CAN WE TALK: Al Gore was told to stay in his car at the Salem witch trials!

THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013!

Part 4—Piers Morgan knew all along: A remarkable event occurred last night on Piers Morgan’s CNN program.

Halley’s comet is visible every 75 years. That’s roughly how often you get to see this type of TV event.

Here’s what happened:

Good God! One of Morgan’s guests corrected the Iconic Fake Fact which virtually defines the discussion of the Zimmerman case. And when his guest corrected this bogus fact, Morgan and his other guests quickly said she was right!

This created an obvious impression: Morgan may have known all along that this factual claim was bogus.

What is an Iconic Fake Fact? Almost all our modern-day pundit witch trials have one. We refer to the bogus factual claims the nation’s pundits recite most often—the fake claim which defines the village’s case against some modern-day witch.

Here are six Iconic Fake Facts drawn from the years of this site:

Six (or eight) Iconic Fake Facts:
(1) Bill Clinton had an affair with “a 21-year-old intern.”
(2) We now know that Gennifer Flowers was telling the truth.
(3) Al Gore said he invented the Internet/inspired Love Story/discovered Love Canal.
(4) Joe Wilson debunked the 16 words.
(5) Mitt Romney drove to Canada with a dog strapped to the roof of his car.
(6) George Zimmerman was told to stay in his truck.

There are many more fake facts, of course—and we’re ignoring all the fake facts pundits recite about policy matters. In our view, those are six (or eight) of the most dramatic Iconic Fake Facts concerning public personalities.

Last night, the impossible happened. The most recent of those fake facts was debunked on live TV! Here’s how the hit went down:

One of Morgan’s sociopathic-leaning guests had just repeated the current Iconic Fake Fact. It was perhaps the three millionth time this has occurred on Morgan’s iconic fake program.

But uh-oh! Morgan turned to former defense attorney Mel Robbins, a CNN/HLN contributor who often seems to know what she’s talking about. This unusual trait tends to create confusion on Morgan’s program.

Last night, though, Morgan quickly copped when Robbins corrected that “fact.” He gave the impression that he may have known the truth all along.

CNN doesn’t make much videotape available. For that reason, we have to give you the transcript as CNN presents it, without any opportunity to do any proof-reading.

But according to the official transcript, this is what happened after one of Morgan’s guests uttered the Iconic False Statement: George Zimmerman was told to stay in the car! This basically jibes with what we saw when we watched the program:

MORGAN (7/10/13): Mel, I can see you shaking your head vigorously. You've been in court. Why are you so aggressively “anti” that statement?

ROBBINS: I'll tell you why. First of all, he wasn't told to stay in his car. He was told that, “We don't need you to do that, sir.” And he—

MORGAN: I think we—let me clarify that. Let me clarify that because that's—

ROBBINS: It's true.

MORGAN: I can clarify that because I think that—Actually, exactly what happened was that Zimmerman had got out of his car and was trying—

ROBBINS: Correct.

MORGAN: —he said, to find the street name and it was at that point that he was asked, “Are you following?” And he said yes or whatever it is, and [then the dispatcher said] “We don't need you to do that.” But he was actually outside the car.

Morgan jumbled some of the facts, as is required on cable. But judging from that exchange, Morgan may have known all along that Zimmerman was already out of his car and following Trayvon Martin when the police dispatcher told him, “We don’t need you to do that.”

Zimmerman was already out of his car! This fact is quite clear from the text and the tape of his non-emergency phone call.

This fact became quite clear last year. But America’s pundits have spent the last year repeating a different, fake fact.

It isn’t the biggest deal in the world. It doesn't mean that Zimmerman has to be found not guilty. But no, Virginia: George Zimmerman wasn’t told to stay in his car! And yet, that is perhaps the most sacred Fake Fact in the large collection of ginned-up claims which drive this ginned-up discussion.

George Zimmerman was told to stay in the car! In the pundit corps' current witch trial, that Iconic False Statement takes the place of their earlier hit, “Al Gore said he invented the Internet.” It’s the bogus fact all pundits repeat as they work to make the case against the current witch sound stronger.

(Quick note: When sociopaths start dunking witches, this is always the way they do it. They’ve always dunked their witches this way. As Woody Guthrie wrote about Pretty Boy Floyd: “Every crime in Oklahoma was added to his name.”)

This is the way the sociopaths went after black people in the Old South. (Just reread To Kill A Mockingbird.) This is the way the sociopaths perform on cable today.

Back to last night’s appearance of Halley’s comet:

Morgan had invited several ethically challenged guests to help him discuss the case—and Morgan himself seemed perfectly happy to let his guests invent facts. Even after Robbins corrected that Iconic Fake Fact, criminal defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau offered this astonishing statement, without a word of challenge:

MESEREAU (7/10/13): Well, Piers, I don't practice in Florida, but I have to believe there's going to be a jury instruction on causation. In other words, if you commit a crime, you have to—there has to be a causation element proven. In other words, you have to have caused what the crime was. And I have to believe these prosecutors are going to look at the jury and say, “Is it a Florida law allows someone to profile someone, disobey police instructions, bring a deadly weapon with them, confront someone, threaten them, assault them, and then, when they respond, shoot them dead?

