The right-wing media simply will not shut up about the Great Brian Ross Upfuck. If you have somehow managed to miss this uproar, here's what happened:

The morning after the "Batman" massacre, Brian Ross of ABC News made an on-air statement which he corrected 2 1/2 hours later. The initial report was technically accurate. Ross noted that there was a James Holmes in Aurora who was a member of the Tea Party, and he went on to stipulate that he (Ross) had not yet verified that the Tea Partier was the same fellow caught at the scene of the crime.

Yes, his reportage was irresponsible: A professional journalist should not imply such an inflammatory association until he has obtained confirmation. But on a strict "word-for-word" level, Ross did not say anything untrue.

The mistake -- if we can call it that -- stood for less than three hours. Yet here it is four days later and the rightwingers are still caterwauling as though they've been skinned alive.

Now let's look at how conservatives respond to the most recent Politico story on Ross's boo boo:

The shooter was a registered democrat, involved with the OWS movement and a proud obama supporter. When ABC within hours of the shooting tried to connect him to the Tea Party they had to admit their mistake shortly afterwards but it was never mentioned then or since then that I have seen that he was a registered democrat and obama voter and a lefty OWS nutjob. What a surprise.

The comments on Politico and on other sites reveal that the Holmes/OWS meme has become unkillable. The damned thing is everywhere. But does the claim come backed by any evidence? Nope. None whatsoever. 

Ross corrected himself rather rapidly, yet this news site will probably never correct this headline:

More signs point to James E. Holmes having been Occupy 'Black Bloc' member

And just what are these "signs"? Writer Dean Chambers favors us with a beautiful example of antilogic:

Yet the most strident denials of this reportage seem to come almost entirely from the political left. More objective sources as well as blogs and web sites on the right seem to assert Holmes was a member of the group.

Even the Joker would yell "WTF?" in response to such nonsense. There isn't a single "objective source" backing up the OWS claim. When you track this story down to its origin point, we always come back to a right-wing fruitcake named Bill Warren, a private dick in Florida. We have discussed Warren in our previous post. Even he admits that he has no evidence, just surmise.

Headline in a California newspaper:

ABC News Claims Movie Shooter "Tea Party", Ignores OWS Ties

The OWS assertion goes unchallenged in this Yahoo Q&A.

Free Republic does not disappoint:

Here are a few things the Good Morning America writer left out: the "Black Bloc" is an ultra-violent faction of the OWS movement. James Holmes was apparently dressed in Black Bloc-type attire during the rampage.

Now there's logic for you.

Although I am hardly a fan of the Black Bloc crew (I suspect some of them to be police infiltrators), I've seen no evidence that they are "ultra violent." Holmes was not dressed in "Black Bloc-type attire;" he wore SWAT-style gear. The Black Bloc folks dress in normal clothing colored black. So do goth chicks, priests and beat poets. So, from time to time, do I. (When I wear black, people ask if I've lost weight. Always nice to hear.)

Here is a self-proclaimed Right, Wing-Nut:

After the spate of baseless accusations claiming Aurora gunman James Holmes was a member of the Tea Party,. I hesitate to report on speculation.  However, should the connection between Holmes and OWS bear out, the media will frantically try to cover it up,  so as to protect themselves and other Occupy supporters such as Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.

Obama and Pelosi supported OWS...?  So I guess all those stories about the White House coordinating the police crackdown were imaginary?

Can we really talk about a spate of baseless accusations if one (1) reporter made a misleading (but technically correct) statement, then corrected himself a mere two-and-a-half hours later? If that's a spate, then I must ask you to define the word "spate."

As one of my exes might have put: These righties love to do the martyrella routine. They never hesitate to assume the "false underdog" position.

The "Defeat Barack Obama" website simultaneously screeches at the injustice of the Ross error while asking:

Was James Holmes the Aurora Shooter and an OWS Supporter?

What hypocrisy!

Another one of those Q&A pages asks:

Why did James Holmes participate in the OWS protests in San Diego?

Turns out he did nothing of the sort. As a source for the OWS claim, the poster links to this news story -- which, of course, mentions nothing about OWS.

Townhall:

Records were obtained by Breitbart News saying Holmes registered as a Democrat on June 14, 2011.
This really shouldn't shock you!!! The left has a long history of violent protest to obtain their objective which they can't get anyone else to go along with!!! Kill everyone to save the Planet in their minds is the right thing to do!!! Surprise!!!

The Breitbarters later admitted that they were in error. They claim to be more accurate than the "lamestream media," yet their error was, in fact, worse than the one Ross made. The actual words that Ross said were technically accurate. The Breitbarters just plain lied.

Of course, the left does not have a "long history of violent protest." The right does. Who destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City? Was it not the "Sons of Gestapo" who derailed that train in Arizona? Has everyone forgotten Milton William Cooper, the right-wing radio broadcaster who shot a cop in Arizona? How about Anders Breivik? I could go on for quite some time...

Also from Townhall:

There is also some evidence that a man named James Holmes - same birthdate - was arrested in San Diego at an OWS rally. OWS has since taken down the page with his blog, however.

The "censored OWS blog" is an oft-heard urban legend. There is no such page. Hell, there is no true "official" OWS website! (This site officially claims to be unofficial.) OWS is a leaderless, structure-free movement without a hierarchy and without a list of members.

Here come the Alex Jonesians:

There are some reports coming out that the alleged shooter of the Aurora, Co movie theater is a Occupy Wall Street Black Bloc member.  This information coming from a Private Investigator, Bill Warner.

If it is a fact that James Holmes is a member of the OWS Black Bloc, it would seem that the authorities would have picked up on Holmes’ activity prior to this alleged rampage?

Radio Free NJ falsely associated James "Joker" Holmes with someone of a similar name who sang a song in an OWS video. Fortunately, the same blogger apologized when he realized his mistake. Good on him. So why isn't ABC's apology acceptable?

One can cite many more examples. If you go to Google and type "James Holmes OWS," 369,000 results will appear.

My point here is not to made excuses for Ross's lack of professionalism. As I've said a number of times, I don't like the guy. (Deborah Jeane Palfrey told me never to trust Brian Ross. Long story there.)

But the time has come for decent people to tell the righties to come off it. ABC corrected itself two and half hours later, yet the right-wingers are still screaming about the matter four days later. Enough with the martyrella routine!

I fear that the wingnuts will continue to spread the OWS smear for months to come, gleefully heedless of the hypocrisy factor. The Radio Free NJ fellow referenced above did the honorable thing, but aside from him, none of the wackos listed above have admitted error. In the alternate media universe of the conservative movement, the OWS smear will probably stand as an institutionalized pseudo-truth. In that universe, reality becomes Silly Putty and hypocrisy rises to the level of psychopathology.