Washington Post: "Hands Up, Don’t Shoot" One of Biggest Lies of 2015
RUSH: You know, this next story here, folks, it's kind of presented as just another news story. This has caused so much damage to our society. It has caused so much harm. It has resulted in genuine pain and suffering and violence that was totally unnecessary. It's a Politico story, and the headline is: "'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' Ranked One of Biggest 'Pinocchios' of 2015."
Now, that is a reference to the Washington Post fact checker article. Columnist, a guy named Glenn Kessler -- and he is a supposed fact checker, and he assigns I think -- I may be confusing things, but somebody in the Drive-Bys report stories and reports how much of it's true or false with the assigning of Pinocchios, and four Pinocchios is the absolute worst. I mean, it's just chock-full of lies.
So what they're saying here: "Campaign trail whoppers dominate The Washington Post's annual list of the biggest political 'Pinocchios' of 2015, published Monday. But among a collection of dubious statements that earned four 'Pinocchios' from Republican poll leader Donald Trump and other candidates is the phrase that launched countless protests and calls for police accountability and reform: 'hands up, don't shoot.' Those words, which rose to the public consciousness following the August 2014 shooting," of the Gentle Giant in Ferguson, Missouri.
Well, now, you know and I know that "hands up, don't shoot" never happened. What "hands up, don't shoot" is, is an out-and-out lie that was promulgated by the civil rights coalition in this country and supported by the very media that now, months later, calls it a lie. The very media that helped amplify this knew it was a lie from the get-go. But now, at the end of the year, in one of the usual predictable end-of-the-year summary stories, things that happened in the preceding 12 months, yeah, you know that little thing in St. Louis, "hands up, don't shoot," yeah, that's one of their biggest lies.
Who made it a lie? Who helped it along, who promoted it? I mean, at a St. Louis Rams football game you had two St. Louis Rams defensive backs during player introductions come running on the field with their hands raised. No doubt they thought "hands up, don't shoot" really happened. What "hands up, don't shoot" is is the lie that the Gentle Giant was walking down a St. Louis street one afternoon on a Saturday, and he was pondering his first days at college and his bright future, and a racist cop happened to drive up in his cruiser and order the Gentle Giant, who was harassing nobody, to please get out of the street and move to the sidewalk if you're gonna walk, and did not wait for the Gentle Giant to move and instead shot him in the back while his hands were raised saying, "Don't shoot, don't shoot."
That story was reported. That story that was picked up by the Black Lives Matter and the entire civil rights protest apparatus in St. Louis. And it was reverberating coast to coast as though it did happen. Low-information people coast to coast, particularly in urban neighborhoods, believed it. The media promoting it knew it never happened. It was confirmed to have never happened after the grand jury hearing, which is where all the evidence was heard, but that was claimed to be a lie, too. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that frosts me, because here we get this casual story, hey, you know what, "hands up, don't shoot" didn't happen. In one of their end of the year stories, yeah, we're gonna give it four Pinocchios.
You people made it! You people in the media practically gave that lie its life. You capitalized on it. You attempted to advance the agenda of the civil rights coalition, the left, the Democrat Party. You attempted to besmirch and impugn Republicans as racist, sexist pigs with that story. You destroyed the life of a cop. You succeeded in turning the Ferguson police department over to Obama's Justice Department, and now at the end of the year on December 15th we get a story, oh, you know, "hands up, don't shoot"? Yeah, man, that was one of the biggest lies of the year.
Who made it so? This is not some little insignificant misstatement of fact that happened to just creep up with a life of its own. This was a purposely executed, conceived strategy that had one purpose, and that was to destroy a community and to misinform a bunch of people who didn't know any better and make them hate the community and the police in their city. It was a lie from the get-go. The Gentle Giant was not walking innocently down the street pondering his first days at college. He had just come from holding up a convenience store and abusing the owner. He had stolen some whatever they are, Swisher Sweets 'cause he wanted to turn 'em into marijuana joints or what have you. He refused to pay for what he took out of the store. He had a record of similar type activity. He was an imposing six foot six menacing kind of guy, and he attempted to take the officer's gun away from him, lunging in the cop's car.
largeAnd yet the media knowingly helped amplify a story that the kid was gunned down in cold blood to the point there were memorials for him, and it was equated to what happened in Baltimore. We had an entire summer and fall where this country was on the verge of race riots and fires all because the media and a bunch of people knowingly promoted a lie, all to help their political friends in the Democrat Party. And now we get a little story. Yeah, yeah, man that was four Pinocchios. Who did it? Why don't you do a story about who created the lie? Why don't we find out who created it, why they did it, how you helped them promote it, and what its purpose was. Instead of just lumping it in with all the other lies, which, by the way, the lies it's lumped in with are supposed lies Donald Trump is telling and lies other Republicans are telling on the campaign trail.
