jim hardy said:
Good luck finding unbiased reporting.
It may be useful to go to sites on both fringes and check the references they cite
Conservative Treehouse
http://theconservativetreehouse.com...t-hammond-family-story-hidden/comment-page-1/
I actually started researching the claims in the above article. (Or one of it's incarnations)
It was my conclusion that the author was really into creative writing.
From the article; "The request/expectation was that Sheriff Ward would be willing to stop federal agents from arresting “Dwight Lincoln Hammond, Jr., 73, and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond, 46. Unfortunately the exact opposite happened".
In fact, the Hammonds willingly turned themselves into the authorities.
"The sheriff of this small community has a short, unmistakable message for the militants occupying a complex of federal buildings southeast of town. 'Go home'”.
Now that was true. But it's also true that the Hammonds told the militants to go home. In fact, nearly everyone in Oregon was telling them to "Go home".
The last thing this article asks is, was the "David Ward" listed as a BLM employee, on page 5 of
their very official looking court room document, our sheriff David Ward.
Now I'm not saying such a court room document doesn't exit, but this one looks like it was typed up by theconservativetreehouse.com themselves.
Page 1
Cutting this case down through the muscle to the shank and bone, the prosecution contends the defendants’ who were leasing their neighbors’ property to graze cattle, never had their neighbors’ permission to also burn it.
Further evidence that the theconservativetreehouse.com courtroomish looking document is a fabrication:
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF OREGON
EUGENE DIVISION
Trial Date: June 12, 2012 @ 9:00 AM
The trial was held in a town called Pendleton, about 240 miles away.
[ref]
I researched a couple of other allegations from
another of their web pages:
32 out of 53 permits were revoked and many ranchers were forced to leave
I have yet to see a single incidence of a displaced rancher confirming this story.
Thirty-one ranches on the Silvies plains were flooded. Homes, corrals, barns and graze-land were washed a way and destroyed.
Although flooding is not uncommon in Oregon, I could find no evidence of homes or barns being washed away, in the described region.
So, in conclusion, it is my humble opinion, that the Conservative Treehouse, is like wikipedia from hell.
Lots of flotsam and jetsam to wade through.
I liked a couple of posts:
Arananthi (1 post)
11. I started writing this long debunk for LiberalAmerica.org, but it got to be too long and I gave up.
...
bhikkhu (9,746 posts)
37. A couple of additional things
...
Both seem to corroborate what I've discovered about the region.
In electrical maintenance it is difficult to troubleshoot from somebody else's observations - they get colored by the observer's mindset.
One has to do his level best to take their observations sans their interpretations and draw one's own conclusions.
I try to do the same with the evening news. But I'm sort of like Candide , slower than most to figure things out.
old jim
I don't know anyone named Candide, so I'll just take your word for it, and just assume that you're about as slow as I am.
ps. It's probably a good thing I didn't read the following until a few days ago, as, well, I might have bought a gun, and gone on a road trip...
The situation escalated. The tires were slashed on Ward’s wife's car. Ward arranged a safe house for her where she still remains. His parents were followed by militants as they left their granddaughter’s Christmas play. The people of Burns, angry at the occupiers, were becoming miffed with Ward’s perceived inaction.
Jim Ward, 78, said his son wanted to find a way to end the conflict without bloodshed, focusing on a mantra he has always preached: “Do the right thing. Then suffer the consequences.”
The sheriff’s mother, Linda Ward, 74, said her son confided in her that he did all he could. It wasn’t enough. [ref]
Really? I mean, really?