 |
| Sen. Blumenthal, Hartford Mayor Bronin, Governor Lamont, Attporney General Tong and Lieutenant General Bysiewitz |
What is the difference between Sep 01, 2022 at 9:00 am and Sep 01, 2022 at 2:56 pm, apart from the time difference, about six hours?
It took Attorney General William Tong a
tortuous six hours to adjust his reaction to an explosive video released by
Project Veritas. A longtime respected Hartford reporter was obliged to publish
two stories six hours apart covering essentially the same material.
Here is Tong, Connecticut’s Democrat
Attorney General, at 9:00 am:
“State Attorney General William Tong, a
Stamford Democrat, condemned the comments but also questioned the practices of
Project Veritas.
“’There’s something also wrong about
this entrapment journalism and gotcha journalism,’ Tong said in an interview.
‘Journalism should be left to journalists, and law enforcement should be left
to law enforcement — to police officers and state’s attorneys and the attorney
general’s office... I think there’s something really wrong with vigilante
journalism, and I don’t think it should be celebrated. There are no rules when
somebody engages in Wild West vigilante journalism and tries to entrap
somebody.’’'
Immediately following Tong’s remarks in
the earlier story, his predecessor, former Attorney General Dick Blumenthal,
Connecticut’s U.S. Senator, is quoted to this effect: “This country was built
on religious tolerance. Religious discrimination is inexcusable and illegal. Of
course, I support a full investigation.”
Blumenthal was not alone in calling for
an investigation sparked by Project Veritas’ “vigilante journalism.”
The initial 9:00 am story swells with
reactions to the undercover video.
The lede to the 9:00 am story features
“[Republican] Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo [who] called Wednesday for
an independent investigation into the town’s hiring practices after a school
administrator said in a video that he avoids hiring conservatives and Roman
Catholics.”
Camillo is quoted at length: “The Veritas
video just released, and I see no reason to suspect it is not accurate, is
shameful and needs a full investigation into not only this administrator, but
the damage caused to applicants, past and present,’' Camillo said on his
Facebook page. “Our kids deserve better. Our schools deserve better. Our town
deserves better… As a former educator, and a former Cos Cob School
student who grew up in the shadow of the building, this hits home. To think
that Roman Catholic applicants may have applied for teaching positions and not
received proper consideration due to their religion seems like something from a
bygone era, not 2022. According to this assistant principal, conservatives,
older applicants, and others deemed not progressive were not given an
opportunity afforded others.”
And here is Tong several hours later
at 2:56 pm:
“Connecticut Attorney
General William Tong launched a civil rights investigation Thursday into hiring
practices at a Cos Cob public school, saying he will not tolerate
discrimination in employment.
“Tong’s statements came one day after
the release of an undercover video by Project Veritas, a controversial conservative group that has used hidden cameras for
years to expose statements by various individuals. An assistant principal,
Jeremy Boland, appeared on the video and is heard saying that he avoids hiring
conservatives, Catholics and older teachers.
“’Discrimination, hate, bigotry against
any person and against any religion or on the basis of age or otherwise is
reprehensible and wrong,’ Tong told reporters in Hartford.
“’This video is disturbing. If teachers,
school staff or applicants for education jobs have been illegally discriminated
against for any reason, I will take action. As your attorney general, I will
exercise my civil rights authority to protect people in Connecticut who are
subjected to illegal discrimination anywhere — just as I have protected
Connecticut’s immigrants, LBGTQ+ people and others subjected to discrimination
and deprivation of rights.’”
It took Tong about six hours to make his
adjustment.
President of the Connecticut Education
Association Kate Dias finds herself, for professional reasons, in Tong’s
pre-adjustment mode. She has instructed union leaders to clam up.
According to a memo shared with National Review, Dias
writes that union leaders should not speak to reporters “that have not been
vetted,” insisting that they “should not comment on the Greenwich video at
all.”
Tong’s verbiage – “I think there’s
something really wrong with vigilante journalism, and I don’t think it should
be celebrated. There are no rules when somebody engages in Wild West vigilante
journalism and tries to entrap somebody” – seems to verge on Trumpian
hyperbole. It also throws into sharp relief his own political prejudices.
The reporter for Veritas who
interviewed Cos Cob Elementary School assistant principal Boland is not a
“vigilante”, nor had she sought to “entrap” Boland, who confessed under close
questioning that he avoided hiring Catholics and conservatives for open
teaching positions. Most reporters in Connecticut, forced to wrestle the truth
second hand from savvy politicians or through tortuous Freedom of Information
requests, would agree that questions are not thumbscrews. Boland, remarkably
honest and forthcoming in the interview, was free to answer the questions as he
saw fit.
Reporters usually derive investigative
reportage from “whistleblowers,” sometimes given anonymity to protect them from
invidious retaliation.
In Veritas interviews, the reporter IS
the whistleblower. And because the reporter who interviewed Boland has no close
ties to politicians in Connecticut, she was free to present her finding to the
general public unveiled. Boland, actually, should be commended for his honesty,
and the reporter for her persistent questioning. Were Boland a politician, that
interview would have been far less noteworthy.
Tong IS a Democrat politician whose
political leanings and official duties – the state Attorney General is
statutorily obliged to defend state agencies and actors in court proceedings –
make him an unlikely prosecutor in the case at hand. Indeed, this is the case
with all whistleblower complaints against state authorized agents of
government. A proper investigation presupposes possible prosecution and
defense. Justice requires that prosecutors and defense attorneys should be
different actors. Tong cannot both prosecute Veritas’ just claims and defend
state agents from them.
Not to strain hyperbole, but that would
be a form of vigilante justice, right? And the old Latin saying “Veritas vos
liberabit,” truth will set you free – may it remain true, yesterday, today and,
hopefully, tomorrow -- should always be a cause of celebration among
liberty loving journalists.
Comments