PrintJanuary 12, 2011
Yet another example of media distortion in the Loughner case?
Among much else, AP journalists have uncovered the fact that Jared Loughner spent a brief period as a tagger in 2008. This practice led to one of his many confrontations with the law, when he was picked up for scrawling a "C" and "X" on a road sign. Loughner told the cops who arrested him that the letters represented "Christianity".
That's a puzzling story. We know from other testimony that Loughner was an offhand atheist, as so many of these types turn out to be, given to denigrating religious belief and making sarcastic comments about the Gospels. So why would he be running around drawing what he took for Christian symbols on traffic signs? It doesn't make sense. Unless...
Unless the otherwise unidentified "traffic sign" was in fact a STOP sign - which I'd be willing to bet green money is exactly what it was.
Do the wire services and papers have people going over stories to fix up this kind of thing, or is it the reporters who are responsible? Just wondering....
