Somebody didn't vet President Obama's milquetoast Arizona Daily Star op-ed on gun control last weekend:
"But one clear and terrible fact remains. A man our Army rejected as unfit for service; a man one of our colleges deemed too unstable for studies; a man apparently bent on violence, was able to walk into a store and buy a gun.
He used it to murder six people and wound 13 others. And if not for the heroism of bystanders and a brilliant surgical team, it would have been far worse." -- Barack Obama, Arizona Star, March 13, 2011.
Hmm.... one of the first things I was taught in Journalism 101 is that you never, ever categorically state that someone committed a crime. You write something to the effect of "Joe Blow was arrested on charges of public lewdness" or "Barry allegedly passed on the right, causing the accident."
Obama just succeeded in tainting any jury pool called to consider the fate of Loughner. This could be a gift to his defense lawyer. How could anyone get a fair trial once the President of the United States has already declared him a murderer?
I give props to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for pointing out the op-ed's glaring faux pas on his show last night. I am really surprised it hasn't been picked up by any other media outlets -- at least I haven't seen it reported anywhere else in all my internet news travels.
This all leads me to believe that Obama didn't even write this plodding, talking-pointy, bullet-pointy op-ed. He may not have even read it. As a graduate of Harvard Law, he should have caught the mistake.
Sounds like a few heads need to roll besides that of a State Department spokesman who speaks out against the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning.
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