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http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2013/01/18/ben-swanns-sandy-hook-video-goes-viral/
Ben Swann’s Sandy Hook video goes viral
01/18/13 at 3:06pm by John Kiesewetter 0 Comments
Another Fox 19 anchor is creating a big a buzz on social media. Ben Swann’s YouTube report questioning the police account of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has gone viral.
Fox 19 co-anchors Ben Swann and Tricia Macke
In the video, posted on his three-month-old “Full Disclosure” YouTube channel and Facebook page, the Fox 19 anchor says “there’s a good reason to question the whole (police) narrative” that Adam Lanza acted alone. (Most reporters covering the massacre might strongly disagree.)
Viewed more than 112,000 times since Jan. 3, Swann’s “Reality Check”-style video also explains his doubts about whether a lone gunman did the Colorado movie theater shooting in July and Wisconsin Sikh temple attack in August. He says he’s just doing what a journalist does – asking questions.
“In all three of these cases, there isn’t just wild speculation that maybe there was more than one shooter,” Swann says while showing aerial video of an unidentified person running from Sandy Hook school after the shooting. The video is called “Full Disclosure: CO, WI, CT shootings… Are These The Work Of “Lone Wolf” Gunmen?”
“There’s been no evidence so far – no evidence provided by the police other than what they’ve told us – that there is only one shooter here,” he says on the video. He asks authorities to release Sandy Hook school surveillance video to “prove it was one person.”
Many of the views came after a Monday Salon.com story called “Sandy Hook truther-reporter?” which asks: “Does questioning the media and police’s account of the Sandy Hook massacre go too far?”
The Salon story and Swann’s video have been mentioned in blog posts about the Sandy Hook “truther” movement (those who say the school shooting was a hoax) and blogs about a harrassed Sandy Hook school neighbor who sheltered six children that conspiracy theorists claimed was an actor in the hoax.
While Swann admits he has questions about the Sandy Hook events that day, he’s always accepted the fact that 26 people were killed. He’s even debunked some Sandy Hook myths, including exposing the hoax saying actors played roles in the shooting.
“To say I’m a ‘truther’ is nonsense, because I’ve already debunked some of the info out there,” Swann told me in a phone conversation. Due to “two or three degrees of separation” from the truther blogs, “I’ve morphed into the reporter who thinks the whole thing is a hoax. It’s guilt by association,” he told me.
He put it this way on Facebook this week: “Amazing how a journalist can be demonized for asking questions. I noticed that there are attempts to lump me in with those who are saying that there was no shooting at all. Please watch the Full Disclousure and if you want to question me, do so on the merits of the questions I asked.”
Another Swann Facebook post: “It is truly, deeply saddening to me how the smear machine works. There are a number of articles that are attempting to blame me to those who are “terrorizing the families of Sandy Hook victims.” The blame comes from a piece I did calling for surveillance video to be released from Colorado theater, and from Sandy Hook. BTW, a group of journalists and Colorado have called for the same thing… are they being smeared? The lawyer for 7 families suing Cinemark is asking for that (surveilance) video to no avail… is he being smeared? The timing of these multiple articles that link me to those claiming no children actually died and that the families are all actors are intellectually dishonest. And yet the people sending emails to my employer seem to be part of a bigger attempt to discredit and smear, not on the basis of MY story but on the basis of a Headline.”
Swann says his WXIX-TV bosses have taken less heat over his Sandy Hook “Full Disclosure” video than some of his other reports, including his “Reality Check” features three times a week on Channel 19. He’s received a lot of attention lately for challenging statistics cited by CNN host Piers Morgan comparing gun violence in the United Kingdom and the United States. (Here’s a link to that one.)
The 34-year-old Texas native, hired two years ago as Fox 19’s main co-anchor, says he started the independently produced “Full Disclosure” with the station’s permission in November (the same month co-worker Tricia Macke was suspended for her social media post calling Rachel Maddow an “angry young man” on her Facebook page).
Explains Swann: “There are so many stories, and so many people are contacting me with story ideas. The station allows me to do it. They have to adhere to (owner) Raycom’s journalistic standards.”
You might think Swann is crazy for questioning the Sandy Hook authorities’ account. But you must agree that it’s a journalist’s job to ask questions.
When I asked him if he still questions if Adam Lanza acted alone at Sandy Hook, Swann said: “I haven’t see any evidence that he WASN”T alone.”
Our conversation ended on this note: “I don’t believe there’s a huge conspiracy around Sandy Hook. But I’d question any story. That’s what you do as a journalist. We’ve got to ask questions and seek out answers.”
