Where were those chairs, Jon?

[kiva]

Jon Ralson, a Las Vegas based newsman, reported that Sanders "threw chairs at the stage as they rushed forward to try to take control of a convention they had lost" https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/sour-grapes-revolution-rocked-paris-hotel

I was there and didn't see any chairs thrown, but it was a big room and I could have missed it. So I asked four other people who were seated/standing in different parts of the room, and none of them had seen it either.

I watched at least a dozen videos of the end of the convention and no one was throwing chairs.

A poster here said s/he was there and saw someone pick up a chair, but then put it back down.

Last night I was messaging a delegate who was seated at the front of the room, and she didn't see any chair thrown either.

Ralston also repeated the lie that Sanders' supporters booed Nina Turner, despite the fact that she tweeted that was a lie.

In a normal world this wouldn't matter, but this isn't a normal world. People have taken Ralson's unproved allegation and used it to refer to the protest as a "riot". He uses the lie about Turner to show Sanders supporters as hostile even to allies.

Ralston and his minions post and repost the threats against Lange but completely ignore the fact that Christine Kramer, who was removed as the credentials chair the night before the county convention, also received threats but that those threats were ignored by the Democratic party. In Kramer's words "The party has allowed the harassment of those who are not in power for a very long time. It was inevitable with how the party culture has been so negative toward the activists for so long that there would be this blowback."

If you want a textbook case on how the media can vilify a group of people in an attempt to deflect criticism from a party, Ralson is the perfect example.