Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Thu, Apr 07 2005
Good, Bad And Indifferent
If there is no such thing as bad publicity for white supremacists then Matthew Hale should be thrilled. I wasn't there to cover it in person, so I've relied on reading the news from other journalists regarding his sentencing. I read in one story that he thought he should get no more than eight years of prison time after no crime was committed. If no crime was committed why would there be any jail time at all?
Other stories reported that Hale thought a conversation he had with FBI informant Tony Evola, in which Mr. Evola asked if they were going to "exterminate the rat", referred to a Jewish lawyer rather than to the judge. Does that mean he was not adverse to the idea of killing a lawyer rather than a judge? I hear a lot of rude jokes about killing all the lawyers, but if the man was interested in discouraging the taking of a human life it would seem that he gave very little indication of it in that particular conversation.
At least one news source said that Matthew Hale wiped away tears. Well, the idea that whole races of people are inferior beings is pretty sad, especially when you think about the way the so-called superior beings have been acting.
One newspaper said that Hale had once advocated that his followers take the law into their own hands. I guess he didn't read the whole law then. But he must have read a lot of it, since he studied law for so long.
As far as publicity goes, maybe the Washington Times carried the most telling article of all, not in its content, but in its placement. Hale's sentencing story appeared in a brief listing, barely edging out a couple of elephants on the move from Detroit to California.
Freedom of the press is a wonderful thing.
posted at: 08:30 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
If there is no such thing as bad publicity for white supremacists then Matthew Hale should be thrilled. I wasn't there to cover it in person, so I've relied on reading the news from other journalists regarding his sentencing. I read in one story that he thought he should get no more than eight years of prison time after no crime was committed. If no crime was committed why would there be any jail time at all?
Other stories reported that Hale thought a conversation he had with FBI informant Tony Evola, in which Mr. Evola asked if they were going to "exterminate the rat", referred to a Jewish lawyer rather than to the judge. Does that mean he was not adverse to the idea of killing a lawyer rather than a judge? I hear a lot of rude jokes about killing all the lawyers, but if the man was interested in discouraging the taking of a human life it would seem that he gave very little indication of it in that particular conversation.
At least one news source said that Matthew Hale wiped away tears. Well, the idea that whole races of people are inferior beings is pretty sad, especially when you think about the way the so-called superior beings have been acting.
One newspaper said that Hale had once advocated that his followers take the law into their own hands. I guess he didn't read the whole law then. But he must have read a lot of it, since he studied law for so long.
As far as publicity goes, maybe the Washington Times carried the most telling article of all, not in its content, but in its placement. Hale's sentencing story appeared in a brief listing, barely edging out a couple of elephants on the move from Detroit to California.
Freedom of the press is a wonderful thing.
posted at: 08:30 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
