Catering To The Fringe

Further proof that the Fox"Nation" is nothing more than Fox"News" without the "Fair and Balanced" mask, a highlighted story from, World Net Daily that attempts to connect Barack Obama to the alleged "Anthrax attacker", Bruce Ivins.

FBI documents detailing the investigation into Bruce Ivins, the government scientist suspected in the 2001 anthrax mailings that left five people dead, reveal he was a cross-dresser, fixated on a college sorority, purchased pornography and was a fan of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Ivins committed suicide in 2008 during the investigation. The FBI later closed the case, essentially confirming it had no other suspects.

There's just one problem with this write-up, Obama was a little known State Senator at the time and NOT a Presidential candidate. But don't expect details that glaringly obvious stop people like WND from pushing such nonsensical prattling.

And while Ivin's may or may not have had mental issues, it should be pointed out that the investigation into him as the man who carried out these attacks does have some issues of reliability. The case against Ivins was largely circumstantial, with many key elements of the case unable to be proven. And the media at large took the FBI's and DOJ's "case closed" statement and ran with it. So much for "liberal media bias".

But this isn't the only example of the fringe, conservative, elements within the country attempting to connect Obama with murderous activities. Conservatives used this same tactic with Amy Bishop.

Unsourced Rhetoric

Leave it to the folks at HotAir to title a lead headline with an unsourced "quote" in order to connect Obama with the murders at the University of Alabama.

An article in the Boston Herald in the headlines section of the fringe-conservative site.



The article paints the portrait of a troubled woman, no doubt, but there are referenced quotations from those that new Amy Bishop - a woman who allegedly went on a shooting spree at the University of Alabama - that provide valid information to the report. It was toward the end of the article that this rather odd "quote" was referenced.

A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children - the youngest a third-grade boy - was a far-left political extremist who was “obsessed” with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.

But Mercedes Paz, a Brookline biochemist who also oversaw Bishop’s work in 1993, described her as a friend and a likable woman.

Notice how the unsourced quote was immediately followed by a detailed one?

I'm not entirely sure what the writers, Laurel J. Sweet, Jessica Van Sack, Jessica Fargen and Ira Kantor, were intending by putting in this specious piece of data, but it certainly fits into the conservative meme that Obama supporters are unhinged zombies ready to strike at a moments notice.

If these writers expect their reporting to be taken seriously, leave out the conjecture and stick with facts.