T shirts, and ABC News “balance”
In a story on the whole “T shirts at the opponent’s rallies” issue, ABC News leads with the misleading
Behind the scenes of one of the most contentious presidential races in recent memory, both Democrats and Republicans have organized what can only be called the T-shirt defense squads.
It is an all-out effort to spot T-shirts supporting the other candidate and block them from view, or in some cases to actually have the T-shirt-wearing offenders ejected or arrested.
The misleading part? Only one campaign tried to eject or arrest anyone, and it wasn’t Kerry’s.
And as they approached the gates of the stadium, Lance “Chip” Borman, a Bush campaign worker and attorney who worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, directed them toward the Brevard County sheriff’s deputies waiting at the exit.
“Hey folks, it’s a private event,” he said. “Can you find your way to the nearest exit? Maybe some law enforcement can help?”
Another team got in before showing the shirts, but Borman ordered them out as well.
He said the rally of some 18,000 people was a “private event,” and it made no difference that producers Christine Romo and Jessica Wang had tickets and remained silent and respectful.
The Kerry team’s response was a bit different:
A Kerry staffer at an Oct. 24 Kerry rally in Boca Raton, Fla., told Bush-Cheney T-shirt wearers that the campaign held a permit to rent the site and could remove anyone who made a disturbance.
“We hold the right to remove you, but other than that, enjoy and hopefully at the end of the event you’ll want to wear a Kerry T-shirt,” he said.
I have a simple question for Bush: how can you claim to be the only one who will stand up to terrorists, when you can’t even stand up to opposing views on T shirts?
