By Matthew Sheffield
March 29, 2012
NewsBusters:
Formerly relevant comedian Roseanne Barr has become the second leftist entertainment celebrity to threaten the family of George Zimmerman, the accused shooter in the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin by posting the home address of his parents on Twitter.
While she quickly deleted her tweet after an onslaught of criticism by her 110,000+ followers, Barr continued to defend her action, stating that it "was good to let ppl know that no one can hide anymore." She also threatened to repeat the malicious tweet later: "If Zimmerman isn’t arrested I’ll rt his address again." She added, "maybe go 2 his house myself."
As of this writing, Barr has still refused to say that she had done something wrong by posting the address.
As reported by the Smoking Gun, Barr had forwarded a tweet from a Twitter user who seems to do nothing but disseminate personal information of Zimmerman and people who defend him.
Since the confrontation he had with Martin earlier this month, Zimmerman has gone into hiding. His father has confirmed to the press that the family has received multiple death threats from enraged inviduals upset that his son has not been charged with a crime.
Despite initially defending her thuggish tweet, Barr eventually backed off, saying that "vigilante-ism is what killed Trayvon. I don’t support that."
The former sitcom star did not say why she had bothered to direct readers to the Zimmerman house if that was really an accurate summary of her beliefs but was at great pains in subsequent tweet to state that she was "non-violent." Later, Barr retweeted a message that defended her, claiming that she was talking about protesting at Zimmerman's parents' house, not directing people to commit acts of violence. At this writing, Barr has not directly claimed that was her intention, though.
Barr's indirect threat against Zimmerman's family makes her the second celebrity to indirectly tell malicious fans to harm Zimmerman or his family. Earlier this week, radical filmmaker Spike Lee also retweeted what he believed was the address of Zimmerman's parents but was actually the home of an elderly couple unrelated to him. Since his message, the couple have feared for their lives and have reported receiving suspicious mail from strangers.
Lee also deleted the malicious tweet and later said he was wrong to have sent out the address of the couple. He did not, however, apologize to the Zimmerman family:
"I Deeply Apologize To The McClain Family For Retweeting Their Address.It Was A Mistake.Please Leave The McClain's In Peace.Justice In Court"
Since that time, Lee has not made any additional tweets. After an online firestorm about his comments broke out, Lee has reached a settlement with the couple to stave off a potential lawsuit after they were forced out of their home following his tweeting of their address.
Legacy media journalists are, for the most part, ignoring both Barr and Lee's threats, MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing has tried to spin Lee's tweet as merely a "Twitter error," not speaking at all about his malicious intentions.
Both Lee and Barr are guilty of violating the Twitter terms of service which clearly state that posting the addresses of other individuals is prohibited. Don't count on either has-been getting banned for their infraction..
Hat tip: John Nolte.
No comments:
Post a Comment