Blatant Media Dishonesty From AP: What else is new?

The Associated Press headline screams: Lawmaker Won’t Press Charges in Spitting Incident,” and the headline is being reprinted everywhere on the Leftist blogosphere as well as in the mass media. But read past the headline. The very first sentence of the story says: “A congressman who was spat on by a protestor on Capitol Hill says he is declining to press charges, but turns out the Capitol Police say they made no arrests.” (Emphasis mine.)

The Capitol Police “made no arrests.” The article goes on to quote the Police spokesman: “Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the U.S. Capitol Police said in an e-mail later: ‘We did not make any arrests today.’” So did the incident even occur?

From the very beginning, this story has stunk. Anyone who has ever attended Tea Party rallies knows that this is a decent bunch of folks - ordinary, decent, hardworking Americans taking time away from work and families to come to Washington in the firm belief that we are being betrayed by our lawmakers. Just compare pictures of the aftermath of the 9-12 march with the aftermath of any other large Mall gathering. 9-12 protesters left the place spotless. These people would condemn on the spot anyone spitting or engaging in any other untoward behavior.

But nevermind, despite no evidence provided that the spitting incident even happened, the article repeats without question this same Congressman’s claim that racial epithets were shouted at him as he made his way to the Capitol:

Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver was making his way through a group of angry protestors when the incident occurred. It was one of several ugly incidents in a day of protests against President Barack Obama's health care overhaul measure, which faces a House vote on Sunday. Cleaver, who is black, was also one of several lawmakers who faced racial epithets as they walked to the Capitol to vote.

“Racial epithets.” We all know what that means. Except that didn’t happen either. How do we know? From the following video, posted at Biggovernment.com by Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit:

As is readily apparent from the clip, protesters are shouting "kill the bill!" and simply shouting "boo!"

And for those who think this may have happened at some time before or after this clip, here's another, with an accompanying article by Rick Moran:

There is a good piece over at the American Thinker blog that evaluates the likelihood of Cleaver's charge:

When I heard the accounts of Cleaver, Congressman Lewis and others, I did not necessarily disbelieve them, but I decided to check the source, a piece in the notoriously liberal McClatchy papers by one William Douglas, and I began to see how the record was being twisted. Douglas reported, "said he was a few yards behind Lewis and distinctly heard ‘nigger.' ‘It was a chorus,' Cleaver said."

"It was a chorus." Where? Where is the chorus? Furthermore, this would have been picked up in multiple places and plastered far and wide in the Leftist media if there were a shred of evidence. There is not. This is out-and-out media fraud. Can the AP ever be trusted to report the news anymore?