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September 15, 2014 01:13 PM UTC

Pueblo Chieftain Defends Tom Ready, Shoots Messenger

  • 23 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: The calls for Republicans who attended Tom Ready's fundraiser last month to disown him continue:

A Colorado independent nonprofit group whose mission is to hold Republican nominee for Governor Bob Beauprez accountable called on Beauprez to renounce his appearance with a Sandy Hook denier who questioned whether the event really took place.

"We call on Beauprez to immediately renounce his association and support for appearing with a radical extremist who questioned whether the Sandy Hook massacre occurred," stated Michael Huttner, spokesman for Making Colorado Great.

—–

Pueblo Commissioner candidate Tom Ready (R).
Pueblo Commissioner candidate Tom Ready (R).

We've had our complaints over the years with the quality of news reporting at the Pueblo Chieftain, which has at times been unforgivably bad. With that said, the Chieftain has done a decent job recently covering the national scandal that has hit the Pueblo County commissioner race, after remarks in a debate by Republican candidate Tom Ready questioning whether the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in December of 2012 "really happened."

But that's the newsroom. Chieftain managing editor Steve Henson, unbelievably, is standing by Ready–even going as far as blaming Ready's Democratic opponent for bringing the Sandy Hook shootings up:

The exchange between Democratic County Commissioner Sal Pace and Republican Tom Ready regarding the shootings at Sandy Hook was, well, it was ugly.

Before the debate, Pace approached Ready and said he planned to be positive and Ready agreed to do the same. I know that to be true because I was standing right there, behind the curtains at Pueblo Memorial Hall with the two men.

Then, really out of nowhere during the debate, Pace pounced on Ready and attacked Ready’s Facebook page on which there is or was information disputing whether Sandy Hook really happened. Caught off guard, Ready said there were some questions about Sandy Hook and the audience went bananas.

The next day, Ready appeared at The Chieftain for a previously scheduled interview on a different topic and he explained that he knows the children died at Sandy Hook in a terrible massacre, but that he often puts controversial topics on his Facebook page as conversation pieces. He doesn’t necessarily believe in or endorse any of them, he said.

But, he conceded, Pace’s ambush — and make no mistake; it was an ambush — had been successful in hurting him. How successful? We’ll know in November.

Henson's blaming of Democrat Sal Pace for…either Tom Ready's Facebook post, or Ready's appalling answer when questioned at the debate, we're not sure which one Henson means–is of course totally ridiculous. Henson claims that Ready was "caught off guard," as if this was some kind of boxing match instead of a debate about issues. Henson doesn't quote Ready's verbatim answer to Pace's question, which again was, "there is still question about whether it really happened, Sal." What Henson doesn't want to admit is obvious: the audience "went bananas" not because Ready had merely stated there were "some questions about Sandy Hook." The audience became upset when Ready cast doubt on whether the Sandy Hook shootings "really happened."

With that in mind, we couldn't care less if Ready felt "ambushed." Ready's excuse that he "doesn't necessarily believe" what he posts on Facebook evaporated the moment he said himself in this debate that "there is still question about whether it really happened." This is about what Tom Ready publicly said, nothing else–and Henson's attempt to cover for him is so feeble it's really quite laughable.

Or would be, if it wasn't coming from the managing editor of a major newspaper.

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23 thoughts on “Pueblo Chieftain Defends Tom Ready, Shoots Messenger”

    1. I was just thinking something like that.  What a choice:  Chuck Plunkett or Steve Henson?  Better to subscribe to the Enquirer.  At least it will keep us up to date on Elvis sightings…….

  4. I think what Ready said was stupid, but so are the Democrat attempts at guilt by association. Gardner and Beauprez had nothing to do with what Ready said. The photos of them together were taken before Ready said this. Leave innocent people out of it and you can complain about Ready all you want. He's fair game.

        2. Obama did disavow Rev. Wrights views.  Obama did not appear in support of Ayers at political events in support of an Ayers candidacy for anything. 

