The hyping of Kenneth Gladney
Mobs of union thugs beat him!
He was hospitalized!
Yeah, right.
MediaMatters has a clip of the incident as well as a pretty damning analysis which puts the lie to the hordes of rightwing media and blogosphere all foaming at the mouth.
To quote from MediaMatters:
Go watch the YouTube video. (Or, the "shocking video," as Power Line hypes it.) The first thing you notice when the camera starts rolling is a union member already sprawled out on the ground with somebody standing over him. No explanation of how he got there (pushed, shoved, punched?) and Ham couldn't care less. Then yes, Gladney is pulled to the ground by somebody wearing a union shirt. (At the :06 mark.) But instead of Gladney being beaten and punched, as his attorney describes, and instead of union "thugs" standing over him and threatening him, Gladney bounces right back on his feet in approximately two seconds and the scuffle ends.
The Gladney buzz is more of the concerted effort by shadowy interest groups (can you say "Insurance Industry?") to organize mobs to shout down and disrupt town hall meetings where healthcare reform is being discussed. This is not free speech -- these are the tactics of Nazi Brownshirts.
Remember the story, back during the election season, of the young woman who claimed to have been attacked by a black Obama supporter who carved a "B" in her forehead? Only it turns out the "B" was backwards, like someone did it while looking in a mirror. Guess what -- all bullshit. Fox and the right was all over that one too, then dropped it like the stinking turd it was.
This is another turd.
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