A friend sent a ripening August 23th CBS Minnesota story about the You Can Run But You Can't Hide booth at the Minnesota State Fair to Bluestem, Booth At State Fair Accused Of Being Backed By ‘Hate Group’ that's a great example lazy fair reporting.
In the lead up to the clip, there's chatter that CBS Minnesota received "emails" about the booth, but the report itself asserts something slightly different going on:
The group “You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Intl.” has gained attention at the Minnesota State Fair over accusations that it’s a hate group. . . .The group’s booth has been protested by some fair-goers after they found it listed as an anti-gay hate group on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website.
“We’ve heard that a few times, but I really don’t want to say anything right now,” one of the booth volunteers said.
Protests? Really? If that's the case, where are the visuals and interviews with the protesters? Readers may recall that when the Minnesota State Fair was glitter-bombed over an anti-gay marriage booth, the protesters weren't shy about identifying themselves to media.
Were emails sent to the newsroom? We don't doubt that. But people coming up to a booth and complaining about a message? Ask the Republican and DFL booth staff if they're subject to "protesters."
Complaining, not protesting, is what's going on here. If it weren't for the general incompetence of the story, Bluestem might imagine that YCR itself trolled the assignment deak with emails "protesting" the booth, a staple at the Fair for years, since that SLAPP lawsuit against Maddow et al has made some reluctant (or unable) to cover the latest outrage.
Moreover, CBS Minnesota (aka WCCO) garbles the story of Dean's prayer in the Minnesota House chamber:
The group’s leader, Bradlee Dean, was denounced last year by legislative leaders for making anti-gay comments in an opening prayer at the Capitol.
The prayer took part in May 2011 (so complaints are newsworthy?), and while some might have objected to having a chaplain who was homophobic (among other things), the problem with the prayer itself wasn't that it was anti-gay. It wasn't.
The objection to the prayer itself was that Dean called President Obama's Christian faith into question near the end of the prayer. In 2011 (not "last year"), the Daily Beast's Michelle Goldberg reported in Uproar Over Evangelist Bradlee Dean's Obama Slur:
Dean has long believed that President Obama is a Muslim, and he often insists that Obama has declared America a Muslim nation. So it wasn’t terribly surprising when he snuck a slur against the president into his prayer. The Minnesota House of Representatives, he acknowledged, is a nondenominational chamber, which he takes to mean that all kinds of Christians are welcome. “[I]t’s not about the Baptists and it’s not about the Catholics alone or the Lutherans or the Wesleyans, or the Presbyterians the evangelicals or any other denomination,” he said. The only head of the denomination—i.e., of the government —“is Jesus, as every president up until 2008 has acknowledged.” . . .
. . .Obama, in Dean’s view, is also part of an anti-American plot. Earlier this month, after Osama bin Laden’s death, he claimed that Obama is a greater threat to this country than the terrorist leader. “Osama bin laden is not the one that is at war with the American governors protecting the American borders, is he?” asked Dean. “Osama bin Laden is not the one who is trying to disarm the American people, Obama is!...No one has attacked this country and its people…more than this man’s administration. Do the math.”
And speaking of disarming the American people, Dean's back to beating that drum.
New Dean column recycles fake Janet Reno quote
Fake quotes are a particular pet peeve of Bluestem's editor, and Bradlee Dean is no slouch in this department. City Aaron Rupar reported in a November 2012 post that Bradlee Dean pulls George Washington quotes 'from his anal cavity' in latest column.
The latest fake quote in a Dean column, drawn from the same Youtube video, has been debunked by the pro-gun website Guncite.
In Gun Control: Eyes Wide Open!, Dean begins:
As the gun-control issue rages on – and rest assured, friends, it is raging on – gun-grabbing criminals tell one contrived or fabricated lie after another, acting under the guise of representing the people while they continue down the road of pushing their illegal agenda “forward” in the face of the American people.
If it is not Gabby Giffords receiving three illegal contributions through Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC (which amounts to $15,250), why, then it is Barack Hussein Obama attempting to give over control to the United Nations through illegal and unconstitutional means.
Why is Barack attempting to circumvent “We the People”? Because the American people stood up and shouted out, “Our eyes are wide open!” . . .
Oh noes! Snopes has a bit to say about the old United Nations gun control canard and the Center for Public Integrity notes the issue with Giffords' PAC. It's not quite the apocalyptic situation suggested in the Dean scream.
The column recycles another older Dean YouTube from 2012, with a screencap of the image above, that rests on the following:
Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal. --Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
Pro-gun rights site GunCites notes the origin of this "quotation" (it's actually riff on a paraphrase in an affidavit) on its Bogus Gun Control Quotes page:
The "B'nai B'rith" speech by "Janet Reno"
"The most effective means of fighting crime in the United States is to outlaw the possession of any type of firearm by the civilian populace."
---Falsely attributed to Janet Reno, then-state attorney for Dade County, speech to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida B'nai B'rith gathering, ca.1991. This supposed "quote" first got national attention when it appeared in the April 1995 issue of Soldier of Fortune, as part of an article by Mike Williams entitled "Citizen Militias: '...Necessary to the Security of a Free State...' " and was picked up by the New York Times Syndicate as part of their coverage of the militia movement in the wake of the bombing in Oklahoma City.According to editorials by Martin Dyckman, published in the St. Petersburg Times May 2 and May 28, 1995, the "quote" appears to have originated with an affidavit written by Fred Diamond of Miami, FL who claimed to have heard Reno speak in Coral Gables (not Fort Lauderdale) "on or about November 1, 1984". According to Diamond's affidavit, "Janet Reno told the members of our group assembled, that waiting periods were only a step, that registration was only a step, and further that the prohibition of the private ownership of firearms was the only ultimate solution to controlling crime. I was shocked and appalled to hear her, an elected public official sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution, espouse and advocate a position that would effectively repeal the guarantees of the Second Amendment."
Early in 1993, after Reno was nominated to be Attorney General, Diamond talked to Marion Hammer, then the National Rifle Association's Florida lobbyist, and NRA sent him affidavits to sign. Diamond says he rejected their first draft. Subsequently, Hammer's newsletter, Florida Firing Line, published an article on Reno in March 1993, including almost word for word the key passage from Diamond's affidavit about what Reno allegedly said, but the newsletter put the speech in 1991, not 1984. Diamond didn't sign the affidavit (with the correct year) until June 17, 1993, after Reno had already been confirmed.
Reno has been questioned about the "quote" and denies having said it, either in 1991 or 1984. A spokesman for the Justice Department, Bert Brandenburg, told the New York Times syndicate: "The assertion is untrue and the attorney general has never made such a statement" (Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 2, 1995). The Reno "quote" has appeared in print elsewhere, including National Review on May 29, 1995 as part of an article by Alan W. Bock about the militia movement; and was reprinted in a Guns and Ammo editorial by Ed Moats on concealed carry in October of 1996
The pro-gun rights Second Amendment Foundation also notes the bogusity of the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida B'nai B'rith statements.
Truthiness: the gift that keeps on giving. And yes, Bradlee Dean still claims what Maddow did much worse than Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman case.
Screenshots: Bradlee Dean's MN House prayer. Legislators objected to him as a homophobe, but the content of the prayer itself that drew flack was the questioning of President Obama's faith (above); the screencap of the recycled Dean Youtube, already challenged for a bogus George Washington quotation. Former Janet Reno is in good company in the Bradlee Dean fake quote club (below).
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WCCO hasn't been the same since they became "CBS Minnesota". Everything they do sounds like it was phoned in, pre-packaged, or both (as in the case of the "Good Question" segments).
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Aug 28, 2013 at 08:33 PM