Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Cold pizza for an innocent man

I like to drop in on Davids Medienkritik from time to time. His pointers to and comments regarding the actions of the German, and general European, media are interesting to me.

In a post on 1/17 (or 17/1 as the case may be), David points us to one of those little tidbits of bleeding-heartism that one just can't make up; such pettiness needs to come directly from the soul.

In Roger Willemsen: Cold Pizza for an Innocent Man, David tells us about the reaction of one Roger Willemson (of whom I was blissfully unaware but who, according to David, is some sort of media personality) and his reaction to the execution of one Roger Kieth Coleman.

Roger Keith Coleman went to the electric chair in 1992 for the brutal murder of Wanda McCoy, his wife's sister. McCoy in 1981 was raped, stabbed and nearly beheaded. Though Coleman never confessed to the crime, he was sentenced to death in 1982 based on the (strong) evidence available then. Through the years, Coleman - who steadfastly proclaimed his innocence - became the poster boy for the death penalty opposition.

Apparently genetic testing refuted Coleman's claims of innocence. Whether or not Willemson was aware of this at the time he made the following comments is unknown to me. It does not, however, ultimately matter to his attempt to construct a mountain range from the dust of an abandoned molehill.

Coleman wanted a pizza as his last meal. He gave one of the journalists a piece of this pizza. That’s how we found out the jailor had served the pizza extra cold. That’s one of the deeply barbaric little traits of the average man who sits at home with his family and decides to personally punish someone who’s been locked up in a death cell for 18 years - and who’s demonstrably innocent: he makes sure to let the guy’s pizza get cold.

Coleman’s fate occupies me very much to this day. I’ve written about it several times. For me literature is an ongoing appeal to the ability to empathize.

I suspect that Mr. Willemson uses appeals to "literature" as an excuse to blather inanities that amply demonstrate he lacks not only empathy but perspective.


14 comments:

buddy larsen said...

"...demonstrably innocent"?

And all Mr. W did was write about it?

buddy larsen said...

One wonders if the phrase "On-the-cheap hostile xenophobia masquerading as feel-goodism via the use of deliberate lies" would mean anything to Mr. W.?

flenser said...

For me literature is an ongoing appeal to the ability to empathize.

An admirably honest admission of the liberal mindset. It's all about feelings, nothing more than feelings.

buddy larsen said...

The last moments of Ms. Atefeh Rajabi.

knuck--'loathsome and hateful' is right.

Unknown said...

According to Islam a woman has to have four witnesses to an assault before she can claim rape, and then the witnesses have to be men.

buddy larsen said...

This star-crew would know what to do!

buddy larsen said...

"I'm absolutely flabbergasted by Time and Newsweek . . . their inability to see
the facts that are right in front of them," McGlothlin said. "The state papers and
the local papers and TV have tried to give a balanced account, . . . but there is no
balance in this. None whatsoever. This is totally irresponsible reporting."
Jackson, who was Grundy's police chief at the time of the murder investigation,
chuckled when he scanned the article. "They did get the date of the murder
right," he said.

buddy larsen said...

Did Mr. W's team visit the grave of 19 yr old Wanda McCoy, who had been raped, stabbed in the chest many times, and nearly decapitated? One wonders.

buddy larsen said...

Hitler really got the last laugh--sending all those shocked young soldiers home to raise--because they understandably didn't want baby anywhere near the reality they'd just finished dealing with--a generation of idiot children.

buddy larsen said...

Yeah, Mark, Saddam was equal-opportunity all the way--forensics is certain of it.

buddy larsen said...

an S&M strain in the journalistic personality?

buddy larsen said...

I LIKE cold pizza. But, not if i have to get electrocuted to get some.

buddy larsen said...

I hope i live long enough to see Time and Newsweek either fold or get their heads outta their bums.

buddy larsen said...

I just read every word of the American Spectator article.

I dunno--sometimes I catch a glimmer of what the terrorists are so pissed off about.

All this wealth, freedom, and opportunity, and we raise "liberals". Please save us from them, Lord, please.