UPDATE: The Drudge Report links to a
Fayetteville Observer article, written by Francis X. Gilpin, who has spoken with the Tundra Tabloids. According to the report, Diantha Harris is claiming the film clip that the Tundra Tabloids uploaded to Youtube has been doctored.
It has not. Harris is free falling in a downward spiral of denial and face saving. The Fayetteville article which mentions the Tundra Tabloids as the first to get the story, quotes Diantha Harris who claims that:
“She blamed the controversy on McCain supporters still smarting from their defeat this week. “If John McCain had won, nothing would be said about this video, doctored or undoctored,” said Harris, who is a registered Democrat”The Tundra Tabloids was indeed the first to publish the story, and video, because the scene was very upsetting, and one could only feel sorry for the little girl, Cathy, and that’s why the TT reported on it Monday, after the Swedish documentary was discovered on Folke Rydén’s website.So, the Tundra Tabloids published the video and story, two days before the results of the elections became known here in Finland! Nice try Diantha Harris. There is no editing in the video, it’s a straight three minute sequence taken from the documentary. If Harris is claiming that I have a doctored video, then by default, she’s claiming that the Swedish documentary was in fact doctored to cast her in a worst light possible.Also: One of the Swedish documentary crew, Folke Rydén has come out in favor of Harris, claiming she’s being misunderstood. Yeah right, almost everyone who has viewed the video conclude she was badgering the young student, even schools Superintendent Bill Harrison thought as much.All one has to do is look at the original and the video the Tundra Tabloids uploaded to You Tube and see if there has been any editing. There hasn’t been any, only by the Swedish film crew themselves. Also, if she (Harris) didn’t have anything to explain about, concerning her behaviour in the classroom, why did the film crew bring up the subject afterwards, where Harris is being interviewed about what was just filmed? I suspect they were as alarmed as we all were after viewing it.Diantha Harris is grasping at straws, and should just come clean and get over it, instead of making herself into a total spectical in front of the whole world….again. KGS
NOTE: Drudge Report is still linking to the wrong video clip,
here is the original (REAL) if they want to get it right this time around.
NOTE: Even Folke Rydén, is taking pot shots at the Tundra Tabloids who emailed Rydén, on Monday in trying to ascertain where the footage was filmed, and the name of the school, hence the initial mix-up about it being filmed in Ashevill.
“Dear Mr.Rydén
I watched your documentary From Clinton to Obama last Sunday on Finnish TV, and I would like to know more about Diantha Harris. Could you please tell me in what capacity Harris was working in at the school, while being filmed asking questions from the children about the US presidential elections? Also, what is the name of the school in question and is it in North Carolina?”
For the record, Ryden never responded. Folke Ryden claims that it’s a conservative vendetta against an Obama supporter, even though it was blogged and uploaded two days prior to finding out the results to the election.
FayObserver: “Folke Rydén, the Stockholm-based producer of the documentary, couldn’t’t be reached for comment. But he told the Asheville Citizen-Times that disappointed McCain backers are taking revenge on Harris.”
Yeah riiiiiiight. Try again Ryden, this time with some intellectual honesty. KGS
—————————————————–
The Tundra Tabloids is the blog that started the whole ball rolling about
Diantha Harris incident, after watching a
Swedish documentary that was aired on Swedish language channel on Finnish TV. In retrospect, it’s always interesting to give a look at who initially got things right, and who didn’t, who corrected their report, and who could have cared less.
It’s one thing to initially get some parts of the story wrong, though Glenn Beck did not mention the Tundra Tabloids by name and called it a Finnish documentary, when it was Swedish one, he can be forgiven, he was just repeating information gleaned from second and/or third hand sources.
The local newspaper in Asheville,
The Citizen-Times, was the most accurate, having spoken with a reporter,
Josh Boatwright, who passed all the information on to
Jon Ostendorff, who did an outstanding job in relaying all the correct information to his readers. Kudos to both Josh and Jon for getting things right.
The local TV station,
WLOS, that covers the areas of Asheville-Greenville-Spartanburg and Anderson areas, was for the most part accurate. Not having been privy to the information that the
Citizen-Times had at their disposal, the ABC affiliate did a pretty good job in reporting the story, even illuminating exactly where the incident took place,
Jones Elementary school and it was a fifth grade class in question in
Cumberland County.
