POLITICS

MSNBC Pushes Story on Moore Past, Didn’t Know Mall Manager Would Come Forward

BY BENJAMIN ARIE
NOVEMBER 16, 2017 AT 4:07PM


Senate candidate Roy Moore is facing an uphill battle against a growing scandal, and the line between rumors and facts seems to become increasingly blurred every day.

The outspoken former judge has been accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls that allegedly took place some 40 years ago. Right now, there’s no solid proofthat the allegations are true, but that hasn’t stopped the rumors from flying.

In what is beginning to look like a joint attack on the anti-establishment candidate, the mainstream media and Moore’s political enemies are spreading claims that have already been questioned by creditable sources.

One of those accusations is that Roy Moore was banned from a shopping mall decades ago. The implication is that the now 70-year-old former judge was some sort of predator. There’s one major flaw: The retired manager of the Alabama mall says he doesn’t believe it’s true.

This week on MSNBC, host Stephanie Ruhle repeated the completely unproven claim during a fiery exchange with Pastor Mark Burns.

Burns warned that by tossing aside the presumption of innocence and not asking for any proof, the country risks becoming a place where anyone’s life can be ruined based on rumors.

“Today it’s Judge Moore, tomorrow it could be you,” the pastor said. That pushed Ruhle into a sanctimonious rant.






Melanie Schmitz
✔@MelsLien


Pastor Mark Burns: Today it's Judge Moore. Tomorrow it could be you.

.@SRuhle: It can't be me tomorrow because when I was in my 30s, I didn't get banned from a mall. I wasn't calling girls out of class [or] dating girls under 18 so no, it is not possible for it to ever be me.
9:46 AM - Nov 16, 2017

“Sir, it can’t be me tomorrow, because when I was in my 30s, I didn’t get banned from a mall,” she exclaimed.

The MSNBC host stated it as a fact, but is it true? The former manager of the mall says no.

“Barnes Boyle was manager of the Gadsden Mall from 1981 to 1996,” explained WBRC News in Alabama.

That’s not quite in the time frame for the Moore accusations, most of which involve the 1970s, but it’s a good chance that the manager at the time would have known if a prominent member of the community — Moore was an assistant district attorney at the time — had been banned from the mall in the recent past.

“To my knowledge, he was not banned from the mall,” Boyle told the news station.

In other words, MSNBC and other major news outlets are literally repeating vague rumors as fact. (For a vivid look at rumor journalism in action, check out this New Yorker piece on the mall story. It’s hard to find a single verifiable fact in it, past “The Gadsden Mall opened in 1974.”)

To be clear, we don’t know whether or not the allegations against Roy Moore are true… but that is exactly the point.

We do not know. Neither does MSNBC, or CNN, or the establishment politicians like Mitt Romney who have written Moore off as damaged goods.

What we do know is that the timing of the accusations is incredibly suspicious. Moore was in the public light as a prominent judge and in other positions for decades… yet these bombshell claims only emerge 30 days before an important election the Democrats were losing?

We also know that there are gaping holes in the credibility of several of Moore’s accusers. It’s doubtful that the claims would hold up in court, but the media doesn’t seem to care.

This is the true problem with the Roy Moore situation: Rumors and innuendo have now replaced the burden of proof and facts.

Presumption of innocence, one of the basic tenets of free countries, has been tossed aside because it just isn’t salacious enough for cable news.

What Pastor Mark Burns said before he was interrupted and lectured on MSNBC is a very strong point. When we stop caring about evidence and proof, every single American can be smeared and their reputation ruined in an instant.

The election may soon be over, but the fallout of this new distaste for proof will continue to have repercussions for years.

H/T The Hill

https://conservativetribune.com/msnb...ke-news-moore/