Ben Swann’s Sandy Hook video goes viral
01/18/13 at 3:06pm by John Kiesewetter 0 Comments
Another Fox 19 anchor is creating a big a buzz on social media. Ben Swann’s YouTube report questioning the police account of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has gone viral.
Fox 19 co-anchors Ben Swann and Tricia Macke
In the video, posted on his three-month-old “Full Disclosure” YouTube channel and Facebook page, the Fox 19 anchor says “there’s a good reason to question the whole (police) narrative” that Adam Lanza acted alone. (Most reporters covering the massacre might strongly disagree.)
Viewed more than 112,000 times since Jan. 3, Swann’s “Reality Check”-style video also explains his doubts about whether a lone gunman did the Colorado movie theater shooting in July and Wisconsin Sikh temple attack in August. He says he’s just doing what a journalist does – asking questions.
“In all three of these cases, there isn’t just wild speculation that maybe there was more than one shooter,” Swann says while showing aerial video of an unidentified person running from Sandy Hook school after the shooting. The video is called “Full Disclosure: CO, WI, CT shootings… Are These The Work Of “Lone Wolf” Gunmen?”
“There’s been no evidence so far – no evidence provided by the police other than what they’ve told us – that there is only one shooter here,” he says on the video. He asks authorities to release Sandy Hook school surveillance video to “prove it was one person.”
Many of the views came after a Monday Salon.com story called “Sandy Hook truther-reporter?” which asks: “Does questioning the media and police’s account of the Sandy Hook massacre go too far?”
The Salon story and Swann’s video have been mentioned in blog posts about the Sandy Hook “truther” movement (those who say the school shooting was a hoax) and blogs about a harrassed Sandy Hook school neighbor who sheltered six children that conspiracy theorists claimed was an actor in the hoax.
While Swann admits he has questions about the Sandy Hook events that day, he’s always accepted the fact that 26 people were killed. He’s even debunked some Sandy Hook myths, including exposing the hoax saying actors played roles in the shooting.
“To say I’m a ‘truther’ is nonsense, because I’ve already debunked some of the info out there,” Swann told me in a phone conversation. Due to “two or three degrees of separation” from the truther blogs, “I’ve morphed into the reporter who thinks the whole thing is a hoax. It’s guilt by association,” he told me.
He put it this way on Facebook this week: “Amazing how a journalist can be demonized for asking questions. I noticed that there are attempts to lump me in with those who are saying that there was no shooting at all. Please watch the Full Disclousure and if you want to question me, do so on the merits of the questions I asked.”
Another Swann Facebook post: “It is truly, deeply saddening to me how the smear machine works. There are a number of articles that are attempting to blame me to those who are “terrorizing the families of Sandy Hook victims.” The blame comes from a piece I did calling for surveillance video to be released from Colorado theater, and from Sandy Hook. BTW, a group of journalists and Colorado have called for the same thing… are they being smeared? The lawyer for 7 families suing Cinemark is asking for that (surveilance) video to no avail… is he being smeared? The timing of these multiple articles that link me to those claiming no children actually died and that the families are all actors are intellectually dishonest. And yet the people sending emails to my employer seem to be part of a bigger attempt to discredit and smear, not on the basis of MY story but on the basis of a Headline.”
Swann says his WXIX-TV bosses have taken less heat over his Sandy Hook “Full Disclosure” video than some of his other reports, including his “Reality Check” features three times a week on Channel 19. He’s received a lot of attention lately for challenging statistics cited by CNN host Piers Morgan comparing gun violence in the United Kingdom and the United States. (Here’s a link to that one.)
The 34-year-old Texas native, hired two years ago as Fox 19’s main co-anchor, says he started the independently produced “Full Disclosure” with the station’s permission in November (the same month co-worker Tricia Macke was suspended for her social media post calling Rachel Maddow an “angry young man” on her Facebook page).
Explains Swann: “There are so many stories, and so many people are contacting me with story ideas. The station allows me to do it. They have to adhere to (owner) Raycom’s journalistic standards.”
You might think Swann is crazy for questioning the Sandy Hook authorities’ account. But you must agree that it’s a journalist’s job to ask questions.
When I asked him if he still questions if Adam Lanza acted alone at Sandy Hook, Swann said: “I haven’t see any evidence that he WASN”T alone.”
Our conversation ended on this note: “I don’t believe there’s a huge conspiracy around Sandy Hook. But I’d question any story. That’s what you do as a journalist. We’ve got to ask questions and seek out answers.”
Ben Swann's approach to the story has been pretty much Alex Jones approach which is that there's a lot about the story that doesn't add up, but it's too early to call it a "false flag". And like Alex Jones, Ben Swann has been falsely accused of jumping to conclusions when all he's doing is raising legit questions.
