There is an interesting account of the recent controversy at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va. from the father of White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders that has gone largely unreported. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has claimed that Stephanie Wilkinson “organized” a group to follow Sanders and her family to a nearby restaurant to scream at them. That is strikingly different from Wilkinson’s account and the account being offered in the media that Wilkinson politely asked Sanders to leave and nothing more. The many stories lionizing Wilkinson have cited her “passive” protest as proof of her “leadership.” If true, the account magnifies the rude and uncivil conduct of Wilkinson and it is clearly material to the story. Yet, only a few conservative sites have carried Huckabee’s account.
Huckabee stated on Fox:
“In fact, a little known part of this story, is that after Sarah and her husband left and the family relocated to a restaurant across the street, the owner of the Red Hen then organized an effort to go and scream at them from the sidewalk at the other restaurant,
Finally, one of Sarah’s in-laws, who happens to be very liberal, it’s her brother-in-law, went out in the street and said, ‘Look, Sarah’s already left. She didn’t stay for obvious reasons. She’s had all she needs tonight. The rest of us are trying to have dinner. I’m a liberal. I’m not a Trump supporter. But you guys aren’t helping our cause,’” Huckabee went on to say. “So, it wasn’t just what happened in the Little Red Hen restaurant, it’s what happened ongoing by the owner of that restaurant.”
Wilkinson previously told The Washington Post that “I’m not a huge fan of confrontation. I have a business, and I want the business to thrive.” The disconnect between these accounts is rather glaring. Following Sanders and her family to another restaurant (and prompting the intervention of a self-described liberal) would paint a very different picture from past coverage on Wilkinson’s judgment and conduct.
The failure to add this critical information to coverage does raise a question of bias. It is a materially different story on the actions of this restaurant owner if she first told Sanders and her family to leave and then led a group to harass the family at someone else’s restaurant.
This story has (and continues to) captivate the country with coverage on all of the networks and cable news programs. If Huckabee’s account is true it is news. If it is untrue it is news. So why has it received so little coverage?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-restaurant-trump-supporter-teahouse-1.4728720
Another fanatic in food service. (He has a social media trail. If you guessed he’s explicitly homosexual, you’re right).
Snopes has investigated. Calls Huckabee’s statements “mostly false.”
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/huckabee-sanders-red-hen-protest/
Thanks, terry.
The people who operate Snopes don’t do independent reporting. They can only collate what they gin up on the internet. It’s this sort of that has cost them their reputation.
DDS – the owners of Snopes are getting a divorce. I am wondering who gets what is left of their truth in the final settlement?
One of Snopes’ fact finders was a former Democratic Congressional candidate.
The Washington Post has joyfully awarded “Pinocchios” to prominent people who’ve said things that weren’t so before. It’s perhaps the only thing the Post does entirely even-handedly.
And yet, the Post hasn’t awarded Gov. Huckabee even one Pinocchio for saying that Wilkinson left her place of business with others to follow Mrs. Sanders and her party to the next place where they tried to have breakfast.
You’d think the national press would be salivating at the chance to humiliate Gov. Huckabee and his daughter over a misstatement of fact in this month’s press cycle. If nothing else, that sort of thing sells ad space.
I have to agree that Gov. Huckabee’s account is likely true. The moral tale of poor, brave Stephanie Wilkinson, who just wants to provide George Will and other lip-smackers a place to breakfast in the absence of Mr. Trump’s press secretary and her family, would be ruined by reports that Wilkinson followed a mother and her kids to scream at them even after they’d left her restaurant. So those reports just won’t happen.
The Lutheran Study Bible is based on the ESV (“Thus by their fruits you will recognize them”), with commentary that “fruits” does not refer to good deeds, but to teaching and preaching. “One can identify false prophets by what they teach, especially about the person and mission of Jesus.”