“Is that self-defense in Florida? Ladies and gentlemen, you're going to decide that question.” And I suspect it's not so simple.

MORGAN: Let’s take a short break.

As is required on cable, Mesereau’s statement didn’t quite parse. He seemed to conflate the judge’s possible jury instruction with the prosecutor’s possible closing statement.

But in that remarkable presentation, Mesereau seemed to assert all kinds of “facts not in evidence.” He seemed to assert that Zimmerman disobeyed police instructions, then confronted Martin, threatened Martin and assaulted Martin.

We know of very little evidence that those actions occurred. Those claims surely hasn’t been proven. But throughout the program, Morgan kept letting Mesereau make these highly aggressive assertions.

Morgan never noted the fact that these claims haven't been proven. He never asked Mesereau to defend or support his claims.

What kind of people behave this way? Partial answer: This is how people behaved at the Salem witch trials. In the modern age, it’s the way our “journalists” behaved when they started asserting, in unison, “We now know that Gennifer Flowers was telling the truth.”

That claim about Flowers was simply insane, but “journalists” stood in line to recite it. (Frank Rich was the biggest such clown.) And in the past year, “journalists” have stood in line to repeat another fake fact:

George Zimmerman was told to stay in his truck! All pundits know they should say it!

George Zimmerman was told to stay in his truck! Endlessly, the claim has been stated and implied on Morgan’s show. As of last night, we’d never seen the brain-challenged host challenge or correct it.

Last night, it was Judge Glenda Hatchett who asserted the Iconic Fake Fact. Hatchett was a corporate attorney, then a clown of syndication. (She starred for nine years on her own clownish TV program, Judge Hatchett.)

First, we’ll show you Hatchett’s statement. Then, we’ll show you what she said when Robbins, cast as Halley’s comet, corrected her standardized groaner.

Below, you see Hatchett make the statement which Robbins would quickly correct:

HATCHETT: I tell you, Tom [Mesereau] has just articulated so perfectly. This is a man who was told to stay in the car. He has a weapon. I believe he confronted him. The question is going to really become whether the prosecution has proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt. But there is no question in my mind that he was the aggressor and, in my mind, he has lost the right to say he was self-defending himself if he is the one who's the aggressor in the situation.

And you're right, Trayvon then also has rights in this matter. And this is a very complicated case and it's going to be very interesting to see what the jury ends up doing with this.

MORGAN: Mel, I can see you shaking your head vigorously. You've been in court. Why—why are you so aggressively “anti” that statement?

“This is a man who was told to stay in the car.” Top pundits know they should start with that claim, even though it’s false.

To her credit, Hatchett was willing to say that she only believes that Zimmerman confronted Martin. But Morgan never asked her to say why she believes that. And trust us:

If not for Robbins, Morgan himself would never have corrected Hatchett’s groaner.

What did Hatchett do when Robbins corrected her groaner? Because CNN is stingy with videotape, we can’t proofread the official transcript. But that transcript provides the gist of what we saw when we watched last night’s program.

Instantly, Hatchett accepted correction! Do you believe, for even one minute, that she had simply misspoken?

MORGAN: I can clarify that because I think that—Actually, exactly what happened was that Zimmerman had got out of his car and was trying—

ROBBINS: Correct.

MORGAN: —he said, to find the street name. And it was at that point that he was asked, “Are you following?” And he said yes, or whatever it is, and, “We don't need you to do that.” But he was actually outside the car.

HATCHETT: Right.

MORGAN: So that is just one distinction we got.

HATCHETT: Correct.

MORGAN: I was under the mistaken impression—

HATCHETT: And my point is actually—but it's an important one. It's a very important one.

(CROSSTALK)

HATCHETT: And I agree, and I stand corrected on that point. But my point is, had he stayed in the car, had he followed the instructions not to follow him, we would not have a dead 17-year-old and that is the reality.

Instantly, Hatchett accepted correction. She then restated her “point.”

This time, she simply assumed an important fact, a fact which hasn’t been proven. She simply assumed that Zimmerman kept following Martin despite what the dispatcher said.

Zimmerman says that isn’t true. Based on where the fight occurred, he may well be telling the truth. Hatchett asserted something different. Morgan never asked why.

Here’s our first question for the day: Do you believe that Hatchett and Morgan were acting in good faith last night?

Hatchett was never asked to explain why she made that Standard False Statement. Do you think she simply misspoke, as she seemed to imply?

Really? You really believe that?

Regarding Morgan: Morgan never asked Hatchett or Mesereau to support the claim that Zimmerman kept following Martin after the dispatcher’s comment. Was Morgan acting in good faith when he kept failing to do that?

Let us give you an alternate view of what may have happened last night. This alternate view takes us back to the days of the Salem witch trials.

When witch trials get started on this earth, two things happen quite quickly. The demons start inventing bogus facts to strengthen their case against the witch. And they discard the accurate facts which tend to cast doubt on their claims.

Everyone else just sits around and lets these sociopaths do this. Last night, for the three millionth time, you saw a gang behaving this way on Piers Morgan’s program.

We wish we could link you to the tape. CNN doesn’t seem eager to let you review the things Br’er Morgan does.

Tomorrow: Kitty Genovese died for George Zimmerman’s sins! Two iconic tales from the New York Times

Saturday: The talented Mr. Capehart