In the early reporting of the Capital Gazette mass murder, Conor Berry, a reporter for a Massachusetts newspaper, The Republican, tweeted that the shooter had dropped his MAGA hat on the newsroom floor before opening fire.

It was a stupid remark, not to mention one for which Berry had no supporting facts, which he has since acknowledged. What makes such tweets particularly toxic is that they color early perceptions of these events, and tend to become urban legends and the stuff of conspiracy theories.

Berry’s tweet was similar to earlier instances such as cable talking heads speculating that other shooters were Tea Party members or radical right wingers before later being proved wrong. Only Berry’s tweet wasn’t presented as speculation.

Berry has since resigned as a result and tweeted his regret over the #fakenews incident.

In this case, the apology seems to have gotten more traction than the original tweet. Berry has taken the MAGA tweet down, but it can be found in archives on the Internet.

If reporters were a little less anxious to score political points at the expense of their ideological opponents and more concerned with reporting actual facts, situations like this could be avoided. But no one really expects that kind of sea change to happen any time soon.

 

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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61 COMMENTS

    • Edward R Murrow was a journalist. This ‘reporter’ was a political activist – like most alleged journalists these days.

    • Wish we could believe this but I’ll lay money he’ll be back… Remember Dan Rather, among others?

    • funny how they think their asses are more important than schoolkids or churchgoers…..

    • “Folks, My 21-year career as a “journalist,” a fancy term that I’ve used to promote my own agenda and liberal narrative, frankly, came to a screeching halt yesterday with one ‘thought-I’d-get-with-it” tweet. Can’t take it back; wish I hadn’t been caught, but I was. My sincere apologies to other fake news outlets, DiaF POTUS supporters.”

      FIFH

  2. A journalist quits after being exposed for lying? Pffft… amateur. He should follow the gall of REAL journalists who think that truth is relative.

    • Yeah. Really, now progressives will carry ‘drop hats’ so they can drop a MAGA hat at a shooting to make sure there are no amateur mistakes like this next time. 😉

  3. They are so involved in an endless echo chamber, they cannot conceive that anyone would actually call them on their lies. Or on their prejudices as members of the FBI, or their clear racism, or anything else, it’s a free-fire zone, just attack someone, anyone, RIGHT NOW!! It will be interesting to see if the Red Hen restaurant ever reopens, beyotch couldn’t believe anyone would be offended by her lunatic attack on civility.

  5. Another liar “bites the dust”! This jerk needs to be exposed on Newsmax and other truthful news outlets. Perhaps he can get a nice position as a Warehouse Production Assistant where he can’t spout garbage and get away with it.

  6. Apology NOT accepted. You’re a hateful bigot, Mr. Berry, and you deserve the opprobrium you’re getting.

  7. And here is yet another example that Leftists will fabricate utterly false “facts” if necessary.

    So, before anyone jumps on a fellow rights advocate for lacking eloquence or (gasp!) saying something that might give gun-grabbers rhetorical ammunition, remember this facet of gun-grabbers and keep your concerns to yourself.

  8. What a POS…this kind of lie can get folks KILLED. Journalist my azz-and the murderer was a spanglish boy(white hispanic?!?). BTW the killer can’t be executed in Maryland. Unless it’s “federalized”. Doubt that’ll happen…

    • Too bad he gave up instead of pointing the in at a couple amped up cops with Glocks. Think of the cost savings.

  9. They stoke the flames and claim innocence.

    These “reporters” and “journalists” are nothing more than propagandists and charlatans. They want America to be divided and fight amongst each other while they take everything for themselves. They will do anything for their end goal.

  11. These days, a “journalist” is nothing more than a Democrat Party operative with a press pass.

  12. But the political left keeps telling me all the #fakenews is on the right. I am so confused.

    /sarc

  13. Hey, you%^&**&^%$#$$*&&*%^ *&*%$^$%^*&(*(, that what the president calls “FAKE NEWS”! Statements by Trump had squat to do with this nuts actions, a 2012 incident! Nor was it a problem of metal and plastic, it WAS a people problem exacerbated by, once again, a lack of oversight by the law. The next time I hear, “was known to police” I’m gonna scream and then curse the ACLU and the politicians who refuse to act about nuts. We’ll probably find out this guy withdrew from psychiatric care. Probably will hear the same about Vegas nut if they ever finish that investigation and release the information.

    • At least our country is free enough that people suspected of insanity still get their day in court. They may get their gun rights taken(which is BAD), but they are not put in some hole for the next 10 years for spouting off about the wrong person.
      That seems to be the way it is going, if the media has its way.

