A Secret Service investigation into the allegations that someone yelled "kill him!" at a Sarah Palin rally has found no basis to the charge. The media has run with the story based on the recollections of one man (a reporter for the Scranton Times-Tribune) and was used last night by Barack Obama during the debate. No one else at the rally recalls hearing it, including the Secret Service detail who is tasked to listen for such threats:
The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded.
The Scranton Times-Tribune first reported the alleged incident on its Web site Tuesday and then again in its print edition Wednesday. The first story, written by reporter David Singleton, appeared with allegations that while congressional candidate Chris Hackett was addressing the crowd and mentioned Oabama’s [sic] name a man in the audience shouted “kill him.”
News organizations including ABC, The Associated Press, The Washington Monthly and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann reported the claim, with most attributing the allegations to the Times-Tribune story.
Agent Bill Slavoski said he was in the audience, along with an undisclosed number of additional secret service agents and other law enforcement officers and not one heard the comment.
“I was baffled,” he said after reading the report in Wednesday’s Times-Tribune.
Yet another great moment in the history of journalism, both for the Scranton Times-Tribune and the national media, which never bothered to check the validity of the story. Furthermore, will Obama apologize for the smear? Doubtful.
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