The Washington Post is suggesting the rhetoric of a “right-wing” radio host may have inspired a man the paper does not acknowledge was a liberal to shoot up a GOP baseball practice in June.
Without a speck of evidence that the shooter and Sen. Bernie Sanders supporter James T. Hodgkinson even listened to Bob Romanik, known for his use of invective and racial epithets, WaPo’s Peter Holley tried desperately to manufacture proof.
The article, reading more like an opportunity to tie Romanik, a “die hard supporter of President Trump,” to the virulent anti-Trump, anti-GOP shooter Hodgkinson, curiously left out his victims’ party affiliation — describing them as “four people shot” at a congressional baseball practice. The reader is provided no background as to Hodgkinson’s political motives, never mentioning he volunteered for Sander’s presidential campaign, nor anything else about his political leanings.
The only connection between the two men in the piece is a claim Romanik himself made that “[Hodgkinson] probably” listened to his show, airing in Hodgkinson’s hometown of Belleville, Ill., and Holley’s own claim that many of Romanik’s “biggest fans” are “disgruntled Democrats.”
It is odd claim for Holley to make considering he reports in the same article that Romanik does not subscribe to Nielsen and has no way of knowing how many listeners he even has, let alone who they are.
Romanik is an easy target — his support for Trump and use of racial slurs, including the n-word, make him an enticing subject for an establishment media seeking to highlight racism among Trump’s base of support.
The Washington Post’s attempt to revise history, flipping the tragedy on Trump supporters in middle America, seems to have backfired. Buzzfeed’s political reporter Katherine Miller, asked “what’s the point of this?” The Washington Examiner’s Byron York called it the “revision of the year.”
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