This is the kind of thing that does real, lasting damage. It angers people by virtue of defrauding them. It turns people against their own country. It turns people against their own communities. It turns people against their neighbors. It turns people against their police departments. It turns people to the federal government, looking for help and salvation, handouts and whatever you can get, all for the advancement of the political agenda of the Democrat Party. And this is by no means the first of such instances. I have personally been involved. I have personally been the target of similar kinds of lies that were meant to destroy various things I wanted to do and people that I believed in.
This is a common occurrence. And our caller moments ago, "Hey, have we gotten so stupid that we can't overcome the forces attempting to try to destroy the country?" And this is exactly the kind of thing he was talking about. What do you expect people that are marginally informed, dubiously intelligent, their town's on fire, there's a racial incident that happens, they are preconditioned to believe that they have been unfairly targeted. Here comes the media with "hands up, don't shoot." Here comes those two Rams players running on the field, "hands up, hands up, don't shoot." None of it ever happened. And long after the destructive elements of the lie have taken their toll, here comes our guardians in the Drive-By Media telling us it was worth four Pinocchios. I'm telling you I get spitting mad over this kind of stuff.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
largeRUSH: I'll just tell you one more thing about this "hands up, don't shoot" business. Hillary Clinton was leading the spreading of that lie. Hillary Clinton tried to profit from that irresponsible -- irresponsible on the same parallel as irresponsible as she was at Benghazi. It's despicable, what the Democrats did with that. And this Washington Post story on all the four Pinocchios?
I guarantee you, just read the majority of lies that they call out are lies told by Huckabee, by Trump, by Trump, and by Trump. It's a list; the biggest lies of the year happen to be told by Republican presidential candidates. "Oh, and, by the way, we're gonna throw in this thing. It's not really political, but it was a really big lie. It was a four Pinocchio with 'hands up, don't shoot.'" What do you mean, wasn't political? It was the biggest political Lie of the Year! Look... It really ticks me off.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/428504/hands-up-dont-shoot-biggest-lies-2015-washington-post
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/hands-up-dont-shoot-false-216736
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/03/06/nyt_hands_up_don_t_shoot_never_happened_but_it_may_as_well_have
RUSH: You know, this next story here, folks, it's kind of presented as just another news story. This has caused so much damage to our society. It has caused so much harm. It has resulted in genuine pain and suffering and violence that was totally unnecessary. It's a Politico story, and the headline is: "'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' Ranked One of Biggest 'Pinocchios' of 2015."
Now, that is a reference to the Washington Post fact checker article. Columnist, a guy named Glenn Kessler -- and he is a supposed fact checker, and he assigns I think -- I may be confusing things, but somebody in the Drive-Bys report stories and reports how much of it's true or false with the assigning of Pinocchios, and four Pinocchios is the absolute worst. I mean, it's just chock-full of lies.
So what they're saying here: "Campaign trail whoppers dominate The Washington Post's annual list of the biggest political 'Pinocchios' of 2015, published Monday. But among a collection of dubious statements that earned four 'Pinocchios' from Republican poll leader Donald Trump and other candidates is the phrase that launched countless protests and calls for police accountability and reform: 'hands up, don't shoot.' Those words, which rose to the public consciousness following the August 2014 shooting," of the Gentle Giant in Ferguson, Missouri.
Well, now, you know and I know that "hands up, don't shoot" never happened. What "hands up, don't shoot" is, is an out-and-out lie that was promulgated by the civil rights coalition in this country and supported by the very media that now, months later, calls it a lie. The very media that helped amplify this knew it was a lie from the get-go. But now, at the end of the year, in one of the usual predictable end-of-the-year summary stories, things that happened in the preceding 12 months, yeah, you know that little thing in St. Louis, "hands up, don't shoot," yeah, that's one of their biggest lies.
Who made it a lie? Who helped it along, who promoted it? I mean, at a St. Louis Rams football game you had two St. Louis Rams defensive backs during player introductions come running on the field with their hands raised. No doubt they thought "hands up, don't shoot" really happened. What "hands up, don't shoot" is is the lie that the Gentle Giant was walking down a St. Louis street one afternoon on a Saturday, and he was pondering his first days at college and his bright future, and a racist cop happened to drive up in his cruiser and order the Gentle Giant, who was harassing nobody, to please get out of the street and move to the sidewalk if you're gonna walk, and did not wait for the Gentle Giant to move and instead shot him in the back while his hands were raised saying, "Don't shoot, don't shoot."
