he left the convention early, the claim was still taken at face-value due to his status as a respected journalist in Nevada. Despite the lack of verifiable evidence, national news media ran with Ralston’s claims and printed numerous stories falsely claiming that Sanders supporters threw chairs, including trusted outlets like the Associated Press, the New York Times, and CBS.

However, it was later revealed that no chairs were thrown, as the only video evidence involving a chair showed a man briefly holding one up before putting it down again.

https://twitter.com/Bernie4People/status/732619789424832512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

more: http://usuncut.com/politics/nevada-reporter-chair-throwing/


I have a feeling this isn't the only "act of violence" that turned out to be total bee ess!

27 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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POLITICSNevada Reporter Who Falsely Claimed Sanders Supporters Threw Chairs Just Got What He Deserve (Original Post) tenderfoot Jun 2016 OP
Fuck him gopiscrap Jun 2016 #1
yep +100 840high Jun 2016 #2
Post hoc ergo propter hoc lapucelle Jun 2016 #3
If he was a seasoned investigative journalist worth his salt passiveporcupine Jun 2016 #5
He didn't run with it he tweeted it Egnever Jun 2016 #8
And he continued to back that lie for two days. kiva Jun 2016 #11
I doubt it is vastly reduced Egnever Jun 2016 #15
I've lived in Nevada for 19 years. kiva Jun 2016 #16
So you lived here for 19 years and you think he is some hack with an agenda against bernie? Egnever Jun 2016 #17
No, I think he's a regional reporter kiva Jun 2016 #18
Well said laserhaas Jun 2016 #19
He has been on for breaking news plenty of times. Egnever Jun 2016 #20
So what's your explanation about why he lied? kiva Jun 2016 #21
Maybe he trusted his source? Egnever Jun 2016 #22
I can understand him making the tweet kiva Jun 2016 #23
Here he is the day after saying he didn't see it happen Egnever Jun 2016 #24
This is from Tuesday, May 17, kiva Jun 2016 #25
His tweet was on the 15th Egnever Jun 2016 #26
The morning after he kiva Jun 2016 #27
Now this makes sense. PBS and NPR are just shadows of what they use to be. rusty quoin Jun 2016 #12
Sadly OwlinAZ Jun 2016 #13
There is something to be said about not stabbing your friends in the back. You may need jtuck004 Jun 2016 #7
+1000000000000 jack_krass Jun 2016 #14
Couldn't have happened to a "better"? man. Duval Jun 2016 #4
Same topic was covered in an earlier post at 7:19 PM. Many more posts in response and explanation. Ford_Prefect Jun 2016 #6
yep. tenderfoot Jun 2016 #9
It's time to revoke the property tax exemption for all religious organizations.... zwyziec Jun 2016 #10

lapucelle

(18,037 posts)
3. Post hoc ergo propter hoc
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 10:04 PM
Jun 2016

This isn't about Ralston's coverage of the convention.

It's payback for Ralston taking on Sheldon Adelson, a major PBS donor. Adelson doesn't want him on the airwaves, and poof! he's gone.

But go ahead and celebrate the fact that a seasoned investigative reporter who writes about corruption on both sides of the aisle lost his TV show because he pissed off a powerful, right-wing billionaire who is buying up media outlets so he can control what you read in newspapers.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/04/ralston-las-vegas-sun-editor-pulled-column-to-protect-reid-204868

https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/where-does-harry-reid-draw-line-my-column-about-reid-and-his-mitt-romney-tax-attack-was-killed

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/business/media/sheldon-adelsonspurchase-of-las-vegas-paper-seen-as-a-power-play.html?_r=0

https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/editor-columnist-cant-write-about-adelson-adelson-news

passiveporcupine

(8,175 posts)
5. If he was a seasoned investigative journalist worth his salt
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 10:52 PM
Jun 2016

He would not have run with a second hand story without proof, or at least more than one source. And he let it spread to major news networks (and they are just as bad for running with it without proof...just on his word). They had to know there would be video evidence.

And I don't think that anyone is in favor of Adelson being able to boot a journalist he doesn't like from PBS. It's only karma for the shit job he did to Sander's supporters.

Karma may not be a direct link, but it's karma just the same.

 

Egnever

(21,506 posts)
8. He didn't run with it he tweeted it
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 11:17 PM
Jun 2016

The fact that he has such a huge following and that it was picked up by everyone else does not mean he ran with it. Someone told him they saw people throwing chairs and he tweeted it.

This is the reporter he apparently got it from.

http://letstalknevada.com/convention-catastrophe-part-ii-election-2016-special-report/

Meanwhile the only person that wins from this is Sheldon Addleson. Yay!

kiva

(4,373 posts)
11. And he continued to back that lie for two days.
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 11:48 PM
Jun 2016

And that former "huge following" is vastly reduced, as it should be.

 

Egnever

(21,506 posts)
15. I doubt it is vastly reduced
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 12:26 AM
Jun 2016

If you followed him for anything other than being mad at him you would know he gets the inside scoops on Nevada politics all the time. He has exposed more corruption arguably than any other reporter in the state ever.

Two days to verify something a trusted fellow reporter told him wasn't accurate Hardly seems like much of a sin to me when compared to his body of work. The guy is fearless in talking truth to power and has been doing so for over a decade now.

kiva

(4,373 posts)
16. I've lived in Nevada for 19 years.
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 12:47 AM
Jun 2016

I know exactly who Jon Ralston is, thank you.

And truth to power only works if it's, you know, the truth.

