The Left-O-sphere is all a-twitter this morning, with reports that Err America host Randi Rhodes was attacked on Sunday night, near her apartment in New York City. One of the posts to the effect is up at Talking Radio [1], (Link repaired) as linked by Memorandum [2]
Of course the immediate assumption is that she was attacked for political reasons. Several on the left hand of the sphere have been making mention of other attacks on leftist talk show hosts in history . The obvious lean here is similar to the one with Bill Clinton and the church burnings across the south of his youth.
And there’s a lesson there…
I have no doubt that she was attacked, and I wish her a full recovery. But you’ll forgive me if I don’t take as accepted fact that her attack was politically motivated. This is, after all, The Liberal Mecca of New York City we’re talking about, here. Muggings, there are not exactly uncommon, by any stretch of even her wild imagination. Moreover, the woman’s mouth getting ahead of her, is how she makes her living. It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see where that would get her outside of the studio. And , let’s consider the idea that untruths have been coming out of this woman’s mouth, almost as a reflex, for years. Are we really to accept that she’s telling the truth about this attack?
Sorry, I’m not. I don’t buy it.
Sorry you got hurt, Randi, I really am. I wish you well in your recovery efforts. But you’re not telling us the whole story here. And I’m not buying the illusion you’re pushing. Sorry.
Oh… they say that conservatives are liberals who have been mugged. That having happened to her, will she still be the bleeding heart on crime that she’s been the last few years, following this experience, I wonder? I wonder if she’s actually smart enough to change direction on that point?
Somehow, I doubt it.
Update:(Bit) Whizbang seems to agree: [3] (Speaking of the guy who made the announcement on Err America)
One the one hand, it infuriates and offends me that he would automatically assume that it was a right winger who did this. There are all sorts of crazy types in New York City who have attacked innocent people [4] unprovoked. On the other had, I feel sorry for him and others on [5] the left [6] who live their lives in fear that some made up, figment of their imagination “right wing hate machine” is out there lurking in the shadows waiting to “silence” them.
Here again, we see the trend; the left has to view everything through the prism of their own weird fantasies.
Update ][:(Bit)
UH-oh. via Memeorandum, [7] The NY Daily News [8] says she WASN’T attacked at all.
A police source said Rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging. Cops from Manhattan’s 17th Precinct called her attorney, who told them Rhodes was not a victim of a crime, the source said.
Rhodes’ lawyer told the Daily News she was injured in a fall while walking her dog. He said she’s not sure what happened, and only knows that she fell down and is in a lot of pain. The lawyer said Rhodes expects to be back on the air Thursday. He stressed there is no indication she was targeted or that she was the victim of a “hate crime.”
UH-oh, indeed. How many leftie blogs are regretting jumping on the “It’s all the Republicans fault” bandwagon?
The story has an interesting twist from my angle:
“The reports of a presumed hate crime are unfounded,” the statement read by a receptionist at the network’s New York offices said. “Ms. Rhodes is looking forward to being back on the air on Thursday.”
Still, the tale lived on in the blogosphere.
“What the %$#$ is WRONG with you people?? Are you that SICK in the head that just because you don’t agree with someone’s political views you believe that they deserve to be mugged? Are you on the right that DEMENTED??,” a blogger called neddlenosehanty posted on watchingthewatchers.org.
Yeah, well, about that…. look at one of the double standards [9] I found being applied to this story.
BBCT: Michelle [10]
Update: Word is what mugged her wasn’t a Republican, or even your typical NY thug… but rather, 14 Bloody Marys.