Once it got past the local news organizations however, that’s when the story began to loose key facts, get a bit shaky, and lack of accreditation becoming underhanded and mean spirited. One of the first places for anyone who has a story, and wants to get their message out to the widest possible audience available, take it to Debbie Schlussel first, she has a major following, and will always treat the source of a real good news maker, with full respect. Meaning full accreditation. Full stop.
Well Debbie Schlussel was the first place the Tundra Tabloids stopped to disseminate this news maker of a story, and true to her word,
she posted it and gave full mention of myself and the Tundra Tabloids. That is what got this whole steam roller moving. Thanks Debbie, you’re one of a kind.
Pamela Geller, who was extremely busy with
The Great Reverse Schlep, took time to
post about the teacher incident, and gave KGS a mention. Kudos to Pamela, a dear friend who will always watch your back.
Also another noted blogger, Baron Bodissey of the
Gates of Vienna gave both the story and the TT his due as well. many thanks.
After that, it took until Thursday for the rest of the blogosphere and the media to catch on and catch up. What interests me more than anything else, is not a misquote here, or a minor detail gone wrong there, but that others in the blogosphere not only got it wrong, but after sending in repeated emails -and if no email address was available, leaving the info in the comments- they simply refused to update their blog post.
Robert Spencer took note of
Little Green Footballs stealing the Tundra Tabloids story, and took him to task for it. Shame on Charles Johnson, who should have refrained from posting on the incident if he couldn’t be a man and give credit where credit is due. Oh well, his flag is sinking fast anyways…too bad, he had so much to offer.
Other major bloggers (that I know of, there may be more) to drop the ball and behave like Charles Johnson, was noted blogger
Michelle Malkin, as well as
Stop The ACLU. Both of whom refused to link and/or give accreditation to the Tundra Tabloids for the work it did in bringing out a MEGA STORY to light. Shame on them as well.
But most noticeably
The Drudge Report, (who I refuse to link to) after having been informed of the news story from the very beginning, did not link to the TT once, even after having been notified since Monday about the story, and then had the nerve to run a second hand video of the same 3 minute portion of the documentary. But most importantly, the superintendent of the school system in Cumberland County,
Dr.William Harrison, linked to the Tundra Tabloids’ true video, and issued
a press release, which contained his own heartfelt sorrow and outrage over the incident.
Though the
Drudge Report blew it big time, as well as the others that were mentioned, both
Allahpundit at
Hot Air and
BelchSpeak did give full accreditation, however belatedly, to the Tundra Tabloids. So a full Kudos flies in your directions as well.
But the most important thing of all, is the satisfaction in knowing that if one only takes the initiative to do something, anything for that matter, some good might come from it. The story, like
Debbie Schlussel and
Glenn Beck stated, would have never been told, at least not by our own main stream media. The offending teacher, Diantha Harris, would have carried on with her style of teaching, perhaps unbeknown to her, that she was manipulating and steering her pupils.
The Tundra Tabloids considers the case closed, the situation is now in good hands, and the public that much more aware of what is happening in their schools. I am just proud to have been a part of it all. And most importantly, due to the occasional prodding from my good ol’ buddy
TINSC, this week’s display of international public activism has resulted in a good deed.
There is only one word that can describe
all who helped with this story,
MENTCH. Not bad you guys, for a day’s work.
KGS
NOTE: so far the
REAL YOUTUBE video that The Drudge Report didn’t link to, has 275,122 visits being registered and it keeps growing.
Special note of thanks to Finnish blogger Pikkupoika for the word about Drudge picking up the story.
NOTE: Mark Epstein gets it right! Thanks Mark, you stand head and shoulders above many who reported on this story. My thanks to you. Kudos.
UPDATE: The Drudge Report links to a Fayetteville Observer article, written by Francis X. Gilpin, who has spoken with the Tundra Tabloids. According to the report, Diantha Harris is claiming the film clip that the Tundra Tabloids uploaded to Youtube has been doctored. It has not. 