Hate-talk show host Roger Hedgecock, in a Feb.1 Twitter exchange concerning his charge that the San Diego police chief wants to "disarm Americans within a generation", acknowledged the ongoing campaign on Daily Kos to hold him and other local talk show hosts accountable, labeling it a "smear". Soon after, Hedgecock blocked the campaign's Twitter account, causing it to be briefly suspended. As it turns out, the "disarm" story was written by a discredited right-wing journalist; it was debunked by Hedgecock's own radio station about the same time he was defending it. (The exchange is reprinted below and in a screenshot).
For most of the week, Hedgecock and other right wing pro-gun advocates have been charging San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne with seeking to "disarm Americans within a generation." After Hedgecock tweeted the charge again, I asked him to cite the source. Hedgecock instead asked for me to do the same, so I pointed out that no source has Lansdowne saying "disarm."
The origin of this faux-scandal is worth noting. The disreputable Breitbart.com is the source for that provocative word choice, and they cite a story in a new fake-news website called the Washington Guardian, in which Lansdowne never says "disarm" and is not even quoted directly: "Lansdowne said in the interview it may take a generation, but guns will eventually be taken off the streets through new laws." Incidentally, all articles to be found, whether on the "Washington Guardian", the jokey Examiner.com, or the local news station Sandiego6.com, are versions of the same article written by a certain Kimberly Dvorak. Dvorak has been accused of plagiarism and other fabrications while penning right wing pieces in conjuction with the anti-immigration extremists the San Diego Minutemen. And about the same time that Hedgecock was tweeting his defense of the story, his own station was debunking it (with Lansdowne clarifying that he was referring to assault weapons).
In the end, when asked if it was irresponsible to smear a police chief with such accusations without any proof, Hedgecock turned around and tweeted "you smear talk hosts all the time and fail to evidence it. Regards to Kos." Our campaign was then blocked from Hedgecock and other KFMB right wing hate-talk show hosts on Twitter and the account temporarily suspended.
The "fail to evidence" part is a laugh, of course. We use his own podcasts in our documentation of his hateful rhetoric and wild accusations. But the hat-tip to Daily Kos is appreciated, right?
San Diego Chief of Police: We Can Disarm Americans Within a Generation http://www.ijreview.com/... … San Diegans BEWARE @RogerHedgecock
HEDGECOCK: @ksdvm86 yes huge story, covered it a couple days ago!
Details
5h Lou Kermonet Lou Kermonet ?@LouKermonet
ME: @ksdvm86 @RogerHedgecock you're wrong. Landsdowne never said "disarm Americans" he said "guns off the street", i.e. street crimes
Details
2h RogerHedgecock RogerHedgecock ?@RogerHedgecock
HEDGECOCK @LouKermonet @ksdvm86 false
Details
1h Lou Kermonet Lou Kermonet ?@LouKermonet
ME: @RogerHedgecock @ksdvm86 "False"? Can you cite exact quote?
Details
48m RogerHedgecock RogerHedgecock ?@RogerHedgecock
HEDGECOCK @LouKermonet can you provide a quote
Details
37m Lou Kermonet Lou Kermonet ?@LouKermonet
ME: @RogerHedgecock I looked but no record of Lansdowne saying that. most original source is on ch.6: http://tinyurl.com/... it's fake news echo
Details
30m RogerHedgecock RogerHedgecock ?@RogerHedgecock
HEDGECOCK: @LouKermonet nice try.
Details
25m Lou Kermonet Lou Kermonet ?@LouKermonet
ME: @RogerHedgecock You smear our police chief and can't even cite a link that he said anything like that. Don't you think that's irresponsible?
Details
8m RogerHedgecock RogerHedgecock ?@RogerHedgecock
HEDGECOCK: @LouKermonet you smear talk hosts all the time and fail to evidence it. Regards to Kos..