David Pleasant

The New York Times has a good piece on the brouhaha that has erupted over Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. The piece focuses on how “the arrest is fueling an often emotional dialogue on Web sites and blogs.” Five years ago, an article with this thesis would not be on or near the top of The Times Web site.

It makes a big statement about the power of the Intertubes. The press, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, was to provide for and ensure two-way communications. For all practical purposes, the press had devolved into a one-way communication medium, at best. The Intertubes ended that.

Welcome to the new media.

Notwithstanding the fact that Sgt. James Crowley does not have standing, his threat of a defamation lawsuit tells me everything I need to know about the guy.

Alan McDonald, who represents Crowley, the veteran cop who teaches a racial profiling class for rookie police officers told ABC News earlier that the sergeant had not ruled out filing a defamation of character or libel lawsuit.

"He is exploring all of his options,” McDonald told ABC News.

Just a little hot-headed, huh? Joe the Plumber is starting to look like a model of civility, wisdom and intellect.

Late Update: Makes you wonder who started pushing the idea of a lawsuit, doesn’t it? Is it possible that the instigator’s initials are GOP?

I just watched the press conference (video) that the Superior Officers Association and the Patrol Officers Association held on behalf of Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department, with respect to the brouhaha that has erupted over the alleged racial profiling of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The statements made at the conference were replete with contradictions, one of which I would like to focus on.

I don’t know who the spokesman was leading the press conference, he did not give his name. Dennis O’Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, lead the press conference. Interestingly enough, he said the Cambridge police department had cleared Sgt. Crowley of any wrongdoing and declared his actions “consistent with local and national standards of police practice.” If that is indeed a fact, then why were the charges against Professor Gates dropped? If Gates broke the law, as Sgt. Crowley alleged, then shouldn’t Gates be charged with the crime?

The “finding” reported by the spokesman are not supported by the police department’s subsequent actions or they are simply not following the rule of law.

It’s hard to weigh in on this issue without knowing all the facts, and President Obama may have served himself better if he had not weighed in so heavily on the matter as well. However, this is far more about media hype than anything, in my opinion.

If you watched Mika Brzezinski bloviating for three hours about this today on Morning Joe, you know exactly what I mean by media hyping. Mika seized this issue to carry out a non-stop assault on President Obama and then pitched a hissy fit when viewers expressed their outrage at her through emails. She was being attacked!!! People were “hacking into her email!!!”

Feh!

There is one thing to remember, which Mika Brzezinski totally ignored: just because a police officer writes something on a report, it does not by any means make it a fact and indisputable.