Patterico's Pontifications

7/9/2017

Washington Post Implies Shooter of Republicans Was Inspired By Right-Wing Talk Radio

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 1:23 pm



How does that compute, you ask? It doesn’t. It’s the hackiest of all possible hackery:

In Alexandria shooter’s hometown, rage-filled radio host channels middle America’s inner frustration

It’s not yet 11 a.m., and Bob Romanik, sitting behind the microphone at his radio station in a rundown strip mall in the middle of America, already has said the “n-word” out loud — and on air — at least a dozen times.

Romanik is a surly 68-year-old former East St. Louis street cop. He hates Black Lives Matter and talks proudly about his Caucasian heritage to anyone who will listen. And do they listen. His controversy-courting radio program — he’s the self-styled “Grim Reaper of Radio” on KQQZ 1190 AM — reaches across this region, in and around Belleville, Ill.

The suburban community about 20 miles east of St. Louis drew attention in recent weeks because it was the hometown of James T. Hodgkinson, the out-of-work politically frustrated home inspector who up and left, drove a van to the Washington area, and then shot four people at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria.

The nation was shocked, but Romanik — who seems to delight in launching savage attacks on local politicians and stoking his listeners’ many frustrations about race, crime and government — certainly wasn’t. Despite being a die-hard supporter of President Trump who has perfected the art of the dire populist message, many of Romanik’s biggest fans in southern Illinois are disgruntled Democrats like Hodgkinson.

“I can’t say for sure if this Hodgkinson guy listened to me, but he probably did,” Romanik said in a recent interview. “If people would be honest about what drove Hodgkinson to the point of violence, you’d probably see a lot of people right on the same page with him all over the country. But around here, for sure.”

Not once does the piece mention that Hodgkinson shot Republicans. Not once does the piece mention that Hodgkinson hated Donald Trump.

No, they just run with the self-promoting speculation of a crackpot radio host who wants attention.

This is truly Orwellian. It goes to show you: if a politically motivated shooting happens in this country, it does not matter how clear the evidence that it was committed by a leftist, targeting Republicans.

Hacks like Peter Holley of the Washington Post will find a way to blame the right.

There is no place for a sane person to go any more.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

87 Responses to “Washington Post Implies Shooter of Republicans Was Inspired By Right-Wing Talk Radio”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. i think at least 90% of the time i go to “google news” there’s a story by a washington post fake news propaganda slut at the top of the page

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  3. No, they just run with the self-promoting speculation of a crackpot radio host who wants attention.

    You probably should have done a summary that was more generic. Specifics- names and such- just gives more attention to ‘a radio host who wants attention’ and the content, not the outlet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  4. Push grandma over the cliff, indeed.

    n.n (12131a)

  5. When Trump is hung I don’t want a fake noose..

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  6. you’re doing hyperbole some more

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  7. Could the new be mire fake, the shooter had a hit list of freedom caucus members

    narciso (d1f714)

  8. … and NeverTrumpers want to know why I support Trump.

    Left is evil. Orange man is alot but not that. Go with Orange, not Red Diaper Babies.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  9. And everything is Orwellian with the Left, NY Times, WaPo etc … heck looks like Fusion GPS and their Dossier not only was tied to the Democrats but they were running game on DTJr while feeding the FBI lies (which dishonest McCabe and Comey ate up like waffles and maple syrup).

    So yeah, I hope Trump does everything to destroy them. They are the greatest threat this nation has.

    NK, China, Iran, Russia got nothing against our 5th Column in the Press, Universities and Democratic party.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  10. So yeah, I hope Trump does everything to destroy them. They are the greatest threat this nation has. NK, China, Iran, Russia got nothing against our 5th Column in the Press, Universities and Democratic party.

    Blah, blah, blah- comrade; ‘fake views.’

    “Liberty Valance taking liberties with the liberty of the press?!” – Dutton Peabody [Edmond O’Brien] ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ 1962

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  11. lol it was so funny how many times this past week i heard how “Rauner wasn’t willing to compromise so you’re damn right he gets nothing”

    and of course it was trashy-assed dirt-ocean Republicans what nailed that deal down

    and of course we all still know in our hearts

    these bonds are junk

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  12. The backtalk is so Watergatey in tone and substance but I prefer the Nixonian Zeitgeist as the Dick merely had to screw his pants on his crooked carcass whereas the Donald adds mictoration.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  13. Happy keeps harping on hyperbole but he’s not hesitant to preach his stale sermon.

