Considering the coverage and responses of the [tag]Mike Stark[/tag]/[tag]George Allen[/tag] controversy so far, I’m reminded a bit of a movie I liked when I was a kid.
Axel Foley went into Victor Maitland’s office, and asked a few impertinent questions. Maitland’s thugs grabbed Foley, dragged him into the building’s lobby, and literally threw him through a plate-glass door. The police arrive and, naturally, arrest Foley. Asked what the charges are, the officers tell him, “Disturbing the peace.” To which Foley responded, “Disturbing the peace? I got thrown out of a window! What’s the charge for getting pushed out of a moving car, jaywalking?”
Shortly thereafter, Sgt. Taggart tells Foley, “We have six witnesses who said you came in, started tearing up the place and then jumped through the window.”
Had reporters in Virginia covered the fictional incident, I suspect they would describe Foley as a “protestor” who “heckled” Maitland, and who deserved to be assaulted because he was causing a “ruckus.”
All things being equal, I think the WaPo captured the Stark story fairly well.
A Democratic activist who verbally confronted U.S. Sen. George Allen at a campaign rally in Charlottesville yesterday was shoved, put into a headlock and thrown against a window by three men wearing Allen stickers, according to a widely disseminated video of the incident.
W. Michael Stark, who identified himself in an e-mail after the incident as a University of Virginia law student, yelled a question at Allen (R) about whether he had ever spit on his first wife, an unsubstantiated charge that has been circulating on liberal blogs on the Internet. Allen supporters hauled him away from the senator as television cameras rolled.
“I demand that Senator Allen fire the staffers who beat up a constituent attempting to use his constitutional right to petition his government,” Stark wrote in an e-mail.
Following up on developments from yesterday, Stark has already reported the incident the Charlottesville police and told officials he wants press assault charges against the men. Charlottesville Police Lt. Gary Pleasants said police are investigating and trying to determine the names of the Allen staffers involved.
As for the response from the Allen campaign, it’s hard to believe — because it isn’t true.
Allen aides accused Democrats and the Webb campaign of orchestrating the event as a way of getting news organizations to write about the Internet rumor. “These are the typical Jim Webb tactics,” said spokesman Dan Allen, no relation to the senator. “It was disappointing to see, and this certainly has no place in Virginia politics.” […]
Dan Allen said Stark pushed him as Stark tried to approach the senator and Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), who was campaigning with Allen. “He did it in a very menacing way,” Dan Allen said.
Look, if you’re going to make up a fictional story about an altercation, do so when there aren’t three different videos of the incident. If there were no cameras, it’s a he-said, she-said. With multiple videos, none of which show Stark pushing anyone, or even raising his hands above his waist, the Allen campaign just makes a bad situation worse.
Nevertheless, too many reporters are falling for this nonsense. An NBC affiliate in Washington did a piece telling viewers that Stark “shoved” an Allen staffer before being “escorted out” of the room. Wow.
It’s amazing to me how easy it would have been for Allen and his team to have handled this differently. Stark asked a unkind question, and the senator could have very easily ignored him or said, “I won’t dignify that with a response.” Apparently, that wasn’t good enough. Assaulting a law student, a law-abiding constituent, and a Marine veteran was, as far as the Allen gang was concerned, the preferable way to go.
Stark had a lengthy letter published by the Richmond Times Dispatch today; it’s quite good and offers a more detailed, personal perspective.
As for my single favorite far-right response to the incident, the award goes to Riehld World View, a prominent right-wing blog, who asked yesterday, “Kossack Attempts To Assault Allen?”
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.