One time rabid Sarah Palin defender, John Ziegler is back, and he is even MORE disgusting than before.

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Courtesy of Think Progress:  

NBC is hyping an “interview,” to be aired Monday, with convicted child rapist Jerry Sandusky. But what they don’t tell you is the interview wasn’t conducted by NBC. Rather, NBC is airing excerpts of an interview by John Ziegler, right-wing documentarian and propagandist. Ziegler has been publicly skeptical of the charges against Sandusky, who was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, writing that at the time the grand jury was convened “the legal case against Jerry Sandusky was actually remarkably weak.” 

Ziegler insists he is “not supportive” of Sandusky and does acknowledge he engaged in “criminal behavior.” 

The interview being aired by NBC as news content is part of a larger documentary called “The Framing of Joe Paterno.” On his website, Ziegler lambasts the Freeh Report of the Penn State scandal, which concluded Joe Paterno “failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade.” Ziegler attacks the testimony of assistant coach Mike McQueary who said he observed Sandusky sexually assaulting a child in the shower. Ziegler says “the evidence indicates that McQueary did not witness an assault, but rather a botched ‘grooming’” 

Previously Ziegler has produced films such as “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected” and “Blocking The Path to 9/11,” a film defending an error riddled mini-series seeking to pin blame on Bill Clinton for the 9/11 attacks. 

Ziegler is also defending Reno Saccoccia, the Steubenville football coach who “knew about the rape of a 16-year-old girl by two of his players, but didn’t say a word about it to school administrators or local law enforcement.” On his website, Ziegler asserts Saccoccia is “not culpable” and reveals he has been “advising him for the past several months on how to handle the media firestorm.”

I have NO idea why NBC would give this idiot a platform to use to trash the individuals who courageously came forward to testify about what Jerry Sandusky did, however they surely cannot believe that Ziegler has ANY credible evidence. He is is brazenly pimping his website in the above interview and it is clear that he is desperately trying to come up with some way to get more hits.

As it turns out even Paterno's family knows that Ziegler has nothing:  “If John had a credible way to exonerate Dad, why would we oppose it? Think about that.”

Ziegler is an opportunistic, pathetic piece of human garbage, and  there is no a truly journalistic bone in his body.

"Oh my God there is a story that everybody is talking about.  How can I get my name attached to it so people will pay attention to me again?"

NBC should be ashamed of itself.

Melissa Harris-Perry's touching letter to a sixteen year old girl in Steubenville, Ohio.

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Courtesy of MSNBC:  

Dearest Beloved Girl, 

This letter is an apology. An apology for being an adult who has failed to make the world safe for you. Because you should be safe. Even when you make the sometimes stupid, often naive choices that teens make, you should be safe. 

Your vulnerability should not invite assault and attack of your body or your spirit. And so I am sorry, because we have failed to teach your male peers that they have no right to touch you without your consent or to use you to meet their needs or to discard you if your victimization does not fit their life plan. I am sorry we have failed you. 

This letter is also a note of gratitude for your willingness to report this crime, to take the stand, and to endure the viciousness hurled at you this week. I know the words that run in a loop in your mind. Don’t tell. If you tell, no one will believe you. If you tell, everyone will think you are a whore. Sometimes he is the one who says them first, spewing the words like mold spores that grow in the darkness of your silence. Sometimes it’s your own voice telling you, I can’t tell. No one will believe me. It’s the reason 54%of survivors never report the assault. It’s the reason I kept my secret for nearly a decade. But not you, beloved. You demanded the right to be heard. 

You may have lost your voice that night, but you found it again when you told the truth–even though you knew, didn’t you? You knew just how relentlessly they would try to silence you. You knew that neighbors, and friends, and even members of the national media would mourn the loss of your attackers’ football careers more than the loss of your innocence. 

You knew that even those who claimed to be sympathetic would pass along the pictures of your assault with a tone deaf voyeurism that seeks to make you a thing instead of a person. I think maybe you knew, or suspected these things, but you spoke out anyway. 

And that…that is astonishing. And I want to say thank you, because you did what so many of us never find the strength to do. You spoke for yourself. You spoke for the 44% of rape victims who are under 18–and you spoke for my 14-year-old self, who still hears that threat echoing in my head, “Don’t tell. No one will believe you.” 

So, this is my apology and this is my gratitude. This is me saying, “I believe you.” 

