After doubling down, tripling down, and quadrupling down on the Newtown heckling hoax, conservative-turned-liberal David Frum has finally backed down. Sort of.
Earlier this morning, he posted a response to Twitchy and other critics who criticized him for repeatedly pushing the false “heckling” narrative:
My answer to #tcot and Twitchy about Neil Heslin and those who shouted at him thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/…
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) January 30, 2013
Following Slate, The Week, Anderson Cooper, and many others, Frum conceded that no heckling occurred at Monday’s gun control hearing in Connecticut:
[I]n retrospect, I’ll concede this: the CTPost‘ s use of the word “heckling” was misjudged, and it was not the right word for me to have repeated.
He also acknowledged that MSNBC edited its video in a way that distorted what happened:
I didn’t see and wasn’t influenced by the MSNBC video, but I’ll agree: it was edited too tightly and in a way that made treatment of Neil Heslin look worse than it was.
About an hour later, Frum posted this tweet accusing Twitchy founder/owner Michelle Malkin of being “sociopathic”:
We need to keep in mind the distinction between what is politically conservative and what is merely sociopathic. twitter.com/michellemalkin…
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) January 30, 2013
The link didn’t work, but Frum was undaunted. He returned to Twitter to post the correct link:
Corrected link: twitter.com/michellemalkin…
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) January 30, 2013
Here’s the tweet that has him hot and bothered:
.@piersmorgan @davidfrum You execrable hacks. No fair-minded person can watch FULL vid & keep lying like you do. twitchy.com/2013/01/29/out…
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) January 30, 2013
On the one hand, Michelle Malkin correctly noted that no heckling occurred. She criticized liberal “journalists” who continued to propagate the heckling myth even hours after Twitchy posted the unedited video.
On the other hand, David Frum repeatedly defended his bogus “heckling” characterization, falsely accused those who called him out of condoning the heckling of a grieving father, and likened those who disagreed with him to rape apologists.
Clearly, someone needs help from a mental health professional, but we assure you it’s not Twitchy’s founder.
