Back in 1996 when the internet was still a novelty, the media created a firestorm that sucked all the momentum out of the campaign of  a conservative candidate for the US senate who had jumped to an erroneous conclusion about a vocal critic.  Illinois US Senate candidate Al Salvi, then age 36,  had been accused of being too radical for Illinois because, among many charges, he vocally supported the Second Amendment. 

Based on some on-line research by supporters, Salvi's campaign countered with the claim that a prominent Republican who had endorsed his opponent Dick Durbin was engaged in rank hypocrisy, that nationally known gun control advocate James Brady actually held a federal gun dealer license.   The media derision for the Salvi campaign's failure to consider that the licensed gun dealer might be a different  person named James Brady was unrelenting.  Someone who made that dumb of a mistake was simply not qualified to be in any position of authority. 

Why do I suspect that in 2012 the media will not be rushing to condemn one of their own, Brian Ross, for an equally boneheaded rush to judgment about someone in the Tea Party who happens to share the same name as accused Aurora Colorado shooter James Holmes?