  14. He is only sorry because he got fired; his apology is worthless….

    Zero f*cks given for this guy.

  15. If reporters treated their own offices with respect, it would be easier for non-reporters to do so. One bad comment does a lot of damage, whether it is the MAGA hat claim or the Manafort slaughtered 5 claim. Or, for that matter, the covering for Clinton (take your pick) or JFK.

    In any case, skepticism about news is probably a good thing and long overdue.

    • If reporters treated their own offices with respect, it would be easier for non-reporters to do so.

      Sort of like workers in the “justice” system, eh?

      • One suspects that if only DOJ employees had voted in the last election, Hillary Clinton and her criminal enterprise would have moved into the White House. The worst part about it? Her activities were not so secret, pretty much everyone knew.

  16. He got what he deserved. My question is why was the shooter so important that a newspaper had to report his stalking. Why was he so important?

  17. Crap like this is just one more reason I have ZZEERROO trust in the media. When they’re not spinning up a narrative for the DNC they’re just flat out lying to force a political change.

  19. Well I am glad he had the decency to resign.
    There are many experts in the law say that there are limits to our inalienable rights
    such as the right to keep and bear arms does not mean we can personally own nuclear weapons and that the right to to free speech does not mean that we can yell “fire” in a crowed theater.
    Even though I strongly agree in the right of the free speech, I do not agree that the right of a free press means that the press has the right to deliberately print what it knows not to be true or that it can not support what it prints with evidence.
    If a member of the press prints what he KNOWS not to be true, nor provides any supporting evidence,
    THEN HE SHOULD BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY.

  20. You would think that having been educated and learning of how the press was controlled under communism, socialism, fascism, and multiple other isms in such exotic locales as the USSR, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Germany that our journalists would be more inclined to push against any form of ism based government and yet here they are pushing their socialist or communist agenda as if they don’t know the very first ones shot are always the reporters. Sure now you agree with all the rainbows and unicorn j*zz being shoved down your throat by our progressive betters, but once they start clamping down on the media and you start howling and railing against them you’ll be stood in the trenches and shot.

  22. This is Fake News – this shooting could not have happened – I was promised that criminals could not get guns when my legislators insisted on passing all the new anti gun laws.

  23. I have some trust the media will generally report facts accurately but zero trust they won’t try to put bias on it.

    This is an excerpt from the Baltimore Sun today. I’m not a huge Trump supporter, but to me this is clearly biased against him and it’s the way all the media is seeking to influence us.

    ”We are not the enemy,” Capital reporter Pat Furgurson told the crowd. “We’re you.”

    It was a message that seemed aimed not just at Jarrod Warren Ramos, 38, of Laurel, the man charged with five counts of first-degree murder, but at those who agree with President Donald Trump’s assertion that journalists are “the enemy of the American people.”

    There is nothing factually wrong as far as I can see, but what most people are missing is the reporters opinion presented subtly as fact that Trump is somehow at fault by associating him in the same article.

    From what information I’ve gleaned, the shooter had a personal problem with what was reported about him. What does that have to do with Trump? Nothing. I would like to see more factual reporting and less front page editorializing.

  25. ” Fare Thee Well toxic storyteller. Better luck next time. Maybe Pissed off Hispanic shooter will be wearing an NRA hat…Let us all know how YOUR Trump Derangement Syndrome treatment is working out…Good luck at YOUR new Job At Burger King 🍔 ! Now F—Off Lib-TARD !!!!”

  26. ….The answer…..He’s from a Massachusetts media outlet…..You can’t trust anything that claims officialdom….When it comes from the People’s Republic of Massachusetts…. SANCTUARY State for MS13….Home of RINO Globalist Governor. Charlie “The Barker” Baker… DemoCommie supporter….State that likes to “Red Flag/ERPO” its MA Residents as future Poilitical dissidences…So easy, an MS13 Gangmember can file one…..

  28. HANNITY is correct. Journalism is dead! What we have in America is lefty progressive propaganda. Lies swallowed with glee, by low informed fools.

  29. Connor can work a McDonald’s drive though while he contemplates his childish remark and hatred for Trump.

  34. There are no ‘journalists’ or ‘reporters’ anymore, all there is is a bunch of Liberal slime balls who use their jobs to spread lies and disinformation. They should all be loaded on a few slow boats to China and Russia, with minimal food and water. The survivors could then learn what it is to operate under totalitarian government that wouldn’t put up with their BS.

  36. This”reporter” should be made to write 10,000 times on the blackboard, I Will Not Make Incorrect, Stupid Statements Anymore. He should also be denied his booze ration.

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