You probably already accept the premise that there is such a thing as media bias. There’s a point, however, where bias becomes actual fiction – presenting a story in such a way that it leads the audience to blatantly false conclusions.
Welcome to ABC’s Person Of The Weeks for November 21, 2003 – John Boyd!
In order to fully appreciate this, please watch the video first and don’t skip ahead. Just pretend you’re sitting at the dinner table or on a nice comfy couch in 2003. There’s no Facebook, no YouTube, no Breitbart.com. Peter Jennings is still with us and you’re watching a trusted news source. Just sit back and take it all in.
So, let’s recap: John Boyd is humble man going to Washington to save the black farmer. This is America at its best; a salt of the earth, “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” story of one man fighting for what is right. We see him meet Congresspeople like Maxine Waters. Dennis Kucinich offers to introduce him to people. Chuck Grassley poses for photos with Boyd. It looks like Boyd might really make a difference and we were there to see it all! Time to finish dinner and settle in for the night, our hearts filled.
One little problem: it’s total fiction.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Pigford v. Glickman, aka the black famer’s lawsuit. You’ve heard of it because Andrew Breitbart, Gary Hewson, Peter Schweitzer and others have been writing about it on the Bigs for months. But – did you hear ANY mention of Pigford in that Person of the Week story? Did the name Pigford even come up once?
This story was broadcast in 2003, according to the ABC News Site. Pigford was settled in 1999.
Wait a second; if Pigford was settled, why is ABC doing a story that makes it look as though Pigford never even happened? And … if Pigford was already settled, why were we shown footage that makes it appear as though Boyd is meeting congresspeople for the first time?
Another thing about the humble farmer John Boyd. By 1999 (four years earlier) he’d already gotten over $1,000,000 from the USDA. He got a $500,000 settlement from the USDA and then – after suing the USDA – he was given a $500,000 outreach grant. Are you feeling hoodwinked yet? That humble farmer with the mules had been working for the USDA for years, after successfully suing them. Why didn’t any of those details make it into the story?
Let’s go back to Congressional Black Congress member Maxine Waters (D-CA) for a minute. The video shows Boyd shaking hands with Ms. Waters, as though the two had just met. But years earlier, the two had been part of a junket in the Bahamas to discuss Pigford. I assume that Mr. Boyd rode his mules to the Bahamas.
In the video, Mr. Boyd is wearing his overalls and flannels. Even in the halls of Congress, he’s wearing his farmer costume. It’s all for the cameras. James O’Keefe caused the media to cry ‘fraud’ by wearing a pimp costume in the title sequence to his ACRON busting videos. In this case, ABC news deliberately created a totally false visual narrative to trick their audience by having Boyd in his farmer costume throughout the entire video.
Here’s the photo page from Mr. Boyd’s website. He owns some very nice suits. http://blackfarmers.org/photos.html
John Boyd knew what ABC was doing here. Maxine Waters and Dennis Kucinich were literally acting for the camera. Boyd played dress up. They did this all knowingly. It’s because the CBC and the pro-Pigford lawyers use John Boyd like a puppet. They trot him out whenever they need to keep the Pigford scam from going off the rails and the press eats it up.
And now that Breitbart is exposing Pigford, John Boyd is being pulled out again with an emergency press conference.
See you tomorrow, John. You’re my person of the week!