    It’s boring dood.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  14. I blame Trump.

    mg (31009b)

  15. Easier to blame Ohillary.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  16. Draining cash from the Swamp.

    “The centerpiece of the effort is a string of dinners held every few weeks at the vice president’s official residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington. Mr. Pence and his wife, Karen, have presided over at least four such soirées, and more are in the works. Each has drawn roughly 30 to 40 guests, including a mix of wealthy donors such as the Chicago hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin and the brokerage firm founder Charles Schwab, as well as Republican fund-raisers and executives from companies like Dow Chemical and the military contractor United Technologies. […]
    Mr. Pence’s office declined to release the lists of guests invited to the dinners, which have not appeared on schedules released by the vice president’s office to the news media. Marc Lotter, Mr. Pence’s press secretary, called the dinners “private” and said that the vice president had not held any political fund-raisers at his residence, which would be complicated by a law barring the solicitation of political contributions in government buildings.”

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  17. Blame Canada.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaXsWQAI2j4

    “They’re not even a real country, anyway…”

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  18. So they haven’t been able to practically erase him as they did with judge roll but clisr.

    narciso (d1f714)

  19. The grishenko ploy has had marginal effectiveness

    narciso (d1f714)

  20. Was that a soiree or SOOOOO-EEEEE?

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  21. “I can’t say for sure if this Hodgkinson guy listened to me, but he probably did.”

    Proof! Gold-plated. Climate of hate and all that.

    I wonder how long it took the writer to find that radio guy. After he gave up on finding a militant Christian pizza parlor?

    Patricia (5fc097)

  22. “Reince Priebus opining during a January interview that Shaub “ought to be careful” in his Trump criticisms.

    In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos played a pre-inauguration clip of Priebus, the former head of the Republican National Committee now serving as Trump’s chief of staff.
    “The head of the government ethics ought to be careful, because that person is becoming extremely political,” Priebus said in the clip. His comment was in response to Shaub’s statement days earlier that Trump’s ethics arrangement regarding his massive business empire was “meaningless from a conflicts of interest perspective.”
    Shaub acknowledged he saw the January statement as a “fairly explicit threat” from Priebus.”

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  23. Happy at 11, those used to be called polyester Republicans to differentiate between they and the suburban Armani republicans.

    urbanleftbehind (3538cb)

  24. they’ve doomed this sad little state in the most obscenely self-congratulatory way possible

    i can’t even belieber it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  25. “Rep. Jason Chaffetz pressed the Office of Government Ethics last week for an explanation of its decision to exempt Clinton from laws compelling public officials to disclose all forms of income”

    BENGHAAAAAZZZZZEEEEEEE-MOOOOOOSSSSLIMMMMMS!!!

    shorter and more coherent narciso.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  26. jesus ate my potatoes!

    wapo fake news propaganda sluts are now reduced to writing garish and maudlin profiles of cnn fake news propaganda sluts

    Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
    ‘Grandstanding’ or truth teller? CNN’s Acosta walks a fine line with Trump. — These are times that try a White House reporter’s soul. Jim Acosta hasn’t kept quiet about what’s been troubling his. — CNN’s senior White House reporter has been frustrated by many things …

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  27. His nearing rick Sanchez levels of ridiculous, yes we unleashed him on the world, along with sheep smith

    narciso (d1f714)

  28. Fake news propaganda sluts are all the same except when they’re also psychopathic like this Romanik clown.

    nk (dbc370)

  29. acosta may have howard beale tendencies.

    mg (31009b)

  30. This Romanik guy does not sound like he’s on the right. He sounds like he’s alt.right. Which is like alternative facts but with spittle at the corners of the mouth.

    nk (dbc370)

  31. And people probably think Acosta and Sanchez are of the pinto, not black, bean variety. Playing it both ways tlike this conio: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/07/06/the-umpire-who-is-suing-mlb-for-racial-discrimination-gets-all-star-game-nod/

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  32. The point it has gornisch to do with the shooter
    http://www.kausfiles.com/2017/07/09/a-post-warsaw-trump-principle

    narciso (d1f714)

  33. Good gravy romanik is a nasty piece of work, but he doesn’t seem particularly ideological.

    narciso (d1f714)

  34. He probably fellates Madigan on the low to keep his pennie and his bennies.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  35. happyfeet (28a91b) — 7/9/2017 @ 5:09 pm

    jesus ate my potatoes!