And I believe you are inherently valuable. Not as a character in some grotesque news cycle where your assault is all we know, but as a girl with hopes and dreams and ambitions and vulnerabilities and so much more growing up to do. I never need to know your name, but I need you to know you are not alone. Surviving is not a single occurrence, it is a lifetime of making choices that honor you and your right to speak. You have begun surviving. You will continue surviving. And if you ever get down, or wonder how you will go on, take out this letter and read it to yourself. 

I believe you. 

Sincerely, 

Melissa

If any of you have been raped then I don't have to tell you how incredibly powerful the words  "I believe you" are to this young sixteen year old girl.

Melissa Harris-Perry is right, she deserves to be believed, AND to be protected.

CNN is now interested in hiring Elisabeth Hasselbeck?

Courtesy of TV Newser:  

TVNewser now hears that CNN has reached out to Hasselbeck’s team about her possibly joining the channel in some form when she leaves “The View.” Another option on the table–according to a source close to the host–is to have her “gracefully exit” the daytime program by having her stay with the show, but cut back on the number of days she appears, while allowing her to pursue work elsewhere.

You know if CNN makes this move they will have made a huge leap from being simply Fox-lite to becoming an actual Fox News competitor. At least in the realm of having the most empty headed blonde bimbos on staff that is.

And this news does not come at a good time for CNN either, since currently they are under fire for their overly sympathetic reporting after the Steubenville trial:

Remember the CNN broadcast a few days ago, when Candy Crowley and friends bemoaned the fates of the Steubenville rapists? That didn't go over well, and nearly a quarter million people want the network to do something about it. In the two days since the verdict was read, a Change.org petition asking for CNN to make an on-air apology — okay, several on-air apologies — has gained over 215,000 signatures (As of this post it has actually reached 266,10.) and looked to be on track to reach the self-assigned goal of 300,000 in a matter of hours. In other words, a lot of people are not happy with how CNN covered the Steubenville trial, and they're not going to forget about it any time soon.

Siding with rapists, reporting GOP slanted news, and now considering a bubble headed blonde conservative bimbo. I am not sure there will be ANY daylight between Fox News from CNN anymore if this keeps up.

Steubenville high school football players convicted for sexual assault of intoxicated teen. A verdict that would probably have not been possible without the involvement of Anonymous. Update!

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Courtesy of ABC News:  

Two Steubenville, Ohio, high school football players accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl have been found delinquent by a judge -- the juvenile court equivalent of guilty. 

The teens could serve prison time until they turn 21. 

The verdict comes after a four-day trial that included tearful testimony from the accuser who said she was "embarrassed and scared" after hearing about the night she was allegedly sexually assualted while intoxicated. 

"I honestly did not know what to think because I didn't remember anything," she testified. The teen pieced together the night's events from Twitter, Instagram photos, a YouTube video, text messages and witnesses.

This is an absolutely horrendous case, as any of you have been following it already know, but the thing about it that is so disturbing, and ultimately amazing, is the part that social media played in the humiliation of this young girl and then ensured that justice was done on her behalf.

The troubling fact is that THIS kind of scenario plays out all over the country, in towns and cities both rural and  urban. It happens to young women, at the hands of young men, almost daily.

Most of the time we live in blissful ignorance of that fact.

But THIS time the perpetrators traded pictures of their deeds, and video of them bragging about it, with others, and that led to one lone blogger taking it upon herself to try and bring some justice.

That attracted the attention of the hacker group Anonymous, who hacked into the phones and social networks of the town and the teens involved and spread what they found all over the internet.

If that had NOT happened it is very unlikely that these teens would have seen any jail time.

However don't believe that this has really resulted in justice, according to what Anonymous uncovered this may in fact simply be the tip of a very disgusting iceberg:

Anonymous also claimed to have uncovered additional information suggesting a coverup. While the county prosecutor and the judge in the case recused themselves because of their ties to the football team, the hackers say there are more attackers, as well as more victims. Moreover, they claim the alleged rape occured at prosecutor Jane Hanlin’s home, and that her son may have been involved. They also point to ties between Steubenville law enforcement and the football team.

Like I said not necessarily complete justice, but still a hell of a lot more than would have happened without the "interference" of a group that has made a name for themselves by sticking their noses in places they are not welcome, but where often their attention may be desperately needed.

However it really falls the parents of these, and other, teenagers to educate their children that "No, means no!" and drinking until you are unable to make good judgement does NOT indicate that you are more grown up.

It indicates that you need more grown up supervision.

Update: If you can stomach it, you can read for yourself some of the horrific tweets blaming the victim of this incident here. And here.

And people wonder why victims of this kind of attack don't come forward more often.