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A young woman dies, and a national columnist sees only an opportunity to peddle fake news

The editorial page in the T-R on Aug. 29 featured an article authored by columnist Connie Schultz entitled, “A young woman dies, and Republicans see only a road to victory”; hence, my response entitled, “A young woman dies, and a national columnist sees only an opportunity to peddle fake news.”

The focus of the article is the murder of Mollie Tibbetts.

Schultz provides a quote from Gov. Kim Reynolds: “We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community…”

Then she quotes Vice President Mike Pence: “We commend the swift action by local, state and federal investigators working in Iowa in apprehending an illegal immigrant, who’s now charged with first degree murder. Now justice will be served. We will never forget Mollie Tibbetts.”

Next she quotes U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton: “Mollie would be alive if our government had taken immigration enforcement seriously years ago.”

Then Schultz (thus far in the article employing “long-standing newspaper style” protocol addressing elected officials with their title and full name on first mention in a newspaper article, but now conspicuously flouting protocol addressing the sitting president of the United States of America) declares: “Trump, who never tires of baiting the racists in his crowds, alluded to Tibbetts’ murder at his Tuesday rally in West Virginia: ‘You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico. And you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman. Should’ve never happened.'”

Then Schultz states, “It is racist to blame an entire population of non-white people for the crime of one.”

Ms. Schultz, none of the officials you quoted expressed such blame. Only a mind compromised by impaired analytical skills could conclude otherwise.

Connie Schultz has an extensive background as a writer and journalist, teaches journalism at Kent State University and is a Pulitzer Prize-winning nationally syndicated columnist. How startling that one with advantages of training, experience and credentials would display such an appalling lack of professional, intellectual and moral integrity.

Fake news is the end result of those in the media abusing their guaranteed First Amendment right to disseminate truth in protection of the American citizenry, by choosing instead, to engage in deceitfully producing and peddling a defective and corrupt product, i.e., dangerous propagandistic trash.

Obviously, not all are guilty.

But as President Donald Trump says, “You know who you are.”

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