The American Spectator

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I'm a native of Plainfield, Vermont, writing to comment on Bill Croke's "Special Report" entitled "The Red Green Mountain State." Perhaps you employ "special" rules for journalism, but Bill's "reporting" seems to have begun and ended at the Fox website.

Outside of Bill Croke's computer it is now acknowledged that Fox and other media outlets, including one major Vermont television station, picked up on an early, unsubstantiated, and inaccurate report and ran with it. For verification of this point, see any of the many followup stories in the local papers via their websites. (I have several URLs here but I will leave finding them as an exercise.)

The differing details are not particularly significant, though the truth certainly appears to be much less dramatic than Croke suggests.

It's no secret that Vermont is a largely -- though by no means completely -- liberal state, and it's clear that Croke has a grudge against the state's liberalism. Regurgitating the erroneous Fox News report is merely a hook on which to hang a generic and dull anti-liberal rant.

If there is a hate crime to be prosecuted here, of course Vermont's Judiciary will take it seriously, and it's needlessly disrespectful of Croke to imply otherwise. The fact that there are no charges, no witnesses, and no evidence are really the salient points. Even the ladies in the beauty salon across the street with a good view of the parking lot -- red diaper babies in Croke's book, no doubt -- say they didn't see any attack.

Ultimately, the really astounding thing is how many others around the country have parroted the initial report just as Croke did. In a sense I am responding to that at well. Surely if liberalism is such a threat there is better material to work with than erroneous reports about a handful of teenagers in a tiny town?

I knew one of the men on Flight 175 who lost his life on September 11. And right now my nephew is stationed overseas, waiting to be shipped to Kuwait to support this war. We all have a stake in this. Croke's reactionary politics and inadequate reporting do nothing for our country, the world, or the cause of freedom.

I hope that you are honest people capable of hearing my message -- I hope that these words do not fall on deaf ears.

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