 

Egnever

(21,506 posts)
17. So you lived here for 19 years and you think he is some hack with an agenda against bernie?
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 12:53 AM
Jun 2016

Seriously?

kiva

(4,373 posts)
18. No, I think he's a regional reporter
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 12:58 AM
Jun 2016

who hit the national jackpot with his tweet, reveled in the attention, and didn't have the journalistic integrity to admit that he lied and wasn't even at the convention at the end of the night. I don't think he's particularly a Clinton supporter, I just think he made a very bad decision and didn't have the smarts or the courage to admit it until forced to do so.

Ralston has been on national TV before but never in the role of breaking news, and he simply didn't have the guts to do the ethical thing.

 

Egnever

(21,506 posts)
20. He has been on for breaking news plenty of times.
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 01:12 AM
Jun 2016

He is like the go to guy for any breaking news on Nevada politics or hell sometimes just Nevada related. He has been on all the networks countless times. I find the idea he was suddenly all worked up over this story because he got to be on the news far fetched at best.

kiva

(4,373 posts)
21. So what's your explanation about why he lied?
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 01:43 AM
Jun 2016

If he didn't care about the attention, why didn't he admit he wasn't there when people first began questioning his story just hours after his tweet? He could have said then that he had left and that he got the info from another reporter who was there but he didn't, he spent the better part of two days pretending he had witnessed something he hadn't...why? Careless or deliberately manipulative?

kiva

(4,373 posts)
23. I can understand him making the tweet
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 02:14 AM
Jun 2016

if he trusted his source, but I cannot understand him sticking to the story that he (Ralston) saw the chair being thrown for two days, well beyond when many people who actually were there were saying it didn't happen.

For the first few hours after his tweet I assumed he was telling the truth and I just hadn't seen it happen, then other delegates started talking and we began to realize that none of us had seen what Ralston alleged had happened.

Once people started questioning it, he could have just said that he had left and was relying on another reporter as a source, I think people would have understood that. Instead he stuck by his story and watched as Bernie supporters were accused of rioting, of throwing bottles, of wreaking havoc by national media, based solely on Ralson's own lie.

 

Egnever

(21,506 posts)
24. Here he is the day after saying he didn't see it happen
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 02:25 AM
Jun 2016

29 seconds in. He does say there were many eyewitnesses. Was that a lie? Or was that what he was being told since there is video of a guy picking up a chair is it really that hard to believe that people told Ralston it was thrown?

Regardless he has been the go to guy in Nevada for years for a reason and it isn't because he makes stuff up to get on TV.


oops forgot the link to the video.



kiva

(4,373 posts)
25. This is from Tuesday, May 17,
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 02:33 AM
Jun 2016

the Nevada primary was Saturday, May 14 - this interview was three days after the convention and his tweet on Saturday night. And he was still not owning that his chair throwing comment had painted an entire group of people as violent, instead preferring to focus on people calling Barbara Boxer bad words.

 

Egnever

(21,506 posts)
26. His tweet was on the 15th
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 03:03 AM
Jun 2016
https://twitter.com/RalstonReports/status/731892274464841729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

He saw the Barbra boxer stuff himself of course he focused on what he actually saw himself. Cant find any video of him claiming he saw chairs thrown.

Maybe you know of some?

I wasn't there so I don't know if chairs were actually thrown or not nor does it matter to me the Sanders supporters lost their minds at that convention. Not saying it was without cause just that the idea it was civil because a chair was or wasn't thrown is silly. People called in death threats and posted the chair woman's personal info for goodness sake.

kiva

(4,373 posts)
27. The morning after he
Wed Jun 22, 2016, 10:57 AM
Jun 2016

left the convention early...fair enough, so he waited two days to correct the lie.

I don't care that there is no video, it was Ralston's lying tweet that started the whole "Bernie's supporters were violent at the convention" meme. He could have stopped it, but refused to walk it back for two days, until it became clear that it didn't happen. Because of his reputation, news agencies believed him when he said it happened - hell, I believed him for a few hours - and he's responsible for that.

Death threats? No - there were some nasty calls, including one saying people like Lange should be dead. I don't doubt that was scary, but the fact that no one has been arrested, though various reporters managed to identify and interview some of the callers, indicates that law enforcement doesn't agree that these were death threats. As for doxxing her, that was wrong...but none of this has anything to do with Ralston's lying reporting.

 

rusty quoin

(6,133 posts)
12. Now this makes sense. PBS and NPR are just shadows of what they use to be.
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 11:52 PM
Jun 2016

And they are afraid of of their own shadows.

 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
7. There is something to be said about not stabbing your friends in the back. You may need
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 11:03 PM
Jun 2016

them some day.

Could trade some of that seasoning for a class on ethics.

zwyziec

(173 posts)
10. It's time to revoke the property tax exemption for all religious organizations....
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 11:47 PM
Jun 2016

there are roughly 350,000 religious congregations in the United States. Each holds property that is exempt from county and local taxes. Including.......

store front churches
mega churches
catholic parishes
jewish synagogs
diocesan offices
seminaries
christian pre, grade, middle and high schools
colleges and universities
cemeteries
hospitals
priest rectories
hospitals

These organizations use the fire, police and EMT services. They use the roads, the water systems, the sewage treatment systems, the libraries, the county courts, the state administration system, etc.

All other private property owners are subsidizing these religious organizations.

My estimate is that when all the property of these organizations are totaled, the tax exemption could amount to over $1 Trillion!

Isn't it time to start making an issue of this church welfare?

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