The LATimes Caught in Blatant Anti-Fred Thompson Spin

November 18, 2007 | Filed Under Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, The Law, Uncategorized, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

Thompson’s Prosecutorial Record Explained

A while back, the L.A. Times tried to make Fred Thompson’s record as a Prosecutor in Tennessee look bad. They wanted the public to get the impression that he was incompetent or that he had a bad record. Since that time, I was doubtful, but since I could not prove things one way or the other, I had to live with my doubts.

Well, someone finally took the time and looked into Fred’s record to see how his record really stacked up and determined that he was actually quite successful as a prosecutor. My suspicions on the accuracy of the MSM report is justified, after all.

A blogger called Anwyn did some research and actually contacted the L.A. Times writer who basically called Thompson a hack lawyer and Anwyn found that Thompson’s record actually showed a very competent man.

After describing how hard it was to come by the info, Anwyn contacted the L.A. Times guy to see if he had more than he let on in his report:

But Joe Mathews of the L.A. Times does have the numbers at his fingertips, after two weeks of digging 35-year-old files out of their boxes in Georgia for his article. And to my surprise and gratitude, he was willing to share them.

He broke them down by numbers of defendants, so there are more than 88 defendants because there were multiple defendants in various individual cases. In total, 88 cases covered 115 defendants, 34 of whom were moonshiners, 21 of whom were counterfeiters, and 17 of whom were bank robbers. The remainder (43) were various other crimes.

Out of 115, nine never stood in Thompson’s district either because they were never captured, were found dead, or were transferred to a different federal district. So we’ll subtract those nine. That leaves 106.

Out of 106, 12 found the charges against them dropped, 66 defendants pleaded guilty or no contest without going to trial, and 28 went to trial. Of the 28 who went to trial, 22 were found guilty, leaving six who were not convicted.

These numbers suggest that Thompson was a completely solid, if not shining, prosecutor. Of course, you could also draw that conclusion by the very fact of his having served as a prosecutor for three years–incompetence is not encouraged at that level by continued employment, one would suppose and hope. Of the 12 cases thrown out, at least two were the direct result of an error of Thompson’s. Joe Mathews:

Well, now, that is a whole different kettle of fish than the “he’s incompetent” claim, eh?

Once again, a little time taken to really investigate the facts … you know, the what, who, when, and where that the MSM claims is their sacred duty to report… proves that an MSM story is filled with spin, lies, and agenda journalism.

Obviously these so-called journalists assume that no one will be able to take the time to follow up on the facts so they imagine that they can pass off their political agenda as “news.” Only, this time they were caught. But, isn’t that why the Internet so threatens the traditional, dead tree media?

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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston