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Race baiting at the height of race baiting if the story proves a falsehood and a hoax.
Media Probe 'Mutilation' of McCain Worker in Pittsburgh -- Doubts Raised
By E&P Staff
Published: October 24, 2008 11:20 AM ET
NEW YORK It has drawn wide local and national--even political attention, with some of the candidates for president/vice president weighing in or even calling -- but now the story may be starting to fall apart. Police in Pittsburgh are relating "inconsistencies" in the story and want a worker for John McCain to take a polygraph, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports this morning.
It started yesterday afternoon with Matt Drudge screaming at the top of his site in red type -- but no siren -- that a Pittsburgh campaign worker for McCain, age 20, had been viciously attacked and the letter "B" carved into her face, presumably by a Barack Obama fan. Her name, it soon emerged, was Ashley Todd and she had come to Pittsburgh from College Station, Texas, to help out.
It started to appear overblown (Drudge downgraded it to smaller, black type) as the police noted that it seemed to be a robbery ($60) and she did not seek medical attention. But later press reports said she would visit a hospital, Sarah Palin and maybe John McCain had called her and Obama camp had condemned, although McCain/Obama angle to story not yet confirmed.
Still later, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, and some others, grew skeptical. For one thing, the "B" was carved a little too lightly and perfectly -- and backward, as if done using a mirror. Smoking Gun probed a too-pat "Twitter" angle and Gawker looked at her MySpace page.
Now police say that evidence from the ATM that she reportedly visited did not match her account. And then she changed her story, admitting that her assailant did not see a McCain bumper sticker on her assault, and adding to he account a sexual assault and losing consciousness.
John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, has now commented on his blog that "this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election. If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee. If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."
UPDATE FROM AP: "Pittsburgh police say a McCain campaign volunteer who said she was held down by a black man who cut the letter "B" in her face has changed her story. Police spokeswoman Diane Richard says investigators gave the 20-year-old woman a lie-detector test and are "looking at some inconsistencies" in her story.
"Police say bank surveillance footage doesn't show her at an ATM where she says she was attacked. Todd, who is white, now says she was knocked unconscious and doesn't remember being cut. She now says she only discovered the wound later."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003877727
Fox News VP: If McCain Worker 'Mutilation' Story is a Hoax His Campaign is 'Over'
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Read More: Ashley Todd, John McCain, Politics News
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/fox-news-vp-if-mccain-wor_b_137522.html
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