Claims should be questioned

Mr. Doyen (Letters, Jan. 14) takes accusations and presents them as facts.

The actions he refers to supposedly happened during the D.C. tea party rally on March 10. Members of the Black Congressional Caucus reported they were spat upon and had racial epithets hurled at them.

As shown on TV, when this incident supposedly happened there was a Capitol Police officer within five feet of where it happened and he did nothing. Why? Because the incident didn’t happen as described. TV cameras, radio stations and who knows how many cell phones recorded the event; none of these picked up any racial epithets.

Mr. Doyen believes that Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck have the market cornered on inflammatory rhetoric. I suggest that he listens to the vile words that come from Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann before he makes that decision.

Mr. Doyen’s biggest error, however, is that he presents a deeply disturbed young man, who acquaintances say had no political bent, as someone provoked by right-wing words to do this terrible thing. There is absolutely no proof of that. Sometimes people are just unbalanced.

By presenting accusations as truth, Mr. Doyen is perpetuating the very thing he purports to despise.

K.L. Edgren

Spokane