Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Unscreened


Lou Dobbs stands by his reporting on America's leprosy epidemic, which he says is caused by - wait for it, now - immigrants:

On "Lou Dobbs Tonight" this past Monday, Dobbs said he stands "100 percent behind" his show's claim that there had been 7,000 new cases of leprosy in the United States over a recent three-year period, and he further suggested that an increase in leprosy was due in part to "unscreened illegal immigrants coming into this country."
It's shocking how those illegals sneak past our leprosy detectors. Is nothing at all sacred to these subhumans?

I've already dealt with this nonsense at some length, so I won't reiterate it here. What's interesting is that Dobbs claims that he got his leprosy stats from Madeleine Cosman.

The late Ms. Cosman was a prominent conservative activist with no degree in medicine, and a rather lurid fixation on the "versatile" sexuality of immigrants:
Recognize that most of these bastards molest girls under age 12, some as young as age 5, others age 3, although of course some specialize in boys, some specialize in nuns, some are exceedingly versatile, and rape little girls age 11, and women up to age 79.
Perhaps daydreaming over Medieval history inspired her lunatic claim that there were 7,000 cases of leprosy in America over the course of three years. That's as good a theory as any, given that there's no evidence for her statistics, and plenty of evidence against them.

One can only speculate as to whether she was familiar with this evocative passage from The Confession of Agimet of Geneva:
On Friday, the 10th of the month of October, at Châtel, in the castle thereof, there occurred the judicial inquiry which was made by order of the court of the illustrious Prince, our lord, Amadeus, Count of Savoy, and his subjects against the Jews of both sexes who were there imprisoned, each one separately. This was done after public rumor had become current and a strong clamor had arisen because of the poison put by them into the wells, springs, and other things which the Christians use - demanding that they die, that they are able to be found guilty and, therefore, that they should be punished.
In addition to her race-baiting misrepresentation of leprosy statistics, the versatile Ms. Cosman left behind "a vast library of illuminated manuscripts and a large collection of handguns."

(Illustration by  Giovanni Sercambi, via The Florida Holocaust Museum).

2 comments:

olvlzl said...

I've been doing a lot of reading to compare different standards of integrity in various publications. It's astounding the range of requirements depending on the opinon or results that are reported on. Some of the people who require the strongest evidence, really more evidence than could possibly be produced, themselves get away with not only shoddy evidence, but outright lying. And they're not punished even when it's a pretty air tight case that they're lying.

Any "journalist" who stands by racist lies, demonstrated to be racist lies should be out of a job and not able to find another one in journalism. Dobbs is a good part of the fuel behind the wave of hate against Latinos. CNN, I won't tell you what I think that should mean while Dobbs is still working there.

Phila said...

Some of the people who require the strongest evidence, really more evidence than could possibly be produced, themselves get away with not only shoddy evidence, but outright lying.

Funny how that works, isn't it? The IPCC's cautious, exhaustively peer-reviewed conclusions can be sneered at as biased, while the unsubstantiated ravings of racist weirdos get mainstreamed without the slightest effort at fact-checking.

Your liberal media at work...