Sandy Hook truther-reporter? Fox TV anchor says there's "good reason to question this whole narrativ

[DonViejo]

Sandy Hook truther-reporter?

A popular local Fox TV anchor says there's "good reason to question this whole narrative"

BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD

Journalists are supposed to question official accounts and probe for hidden evidence, but does questioning the media and police’s account of the Sandy Hook massacre go too far?

It’s a question worth asking in regard to Ben Swann, an anchor at the local Fox affiliate in Cincinnati, who uses his personal YouTube channel to “question this whole narrative” and advance alternative theories about the Sandy Hook and Aurora shootings.

Swann, who has attracted a national following by appealing to the Ron Paul-ish “liberty vote,” anchors two newscasts every day for Fox 19, and produces the thrice-weekly “Reality Check” segment, which is billed as a fact-checking series, but can sometimes feel like a conservative-libertarian opinion segment. His interview with President Obama, in which he grilled the commander in chief on the legal underpinning of the “kill list,” captured national headlines, and he’s won an Edward R. Murrow award. He’s been praised alternately by RT and the Atlantic for his fierce coverage of civil liberties issues, but criticized by the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple for being too friendly to Ron Paul and “allow[ing] his affection for constitutionalist politics to corrupt his judgment.”

On the side, Swann hosts “Full Disclosure,” a slickly produced Web series featuring him talking straight to the camera about mostly national stories. After I wrote about Sandy Hook truthers last week — people who hold various conspiracy theorists about the shooting — a Swann fan sent me a recent episode of “Full Disclosure,” produced Jan. 3, which questions the “official narrative” of the shooting spree.

Swann starts off the segment by mentioning the three mass shootings that have received widespread media attention this year: The Aurora, Colo., theater shooting; the Sikh Temple massacre in Oak Ridge Ridge, Wis., and the Sandy Hook spree. “Earlier this year, I told you that there are major problems with the theory that the Colorado theater shooting was a lone wolf attack, is that true of these other two shootings as well? This subject deserves Full Disclosure,” he says at the beginning of the six-minute episode as the bumper graphic plays.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/14/is_it_okay_for_reporters_to_question_the_official_narrative_of_sandy_hook/

[CJCRANE]

1. Hmmmm, it's strange....during the Bush era conspiracy theorists were considered to be total nutters

traitors, terrorist sympathizers etc.

Now, it's almost de rigeur in RW circles to espouse fringe theories.

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Conspiracy theorists are still total nutters

this lot are mad as a bagful of arseholes just like the 9/11 "truthers". And it's the same dynamic; leftwing nutters perceiving a sinister government conspiracy to pin a major attack on shadowy terrorist organisation in a combination Reichstag Fire and Pearl Harbor,in the name of pushing through an enabling act and justifying war in the Middle East; right-wing nutters convinced that sinister government-controlled forces are faking mass shootings to use as a pretext for taking their guns away and imposing socialist one-world government and setting up re-education camps, or something. (The difference is that the extremist fringe on the right looks more likely to significantly affect the thinking of the GOP leadership than the 9/11 conspiracists of a decade ago ever did the Democrats.)

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. For the article ...

In an email, Swann defended his work, saying he is simply doing the work any journalist should do. “The bottom line for me is the issue of asking questions. As you will notice, I don’t call these operations ‘false flag’ as many people do … But as a journalist, that is not my job. Rather, my job is to be a critical thinker,” he wrote (ellipses his).

The Journalist's job doesn'tstop with just asking the question; no, they ask the question and then present whatever facts are available to answer that question.

To ask a question and only present facts that answer only one side of the question is irresponsible.

[abelenkpe]

4. ..

I question the narrative too. I mean maybe if the mother hadn't been filled with nutty conspiracy theories that made her believe she needed her own personal arsenal to protect her supplies for the upcoming collapse of civilization her mentally unstable son wouldn't have access to those guns and killed a bunch of innocent school children. Now what station spends a lot of time covering conspiracy theories? It's not FOX is it? They don't give credence to crazy shit like birther claims or anything do they? And this guy is a libertarian? A Ron Paul fan? Isn't Ron Paul the guy famous for a newsletter he didn't proofread that often printed articles scaring white folks into thinking they needed to arm themselves?

[GeorgeGist]

5. No credentials as a journalist!