Journalist faces wrath after Kerry incident

[Vanhalen 0]

As the man who last week was told by prospective first lady Teresa Heinz Kerry to "shove it", journalist Colin McNickle should be enjoying his 15 minutes of fame. Judging by his latest column, he is not.

According to McNickle, a columnist for the rightwing Pittsburgh Tribune, abuse has continued to be heaped upon him ever since. He has been verbally assaulted in the street and even been called a Nazi.

 

Not only, he complains in his latest column, did John Kerry brand his wife's comment "appropriate", but "entertainer Patti Labelle told the Boston Herald that Heinz Kerry 'should've pimp-slapped' me. [Journalist] Molly Ivins either repeated or created the myth that I had grabbed the possible future first lady. I didn't touch her."

 

It all stems from the day before Ms Heinz Kerry took the stage at the Democratic party convention, and was asked by McNickle to explain what she had meant when saying that "un-American traits" were entering politics. Having initially denied she used the term, she proceeded to ask the journalist, in a rather American way, to remove himself from her presence.

 

He also complains that: "Bombastic, fact-challenged liberal film-maker Michael Moore supposedly called me 'rude'," while "longtime liberal national political columnist Jack Germond - now retired and a convention 'guest' who was shilling for his new book - told CNN's Judy Woodruff that I was 'not a legitimate newspaperman'."

 

It's nothing compared to attacks from members of the public, he goes on, saying that his daughter was brought to tears by a "filthy tirade" from a female caller to his house. Rather than perpetuate the filthiness, however, McNickle is coy when it comes to reporting further meetings with members of the public:

 

"'Shove it, [expletive]!' one fellow told me as I walked down a Boston street. 'You're the [expletive] who called Mrs Kerry un-American,' a girl told me in Boston Common... 'I hope you burn in hell,' read one email. 'You're a [expletive] Nazi,' went another. 'Teresa should have told you to go [expletive] yourself,' another friendly emailer offered. And these were among the milder communiques; those that included death threats will be forwarded to the senders' respective hometown police departments."

 

In among the hate mail, however, came a friendlier voice - from McNickle's brother. "From what I'm hearing on late-night radio, the liberal definition of a 'strong woman' is one who abuses anyone who asks a question she doesn't want to answer," he wrote. "A strong conservative woman would have come up with an example of how the questioner's paper had misrepresented the truth about her candidate or position."

 

"Of course, Teresa Heinz Kerry didn't do that because she couldn't," writes McNickle, who saves his biggest gripe for the end of his columm. He is, he complains, "still waiting for the answer to my question of Sunday night last".

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Please provide a link for your stories...

[Vanhalen 0]

No, because people will prejudge them based on where they came from

[tommytomlin 0]

It looks even worse if we don't know where they came from.

 

And if you're posting stuff from partisan sources, it raises questions as to whether the info is genuine. And if its questionable info, we'll be wasting time discussing it.

[Vanhalen 0]

No, its not partisan material, it was from www.mediaguardian.co.uk, but my point is, say you post something from bbc.co.uk/news, which is an excellent website, people say, oh its left wing crap, and if i were to post something from say fox news, then it would be right wing scare stories, theres no happy medium at the minute, its all black and white

[MrRant 0]

You still need to post a source.

 

I move that there be a rule that you have to post a link to a story/article if you post it.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Seconded.

[Guest SP-1]

Heh. I love how the American public takes something it doesn't know anything about and mutates it.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

Thirded.

 

Make this a rule of CE, it was already an unspoken one

[Highland 0]

I agree. Also a rule against misleading or ambiguous topic headers *cough*MikeSC*cough*

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I don't think it has to be a rule. The problem is that without the source, it could be from anywhere. Example.

 

HEY U GUYZ! CHECK OUT WHAT I FOUND!!!

 

John Kerry didn't serve in Vietnam. It was his twin brother, Jon, and he died and John took his medals.

 

Just post the goddamn source and put up with the few people that will go OMG FAU... or BBC IS THE SUQ...

[2GOLD 0]

John Kerry didn't serve in Vietnam. It was his twin brother, Jon, and he died and John took his medals.

 

Just post the goddamn source and put up with the few people that will go OMG FAU... or BBC IS THE SUQ...

 

If that had been true, I'd had been scared of the knowledge that there were two people who looked like John Kerry out there at one time.