You knew that it wouldn't take long before the state-run media OR Obama would try to blame George Bush, the Republicans, the Tea Party, Big Oil, Wall Street or someone....
This is just terrible reporting by Brian Ross and show the liberal bent of the state-run media....
ABC News, Brian Ross apologize for report suggesting shooting suspect tied to Tea Party
Published July 20, 2012 FoxNews.com
ABC News and correspondent Brian Ross apologized Friday after Ross suggested on air that the Colorado mass shooting suspect could be tied to the Tea Party.
As the name of the suspect, identified as 24-year-old James Holmes, first emerged Friday morning, Ross reported on ABC News that he'd found a web page for a "Jim Holmes" on a Colorado Tea Party site.
"There is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year," Ross reported.
He added: "Now we don't know if this is the same Jim Holmes, but it's Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo."
That man is not the same Jim Holmes. The Colorado Tea Party Patriots, whose website Ross was looking at, put out a statement criticizing Ross for even floating the possibility -- noting the Jim Holmes with the Tea Party group is 52 years old and not the same person.
"The attempts of some media organizations to characterize the shooter as a Tea Party member without having made any effort to contact our organization are shameless and reprehensible," the group said in a statement.
Ross clarified on air Friday, as ABC News issued a formal apology.
"An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted," the statement said.
On air later in the morning, Ross also said: "An earlier report that I had was incorrect that he was connected with the Tea Party. In fact, that's a different Jim Holmes. He was not connected to the Tea Party and what we do know about him is he is a 24-year-old white male who went to Colorado for a Ph.D."
At least 12 people were killed in the shooting overnight at an Aurora movie theater, while at least 50 were injured.
Details are still emerging about the suspect, who is in custody
The Tea Party is Justifiably Upset...
Tea party leader tells media to stop ‘reckless and false reporting’ after Batman shooting
Published: 12:53 PM 07/20/2012 By Alex Pappas
A leader of the Tea Party Patriots called on media outlets to “stop all reckless and false reporting” after ABC News incorrectly linked one of its Colorado activists to the Batman shooting massacre at an Aurora movie theater early Friday morning.
“We call on ABC News to immediately stop all reckless and false reporting, and we are putting all media outlets on notice that false political attacks on the American people will no longer be tolerated,” said Jenny Beth Martin, the national co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.
“We demand the media report responsibly,” Martin said, adding, “It is irresponsible for any media outlet to suggest anyone was responsible for this tragedy other than those involved.”
Brian Ross of ABC News on Friday wrongly suggested that the shooting suspect – identified by authorities as 24-year-old James Holmes — could be a tea party activist. Appearing on “Good Morning America,” Ross told host George Stephanopoulos that “there’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo., page on the Colorado Tea Party site.”
Ross apparently was referencing this page on the website of the Colorado Tea Party Patriots.
ABC News has since apologized.
“An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect,” the organization said on its website. “ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.”
Regina Thomson, the president of the Colorado Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement, “The member of the Colorado Tea Party Patriots, Jim Holmes, age 52 is not the same person who has been identified as the shooter.”
“The attempts of some media organizations to characterize the shooter as a Tea Party member without having made any effort to contact our organization are shameless and reprehensible,” she said.
Breitbart News on Friday was given a comment from James Michael Holmes, the 52-year-old man who Ross incorrectly suggested may have been the shooter.
“It was freaky,” Holmes said, saying he has disconnected his phone.
WHY IS BRIAN ROSS WORKING FOR ANY NEWS NETWORK?????
Why Is Brian Ross Still Working for ABC News?
ABC News reporter Brian Ross committed what used to be a fatal mistake to a journalist’s career: He blurted out a wild, unsubstantiated, speculative observation that hadn’t been vetted by anyone and was explosively political at the same time.
Via Breitbart:
Here is the exchange between ABC News chief investigator Brian Ross and host George Stephanopoulos about apparent suspect James Holmes:
Stephanolpoulos: I’m going to go to Brian Ross. You’ve been investigating the background of Jim Holmes here. You found something that might be significant.
Ross: There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.
Stephanolpoulos: Okay, we’ll keep looking at that. Brian Ross, thanks very much.
Thanks for what? Ross just tried to connect the Tea Party to the murder of 12 innocents based on the thinnest of speculation: that the name on the website almost matched the name of the suspect.
The political implications of the attempted smear were dynamite. And yet, the casual manner in which Ross reported this “fact” — even with a fig leaf caveat — was shocking. No attempt was made to confirm anything.
ABC News has now issued a correction and Ross has included an apology.
ABC News and Brian Ross are apologizing for an “incorrect” report that James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting, may have had connections to the Tea Party.
“An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect,” ABC News said in a statement. “ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.”
In a similar statement released minutes earlier, ABC News said the report was “incorrect” but did not include the apology. “Several other local residents with similar names were also contacted via social media by members of the public who mistook them for the suspect,” the initial statement read.
Several other residents may have been contacted but how many of their employers, associations, or political affiliations were broadcast live on air?
And what made Ross make a beeline straight for the Tea Party website in the first place? Did he also check the Occupy Denver page? Somehow, I doubt whether it even crossed his mind.
There used to be a time when journalists had a rough integrity about what they said over the air and took pride in striving for accuracy. Who could ever forget ABC’s Frank Reynolds, ABC News anchorman, who, after receiving and announcing word that James Brady had been killed in the Reagan assassination attempt only to discover the press secretary was still alive, got visibly angry and to no one in particular barked on air, “Let’s get this right. Let’s nail this down.”
Today, Stephanopoulos thanked Brian Ross for smearing the Tea Party by reporting a lie. Ross should be suspended or lose his job for this attempt to inject politics into a national tragedy.
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