          Ready is a Republican running for office . Gardner and BWB appeared with him as if in support, whether they knew anything about him except that he's Republican or not at the time. OK. But since then, Ready's reprehensible and crazy toxic opinions  have been made very public and caused great pain to grieving families.

           

          A Colorado Sandy Hook victim's sister has asked Gardner to disavow Ready's horrible insult to her and all the other victims' families. Gardner hasn't even given her the courtesy of an answer as far as the public knows. 

           

          That's the difference. 

    2. Obama's policies are pushing us towards revolution !  Bob is guilty of saying crazy stupid shit all on his own, so a little photo op with birds of a feather doesn't hurt.

      Gardner will do a photo op with anyone with a pulse if it is to his advantage, and he'll disown it later all the same if that is to his advantage.

    4. Moddy, you need to stay out of the deep end of the comment pool — you're way over your head.  As MJ55 posted over the weekend, the Facebook comments about Sandy Hook being a hoax was posted by Tom "Not" Ready in July.  His steak fry fundraiser was in August.  Plenty of time for attendees to know the kind of scumbag they were associating with. 

      Given how slimy Con Man Cory is, and BWB's longstanding admiration for nutwing conspiracies, this really is a case of Birds of a Feather flocking together.

      Today's GOP — what rat-filled sewer you have created!

      2.  Talking Points Memo writer Dylan Scott first posted the particulars of the steak fry and the "Sandy Hook hoax" FB post. The attendees at the Pueblo GOP steak fry had almost a month to research Tom Ready.

        It really should have taken a Gardner or Beauprez staff member only a few minutes of perusing Ready's Facebook page to figure out that Mr. Ready belonged in the tinfoil-hat-wearing, anti-immigration, anti-muslim, Benghazi! – yelling corner of the Republican party.

        The "Sandy Hook was a hoax" from Red Flag was posted July 24 on Ready's timeline. It's blood-boiling material, and worthy of Sal Pace bringing it up. But since that time, Ready also posted  this foulmouthed  video from a Florida woman who warns that there are four "jihad compounds" nearby that she and her husband intend to visit to see the "f*cking ragheads".  She claims that the immigrant kids coming across the border are actually jihadists waiting for the word from the "big guy" to move.

        And Ready has posted multiple images and rants from the American Christian Patriots Association, like this one of an immigrant whose face looks a lot like Obama's.  Or this one which manages to disparage gays, Irish, Michael Brown, and Obama in one incoherent post.

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

        Or this kind of terrifying one which suggests that Susan Rice and Marie Harf of the US State Department need to be "terminated".  The connotation there is much more than being fired from their positions.

        My point is that any reporter or campaign staff person doesn't need to work very hard to come to the conclusion that Tom Ready is a conspiracy-promoting, racist, extremist nut case. Why would any politician seeking to paint themselves as a moderate want to associate with him?

        Ready's facebook page has been scrubbed. Most of the ACPA posts have been deleted.   When this particular fuss dies down, you may want to take a look at it again.

        Why do we care about what politicians do on social media? Because it is there that we see them in their (relatively) unguarded moments, saying and disseminating what they truly believe about the world. That is important information for voters to know.

        We don't want to elect people who think that Muslims are organizing in compounds in the US, aided by little children from Honduras, and maybe Obama selling drugs to boot. We don't want to elect people to positions of responsibility who believe in gigantic conspiracies to take their guns away, and in passing, negate the violent death of 27 children and adults.

         

        1. Excellent fact-gathering and a beautiful summation, mama. Well done! And such incredibly damning evidence thoroughly debunking the chidlish spin from Ready's "defenders."

      3. Time is all relative for our resident GOPer Einsteins . . .

        . . .  whoever said these asshats don't believe in science???

        "Science ain't an exact science with these clowns," Louie –12 Monkeys. 

         

    5. Well then Moddy, why don't your candidates follow your example and call Ready for what he is, STUPID?  Because they're afraid of alienating your base.

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