The Kenneth Gladney joke comes to an end:
t took a St. Louis County jury less than 50 minutes to return a not guilty verdict in the assault trial featuring Kenneth Gladney and two union members who were charged with attacking him outside a two hall event during the tumultuoussummer of 2009.
The altercation itself was regrettable and was over almost before it began: the type of heated scuffle that happens countless times everyday in this crowded country, and everyday people move on with their lives.
But because this particular clash was captured on tape, and because Tea Party members went bonkers hyping it, and because right-wing media carnival barkers like Dana Loesch and Andrew Breitbart operate with no moral compass, the Gladney story blew up overnight and became a (demented) cause celebre among hardcore conservatives who hatched a weird fantasy about run-away union violence in America, not withstanding what was captured on the Gladney tape.
It’s difficult to capture just how madly the right-wing media overreacted to this story, doing its best to blow it up into a seismic, Rodney King-type of event. Fox News aired at least 20 segments mentioning Gladney, according to Nexis. Glenn Beck obsessed over the story. Breitbart penned a “I Am Kenneth Gladney” column in solidarity for the Washington Times. And CNN’s Lou Dobbs played dumb on the massive scale while hosting Gladney.
I was at the event, but had left a little bit before this all happened. From what I could piece together from talking to people there, it was probably a slap fight that got out of hand and essentially mutual combat by slap fight. Joy.
It was at this event I realized how out of control some of this was getting. I posted some videos here and here
There were two problems who were liberals outside in the demonstration area and a few of asked one of them to leave. She was later arrested. I’ve maybe seen that kind of anger at some abortion protests, but violence breaking out even in the form of a slap fight was fairly inevitable.