January 30, 2004

Al Francken Update

Simple stories always become more complicated the more you think about them. Take the Al Francken chop block story i blogged about here. Fellow Munuvian Stephen Macklin had some pretty interesting questions concerning the vast disparity between CNN's coverage and the NY Post's, which quoted Francken's own words.

A couple of questions spring to mind. First if the NY Post/Al Franken version of the story is true, what the hell is CNN reporting and why? Second, if the CNN story is accurate is [this] the sort of self-aggrandizing lying BS we can expect when Franken hits the radio waves?
Then Dawn at Clareified (a respectable leftie, imho) pointed out yet another version posted by Eric at The Hamster.com. Eric makes the following points/allegations:
Point #1: The Heckler First Attacked People.

Point #2: Out of Control Attacker Then Presented Danger to Dean and Crowd.

Point #3: Franken Subdued the Attacker Only After He was Attacked.

Then, in contrast to Stephen Macklin's post, the Hamster takes a shot at the "conservative" media.
The conservative media will continue to spin this in the way they see fit: Nut-case Franken assaulted an innocent man without warrant. . . . However, as a complete account from people there showed, the conservative media left out crucial details of an affair in which Al helped security guards stop an angry assaulter who attacked others and further presented a danger to the people around him.
i have no idea which version is closest to the truth. Perhaps the reality is a mixture of all versions. As the standard California Jury Instruction number 2.21 warns jurors who are about to deliberate the facts of a lawsuit:
Failure of recollection is common. Innocent misrecollection is not uncommon.
And when a particular story involves a tabloid newspaper, a comedian who's also a lying liar, and a whacked out LaRouche supporter, i'm tempted to just throw up my hands and say: whatever.

Posted by: annika at 06:08 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I read about this and all I could do was laugh and think, "Damn, those LaRouche people are batshit crazy!" When I was in college in Chicago there was a big huge deal made when a bunch of crazy people were campaigning for LaRouche in town. Campaigning, for them, involved driving slowly around campus in a shitty old pickup truck with two megaphones duct-taped to the hood. They'd fling pamphlets out the windows and yell stuff over the megaphone like "If you don't vote LaRouche, you're a cracker lesbian!" In fact, I'm now going to search the archives of my alma mater's daily paper to see if I can find the write-up. It was hysterical.

Posted by: Lorie at January 30, 2004 08:35 PM (wrz7t)

2 I read the Hampster post after writing mine which is too bad because it is a very detailed account that completely differs from both the NY Post and the CNN stories. Hampster's assertion that Franken was acting in self defense doesn't really fit with the quotes in the post from Franken that he was acting to protect Dean's free speech. I thnk at this point the only person who knows the truth is Franken. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for him to speak it!

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at January 31, 2004 01:04 PM (CSxVi)

3 Well from this: http://www.nypost.com/gossip/45165.htm at least I can rest assured he is still, and will always be, just a little bitch.

Posted by: Scof at January 31, 2004 06:30 PM (p6JBH)

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