    You think that’s bad, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Maria Bartiromo ate my kidneys. They ganged up on me.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  36. He talked of a nonpartisan solution, like you can split the baby, this urdulak who sought to kill a c
    Sitting congressman since Leo Ryan wasnt about that,

    narciso (d1f714)

  37. The Cable News Network’s ‘response’ to being labeled ‘fake news’ by Trumpeter swoons speaks for itself- they’re reviving their ‘History of Comedy’ series while oohing and aweing over The Nineties.

    Christ, Ted, sell the ranch, buy it back and make news the star again.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  38. The parrot is bleeding demised disco duck, and its starting to stink up the place

    narciso (d1f714)

  39. There is no place for a sane person to go any more.

    Join the Dark Side. We have cookies.

    SPQR (a3a747)

  40. Holy ****, Batman. DCSCA seems to be arguing that is a new phenom, because…

    Trump!

    I’ve been lied about for a lot longer than before Trump entered the scene. I was, in case you haven’t heard, Navy. Back in the ’90s’ a reporter told me to my face that if the Navy didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear he would make s*** up, print it, and try to force a response.

    When Jessica Lynch went missing, and I don’t want to appear critical at all. There was nothing funny about her incarceration. But when she went missing and until her recovery all of what passed for reporting was entirely made up. Fabricated. Laugh out loud hilarious.

    In 2003 CNN’s then head Eason Jordan wrote an Op-Ed printed in the NYT.

    “The News We Kept To Ourselves”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/the-news-we-kept-to-ourselves.html

    This didn’t kill his career. But what short of Duranty’s sins could. What killed his career were his comments so ridiculous even Barney Frank had to call him out.

    Jordan claimed at Davos that the US military was targeting “Journalists.”

    Ridiculous for two reasons. First, while there is such a thing as the US military there are no such creatures termed journalists. And if there were they wouldn’t be worth the waste of ammunition.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  41. The Post hates Trump at every opportunity. To some, this is a plus.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  42. Blame Canada.

    Why? There was only one Canadian in the race, and he would have been a better choice.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  43. Christ, Ted, sell the ranch, buy it back and make news the star again.

    It’s really pretty bad when you agree that Ted Turner would improve something.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  44. Regardless he was going after a congressman out of Metairie ( btw thank mourn bray for cracking up the account of the meeting he didn’t attend.)

    narciso (d1f714)

  45. It’s funny. For nearly 20 years as I’ve been forced to watch CNN in departure lounges I’ve been thinking, “Wow, that interesting. I wonder if any of it is true?”

    OMfG!! You think this started with Trump?

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  46. Mediaite’s report on WaPo’s ridiculous story contained some ridiculousness of their own:

    Washington Post is taking criticism from conservative corners after supposedly drawing a connection between a controversial radio host and the man who hospitalized Steve Scalise before the Congressional Baseball Game.”

    Not “shot in cold blood“. Not “attempted to murder”.

    Nope, he “hospitalized” him. And note they claim it’s only “conservative corners” that they claim are calling out the WaPo.

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/pure-sht-wapo-takes-twitter-heat-for-connecting-scalise-shooter-to-right-wing-radio-host/

    harkin (7833f6)

  47. The significant of belleville is was the hometown. Of buddy ebson and Jimmy connor

    narciso (d1f714)

  48. Kevin M (752a26) — 7/9/2017 @ 7:29 pm

    Blame Canada.

    Why? There was only one Canadian in the race, and he would have been a better choice.