That story was reported. That story that was picked up by the Black Lives Matter and the entire civil rights protest apparatus in St. Louis. And it was reverberating coast to coast as though it did happen. Low-information people coast to coast, particularly in urban neighborhoods, believed it. The media promoting it knew it never happened. It was confirmed to have never happened after the grand jury hearing, which is where all the evidence was heard, but that was claimed to be a lie, too. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that frosts me, because here we get this casual story, hey, you know what, "hands up, don't shoot" didn't happen. In one of their end of the year stories, yeah, we're gonna give it four Pinocchios.
You people made it! You people in the media practically gave that lie its life. You capitalized on it. You attempted to advance the agenda of the civil rights coalition, the left, the Democrat Party. You attempted to besmirch and impugn Republicans as racist, sexist pigs with that story. You destroyed the life of a cop. You succeeded in turning the Ferguson police department over to Obama's Justice Department, and now at the end of the year on December 15th we get a story, oh, you know, "hands up, don't shoot"? Yeah, man, that was one of the biggest lies of the year.
Who made it so? This is not some little insignificant misstatement of fact that happened to just creep up with a life of its own. This was a purposely executed, conceived strategy that had one purpose, and that was to destroy a community and to misinform a bunch of people who didn't know any better and make them hate the community and the police in their city. It was a lie from the get-go. The Gentle Giant was not walking innocently down the street pondering his first days at college. He had just come from holding up a convenience store and abusing the owner. He had stolen some whatever they are, Swisher Sweets 'cause he wanted to turn 'em into marijuana joints or what have you. He refused to pay for what he took out of the store. He had a record of similar type activity. He was an imposing six foot six menacing kind of guy, and he attempted to take the officer's gun away from him, lunging in the cop's car.
largeAnd yet the media knowingly helped amplify a story that the kid was gunned down in cold blood to the point there were memorials for him, and it was equated to what happened in Baltimore. We had an entire summer and fall where this country was on the verge of race riots and fires all because the media and a bunch of people knowingly promoted a lie, all to help their political friends in the Democrat Party. And now we get a little story. Yeah, yeah, man that was four Pinocchios. Who did it? Why don't you do a story about who created the lie? Why don't we find out who created it, why they did it, how you helped them promote it, and what its purpose was. Instead of just lumping it in with all the other lies, which, by the way, the lies it's lumped in with are supposed lies Donald Trump is telling and lies other Republicans are telling on the campaign trail.
This is the kind of thing that does real, lasting damage. It angers people by virtue of defrauding them. It turns people against their own country. It turns people against their own communities. It turns people against their neighbors. It turns people against their police departments. It turns people to the federal government, looking for help and salvation, handouts and whatever you can get, all for the advancement of the political agenda of the Democrat Party. And this is by no means the first of such instances. I have personally been involved. I have personally been the target of similar kinds of lies that were meant to destroy various things I wanted to do and people that I believed in.
This is a common occurrence. And our caller moments ago, "Hey, have we gotten so stupid that we can't overcome the forces attempting to try to destroy the country?" And this is exactly the kind of thing he was talking about. What do you expect people that are marginally informed, dubiously intelligent, their town's on fire, there's a racial incident that happens, they are preconditioned to believe that they have been unfairly targeted. Here comes the media with "hands up, don't shoot." Here comes those two Rams players running on the field, "hands up, hands up, don't shoot." None of it ever happened. And long after the destructive elements of the lie have taken their toll, here comes our guardians in the Drive-By Media telling us it was worth four Pinocchios. I'm telling you I get spitting mad over this kind of stuff.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
largeRUSH: I'll just tell you one more thing about this "hands up, don't shoot" business. Hillary Clinton was leading the spreading of that lie. Hillary Clinton tried to profit from that irresponsible -- irresponsible on the same parallel as irresponsible as she was at Benghazi. It's despicable, what the Democrats did with that. And this Washington Post story on all the four Pinocchios?
I guarantee you, just read the majority of lies that they call out are lies told by Huckabee, by Trump, by Trump, and by Trump. It's a list; the biggest lies of the year happen to be told by Republican presidential candidates. "Oh, and, by the way, we're gonna throw in this thing. It's not really political, but it was a really big lie. It was a four Pinocchio with 'hands up, don't shoot.'" What do you mean, wasn't political? It was the biggest political Lie of the Year! Look... It really ticks me off.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/428504/hands-up-dont-shoot-biggest-lies-2015-washington-post
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/hands-up-dont-shoot-false-216736
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/03/06/nyt_hands_up_don_t_shoot_never_happened_but_it_may_as_well_have