Megyn Kelly ignored most of the important questions surrounding Michael Brown’s autopsy report and instead used it as yet another excuse to race bait Attorney General Eric Holder.
The Michael Brown autopsy alone is not conclusive as to the circumstances of his shooting
Last week, after the autopsy was leaked, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that “Brown probably was not taking a standard surrender position with arms above the shoulders and palms out when he was hit,” according to an independent forensic pathologist the paper consulted.” The thrust of the rest of the article suggested that the autopsy more or less corroborated Officer Darren Wilson’s account of why he shot Brown.
But the forensic pathologist quoted in the Post-Dispatch article, Dr. Judy Melinek, has come forward to say she was misquoted. She elaborated in an October 23rdblog post, “You can’t say within reasonable certainty that his (Brown’s) hands were up based on the autopsy findings alone.”
On the same day, PBS' NewsHour reported it had spoken to St. Louis city medical examiner Michael Graham, who was also quoted in the Post-Dispatch article.
Graham, who also reviewed the autopsy report for the Post-Dispatch, told the NewsHour that the report showed an altercation took place at the car.” Whether or not it’s self-defense, you’ve got to look at all the accounts,” he said. “This report doesn’t fundamentally answer the question of whether at some point [Brown] had his hands up as witnesses have said, or whether he surrendered, or whether they were up in an aggressive posture.”
“As you look at this [report], people are grabbing onto one thing, trying to make a whole case on this one finding,” said Graham. “You can’t do that.”
Kelly made the autopsy about Holder
On Friday night, Kelly teamed up with her old Holder-race-baiting pal, J. Christian Adams to revive their racial attacks. Kelly has previously hosted Adams to use Ferguson against Holder. She has yet to note that a few years ago, she spent at least 45 segments hyping Adams’ false accusations that Holder had refused to prosecute African Americans for voter intimidation out of racial preference. I go into the details of their jihad against Holder here and here. But if you don’t believe me it was bogus and don’t have the patience to read up on the matter yourself, then ask yourself this: Why wouldn’t Kelly bring it up now if it had any validity?
What’s worse is that Kelly didn’t reveal this history as she presented Adams as some kind of credible, anti-Holder expert. She introduced him as a “former DOJ attorney and author of the book (she named it but I won’t) “exposing the racial agenda of the Obama Justice Department.”
It’s not unlike the way The Kelly File repeatedly turns to “former LAPD detective” Mark Fuhrman to discuss the Ferguson case. I’m sensing a pattern here, aren’t you?
Ignoring the controversy over the autopsy report, Kelly gave immediate credence to the view that it “appears to refute the ‘hands up’ narrative that has fueled violent protests for months. In other words, it concludes that he likely did not have his hands up in the surrender position when he was shot as some have claimed.”
That was it for the facts of the case. Kelly played a clip of Holder condemning the “selective leak” as an attempt to “shape public opinion.” Kelly complained (in the snarkiest, most sarcastic way possible) that Holder had not condemned Missouri Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri when he demanded a prosecution of the officer. “That was not, apparently, a problem for him then. But this, leaks that might be helpful to the officer whose case is under consideration - that is a bridge too far.”
You’d have to be blind to miss Kelly’s racial insinuation. But I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that Nixon walked back his statement and claimed he had been misunderstood. Furthermore, it's one thing for an official to make a bone-headed statement. It's quite another to leak partial evidence in a homicide case.
Kelly wrongly suggests Holder is fomenting unrest in Ferguson
After some more sneering and jeering, Kelly complained that when asked if he worried there would be riots if the grand jury declined to indict Wilson, Holder said, “I would hope not.” Kelly complained, “He didn’t call for calm, he didn’t say ‘we’re going to stand by the grand jury.’ He didn’t say ‘we will accept their opinion.’ He went right to ‘This police department’s still going to be in my crosshairs’”
What Holder really said, as revealed in the clip Kelly played, is that the federal investigation is ongoing and will “look at individual responsibility as well as “what do we need to do with regard to that police department, itself.”
Actually, Holder was trying to calm the waters. Because as Sunil Dutta, Ph.D., a 17-year-veteran police officer in Los Angeles, wrote in an excellent editorial in the Washington Post, Ferguson is not so much about Brown's shooting as it is about the distrust between a majority-white law enforcement agency and a majority-black community. Holder's comments were designed to assure the community that their concerns were being addressed no matter what the outcome of the grand jury investigation.
It speaks volumes about Kelly and Adams that they saw Holder's comments as threatening.
Adams shook his head in disgust after the Holder clip. “This is a Justice Department that seems less interested in the truth and more interested in racial politics.”
As if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle (too) black!
But geez, who cares? Megyn is hot, hot, hot, and everything else is just details.