    Always blame Canada. The whitest place on earth.

    http://amuse.neilhillman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/lumberjack-commandos.jpg

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  49. See they find ways to excuse political assassination, Tucson was just a sorbet, red queen and tube Dec was ubacciuntable to justice the media was firmly carrying her rizzotto tray, she should be facing jail for a 100 years of offenses, but the only one in the docket seems to be general Lynn, whose only real crime was to tell Obama that he was talking garbage while Islamic state was on the march

    narciso (d1f714)

  50. So about duckworths and Durbin communications with the shooter, does anybody care,?

    narciso (d1f714)

  51. 49, Those guys are even more pasty than these:
    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns1q-DOF5gI

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  52. Meanwhile in hamburg the damage is not quite Raf level but close, including 476 officers

    narciso (d1f714)

  53. It’s good to see Patterico back, I was wondering where he was. Someone else was doing all the posting.

    lee (13a73a)

  54. “So about duckworths and Durbin communications with the shooter, does anybody care,?

    Imagine if it was a Tea Partier and he stopped at Cruz’s and Flake’s offices before shooting up a dem bowling team.

    The media response would be a tad different.

    harkin (7833f6)

  55. Maybe they discouraged him, what would be the odds, but they didn’t tip off the authorities.

    narciso (d1f714)

  56. It’s good to see Patterico back, I was wondering where he was. Someone else was doing all the posting.

    Long trial (7 weeks), then out of the country (almost 3 weeks).

    Patterico (115b1f)

  57. Flake is a bad example, he’s more pseudo Democrat, maybe you meant Mike Lee. As to Dumb and Dumber, American Corbyn could have given them a head fake (someone like Chris Collins or fellow llinoisan Pete Roskam) and they felt no compunction over offing an admistration loyalist versus the sometimes useful (to Dem aims) HFC.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  58. This is to distract from the email discourse the attempted assassin had with prominent Democrat politicians.

    NJRob (006128)

  59. Well I knew from teaming up with a Colorado congressman, who tried to shut down the radio free Europe against the Castro bros, hence fideloflake

    narciso (d1f714)

  60. Peter Holley (that’s the WaPo writer we’re talking about here for you people in Rio Linda), is totally off the wall about Hodgkinson, no question about it. But I think he may be right, generally, about the kind of loons who listen to Romanik. (Didn’t wanna say it before.)

    nk (dbc370)

  61. Most states are. Because if it tries to be anything more than an a blue-ribbon panel requesting voluntary cooperation from the states, with no more legal authority than my church’s ladies philoptohos, it would be illegal and unconstitutional.

    nk (dbc370)

  62. “I’m up to my kiester in leaks”

    -Donald Trump Junior All Star.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  63. I’m sure that IlLinois is totally
    operating on the up and up, Johnny olla says so

    narciso (d1f714)

  64. Roy Cohn? I don’t believe it 🙂

    The president once told me that the most important lesson he learned from Roy Cohn was loyalty,” said Christopher Ruddy, a longtime Trump friend and the chief executive of the conservative website Newsmax, referring to the ruthless New York fixer and attorney who mentored the president early in his real estate career. “He believes in that strongly in all his friendships.”

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  65. Ben burn:

    There is an instructive coda to that story. Once Cohn came down with AIDS, Trump stopped seeing him and being his friend.

    Loyalty is a one way street with DJT.

    Appalled (96665e)

  66. Who apparently was based on Vincent alo, allegedly. Coppolla argued since there were some made guy in havana…Fidel, that’s underwear gnome thinking

    narciso (d1f714)

  67. It may be true about Cohn, that’s how he survived, because people who counted on him knew they could count on him, but it’s not true about Trump. Trump is a parasite, not a symbiote.

    nk (dbc370)

  68. I doubt he has any friendships that don’t have an investment return, appalled but am willing to give him the benefit of doubt. He thought AIDS was airborne.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  69. Duckwirth apparently thought that of her fellow veterans in the Illinois department.

    narciso (d1f714)

  70. Back to the 80s we go..

    The politics of debt have shifted under Trump; top White House officials are now weighing tax cuts that could substantially increase the deficit in the short-term.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  71. Yeah, back when Ryan White was in the news, my sister went against the grain in our HS newspaper poll and said students with AIDS should be taught in separate schools with teachers who have AIDS. Context of the times, one must say.

    urbanleftbehind (3538cb)

  72. http://nypost.com/2017/07/09/the-times-expose-on-donald-trump-jr-is-a-big-yawn/

    “And that’s what all the fuss is about? No campaign in its right mind would turn down an offer of information on their opponent. That is what opposition research is all about. You can bet Hillary wouldn’t have hung up on the person who claimed to have dirt on The Donald. After all, the Clinton campaign lobbied the comedian Tom Arnold two days before the election to release potentially embarrassing footage from Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice.” Arnold declined.

