The Roanoke Times: RoundTable

Comments

# 1

[November 1, 2006 12:22 AM]

exasperated : →http://www.questionsforvirgilgoode.blogspot.com

Mr. Stark, the assault victim, says that he's filing charges. Good for him.

One weird angle to this most people don't seem to realize: Stark's question was whether or not Allen had spat on his first wife, which is apparently what some people rumor is in the sealed divorce proceedings. Well, who knows -- I sure don't. But Allen does have a well-documented history of spitting at women -- at least at their shoes.

Boy. What goes on in that guy's head, I don't even want to know.

# 2

[November 1, 2006 11:45 AM]

Josh

OK. This left-wing extremist had a blog which was openly hostile to Allen, and he was known as a troublemaker.

If I'm Allen's security people and I see this oddball getting close to my guy, how do I know he isn't going to try to physically attack Allen? From the video, it certainly looked like he was trying to forcibly push his way to get right to Allen.

Come on, Dan. This was a Webb shill trying to make a story and you're letting him do it. I recognize that you don't have to be objective, but your headline and coverage of this isn't remotely fair.

# 3

[November 1, 2006 12:58 PM]

Dan Radmacher

I don't know, Josh, from this video, it seems pretty clear that the guy was trying to approach the senator, and Allen's supporters were actively getting in his way. There was indication that he represented any kind of threat.

# 4

[November 1, 2006 7:01 PM]

Josh

You have to hand it to the Webb campaign, though. As with the macaca non-story, they know all they have to do is send a shill to where Allen is appearing. The liberal media will take it from there.

For their next stunt, the Webb campaign will send a black woman over to slap George Allen. If he reacts, the story will be "Oh, my god, did you see Allen dis another minority who was simply trying to express herself?"

# 5

[November 1, 2006 9:57 PM]

Dan Radmacher

Josh,

That's right. The liberal media forced Allen to call an Indian-American a name that just happened to be a racial slur in Allen's mother's birthplace. The liberal media forced him to add a patronizing "Welcome to the real world of Virginia" to a guy who, unlike Allen, was born and raised in Virginia. And they forced him to do it ON CAMERA, where it could be played over and over again on You Tube.

That liberal media.

Of course, if they'd really been thinking, they would have chosen a black blogger to force Allen's goons to beat up.

# 6

[November 2, 2006 12:08 AM]

Josh

ROFL @ 'macaca'. This is a word that maybe three people in the world knew what it meant before this non-story happened.

Now we can't believe Allen and we must pound on this non-story no matter how many times Allen apologizes.

But we, by all means, must believe Kerry when he offers up the ridiculous claim that his slam against the troops was really a misspoken joke aimed at the president.

I can't wait for your editorial defending this doofus, Dan. Let's see if you will be as consistent in making Kerry responsible for his words, as you are with Allen.

You gave Allen no credit for apologizing repeatedly. Let's see if you let Kerry off the hook for his initial refusal to apologize, then offering his cowardly E-MAIL "apology" through reporters.

Here's your opportunity, Dan. Are you going to be even-handed with the two situations or are you going to be hypocritical?

Or are you going to just ignore it and pray it goes away which would fall into the category of being hypocritical?

I'll be waiting.

# 7

[November 2, 2006 6:25 AM]

Dan Radmacher

Josh,

If only three people knew what it meant, and one was his mother, isn't that significant?

As for Kerry, we won't be defending him, but I doubt we'll waste much ink criticizing him, either.

It's not a matter of being even-handed, because the two situations aren't deserving of equal treatment. Kerry, after all, isn't running for office. He doesn't represent Virginia, either.

And Kerry saying something stupid is hardly surprising. He didn't exactly prove himself artful when he ran for president.

# 8

[November 2, 2006 8:02 AM]

Josh

Yeah, you're right. I guess the Kerry thing will go the way of coverage of Reid's crooked land deal. The media will have no interest in perpetuating it, and the story will die as far as the MSM is concerned. No editorials trumpeting these things as symptomic of the general decay in the party as you do for every single Republican pratfall. Gotta get back to week 6 of the Foley story.

# 9

[November 2, 2006 10:10 AM]

JohnS

Josh -

Before shifting into sarcasm overdrive, you really ought to check your facts. "Gotta get back to week 6 of the Foley story"? A quick search of the roanoke.com website shows the last time a Times' staffer mentioned Foley was a column written about 3 weeks ago. The only more recent search results are an editorial commentary and a letter to the editor criticizing the coverage.

Also, equating the Kerry and Foley incidents is more than a touch disingenuous, don't you think?

# 10

[November 2, 2006 11:25 AM]

Isis

Free speach is gone. Having access to our representatives is gone.

Did you hear about the guy who got put in JAIL for telling Cheney that he didn't agree with Cheney's policies in Iraq.

There was NO physical threat to Cheney...and yet the man went to jail. All the man was doing was taking his children to piano camp and happened to see Cheney on the street.

How about the teenage girl that was pulled out of her high school classroom to get questioned by men in black. No parents. Nothing.

All she had done is post something 'bad' about the president on her 'myspace' page. Yet, the Bush gestapo could not discern that the person posting was really a teenager...and we think these people can stop the real terrorists?

The politicians and the politics of this country are out of control.

Welcome to the police state of america.

# 11

[November 2, 2006 9:38 PM]

Josh

The Foley story should have died five weeks ago. The guy sent emails. He resigned. He checked himself into rehab.

If the FBI wants to investigate Foley further, fine. If something comes out of that, then it can be a story again.

But the Democrats and their media buddies saying Hastert should resign because he should have known about the emails some guy was sending is crap.

Should Nancy Pelosi resign because William Jefferson had $60,000 in his refrigerator? Hell, Jefferson didn't even resign.

The mainstream media generally is biased towards the Democrats. I don't even think our buddies Dan and Christian would disagree with that.

# 12

[November 2, 2006 10:23 PM]

C. Trejbal

Actually, I do disagree with that.

# 13

[November 3, 2006 12:04 AM]

Josh

Well hell, Christian. You were the one who was kind enough to provide me the link that showed the majority of newspapers endorsing Kerry in 2004.

# 14

[November 3, 2006 10:29 PM]

C. Trejbal

Josh, surely you know that a Kerry endorsement does not equate to bias toward the democrats, just as a bush endorsement is bias toward republicans. Besides, endoresements come out of editorial pages that have nothing to do with news coverage.

# 15

[November 3, 2006 11:54 PM]

Josh

Christian

That sounds great, but it's not the way it happens. If a publisher is liberal, it filters through in the coverage of the news; deciding which stories to cover and which not to, placement of the stories, timing of the stories, and what pictures to show or not show.

I have bucketloads of examples of liberal news bias in mainstream radio and television and in newspapers, the Roanoke Times, included.