Fox News is now actively concealing a link between an Alabama-based blogger repeatedly featured on the network as an expert and allegations of a domestic terrorist plot.
This morning on America's Newsroom, Fox News ran an extensive report on yesterday's arrest of four Georgia men accused of plotting an attack on federal employees and U.S. citizens using explosives, guns, and the biological toxin ricin. At the end of the segment, correspondent Jonathan Serrie pointed out that one of the defendants "allegedly cited the online novel Absolved, which discusses small groups of citizens attacking U.S. officials," with the defendant allegedly "saying that the attacks would be based on events in that novel."
Charging documents indeed state that accused plotter Frederick Thomas repeatedly cited as an inspiration the novel Absolved, in which underground militia fighters declare war on the federal government over gun control laws and same-sex marriage, leading to a second American revolution. But Fox's report neglected to mention the allegedly inspirational novel's author, who is no stranger to Fox viewers.
Indeed, the author, Mike Vanderboegh, has been mainstreamed by the network, which has repeatedly featured him as an expert on the ATF's failed Operation Fast and Furious. Fox has identified Vanderboegh as an "online journalist" and an "authority on the Fast and Furious investigation," and has consistently failed to acknowledge his extremist views, actions, and affiliations.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201111020009?frontpageMike Vanderboegh, the Alabama-based blogger and former militia leader whose novel Absolved allegedly inspired four Georgia men arrested yesterday over an alleged plot to kill numerous government officials, is denying any responsibility and lashing out at Media Matters and other outlets who reported on that story.
Vanderboegh also reports that he suspects that one of the alleged plotters, Frederick Thomas, had posted comments on Vanderboegh's blog.
In one post, Vanderboegh wrote:
My as-yet-unpublished novel Absolved, for the uninitiated, begins with the premise that the ATF, for political agenda reasons of their own, has staged a deadly raid on the wrong Alabama good old boy from Winston County and what happens in the unintended consequences of that stupidity. There is nothing in there about ricin, or terrorist attacks on civilians (unless you count the forces of the federal government) or deliberate targeting of innocents. And did I mention that it is FICTION?
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201111020013The author of an online novel cited by four Georgia men who allegedly sought to kill U.S. law enforcement officials and federal judges said his work has been misinterpreted.
Mike Vanderboegh, of Pinson, Ala., said his novel, "Absolved," which is set to be published in book form later this year, was "intended to communicate the fact that another Civil War is possible" in the United States.
"The federal government has been pushing the limits of liberty back in this country for many, many years, and my point was, at some undetermined moment in the future, someone is going to determine that they're not going to be pushed around anymore," Vanderboegh told FoxNews.com. "It is what it is … it's a terrible description of what might happen if people continue to be victimized in this country."
"What kind of moron uses the phrase 'save the Constitution' and then goes out to try and distribute ricin?" Vanderboegh said. "This has got to be the Alzheimer's gang. What political point is made there? I don't understand what was going on in the minds of these Georgia idiots."
Read more:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/02/author-novel-cited-by-georgia-militia-suspects-says-his-work-was-misinterpreted/#ixzz1cadg5CM1
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