    But in the end, the lawyer had nothing, gave nothing, got nothing in return, in a meeting that lasted 20 minutes. This is a scandal?……”

    It is to the Never Trumpers…..

    “……..Having established the smear of “collusion,” the Times must now link every story with the word “Russia” to it in the hopes that the rubes and suckers won’t stop believing that Trump somehow cheated his way into the White House.

    Hasn’t the Times learned its lesson from its disastrous Feb. 14 story, also anonymously sourced, about the Trump campaign’s “repeated contacts with Russian intelligence”? In his congressional testimony last month, former FBI Director James Comey said: “In the main, it was not true.””

    harkin (536957)

  73. And yet, the Press still listens to Kellyanne Conway. Why?

    Tillman (a95660)

  74. You say you want a revolucion!!….

    “But if socialism means anything at all it ought to mean making society more rather than less democratic. On that score Venezuela has singularly failed. As the Bolivarian Revolution has matured, opposition party figures and human rights activists have increasingly ended up languishing in the country’s jails. Independent-minded trade unionists have joined them, while the neutrality of the judiciary has been destroyed.

    Even back in 2011, Amnesty was warning that those critical of the government were being “prosecuted on politically motivated charges in what appeared to be an attempt to silence them”. The country was at the time being lauded by sections of the British left as a model that socialists ought to lend their support to.

    Berating those who got Venezuela wrong would be pointless. But it is fair to ask whether any lessons have been learned from the tragedy.

    Beyond the understandable exigencies in the aftermath of the anti-democratic coup of 2002, why have opposition voices been silenced? Why did production collapse in several Venezuelan sectors soon after industries were nationalised? Has a mighty state with its tentacles in every area of Venezuelan life really given the country’s poor more control over their destiny?

    Or perhaps to even ask such questions on the British left is to automatically consign oneself to the camp of reaction. Nevertheless, there is something distasteful in celebrating a movement when times are good but disowning it when its unpleasant features come to the fore.

    Without self-criticism, very little exists to stop things turning out the same way next time.”

    https://amp.ibtimes.co.uk/hugo-chavez-was-hero-many-left-where-are-they-now-venezuela-collapsing-1628929

    harkin (7833f6)

  75. 78, as far as looking and listening they want that same show she put on for Black college/universities officials.

    urbanleftbehind (3538cb)

  76. They still ignored the substance of the meet, and,went squirrel with devos, go fivure.

    narciso (3da4fe)

  77. …and if they did highlight the imort of that HBCU meeting, it would have been painted as a WN plot to divert black kids out of flagship U’s and into the lesser prestige step show campuses.

    urbanleftbehind (c8adc7)

  78. Cat bird seat..

    “For many Senate Republicans, not passing a bill reflexively feels like failure, and bipartisanship feels too unfamiliar. But those who focus on it may conclude that passing the bill is the worst of all options. A Democratic poll of battleground states shows that simply supporting the bill could increase the unfavorable ratings of Republican senators up to 30 points.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  79. “And yet, the Press still listens to Kellyanne Conway. Why?”

    Anyone who can show that Chris Cuomo can recite Trump’s tweets but is unable to recall anything Trump says in his speeches is OK in my book.

    harkin (7833f6)

  80. According to Bloomberg’s sockpuppet gun control organizations, every mass shooter is an NRA member. So to quote John McClane “Welcome to the party, pal!”

    SPQR (240837)

  81. And yet, the Press still listens to Kellyanne Conway. Why?

    Because she looks and sounds hilarious on the teevee! Get with it: Kellyanne Clownway is a CNN ‘History of Comedy’ teaser.

    “Hello gorgeous.” – Fanny Brice [Barbra Streisand] ‘Funny Girl’ 1968

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  82. If you want a place with problems of a government doing illegal things, it is Mexico:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/world/americas/mexico-missing-students-pegasus-spyware.html

    This actually appeared on the front poage of today’s printed paper.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)


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