First question: Is this any of our business?
Since Randi is arguably the best guy on our team, I’d say yes.
If she was attacked by a right-wing loon and we said, “This isn’t our concern,”
I think Randi would feel abandoned and betrayed, so in that context, yes.
To some degree, all lefty bloggers “have her back,” and when she sends a two sentence e-mail to AAR saying “I was mugged,” and then Joe Elliott says, “This wasn’t your ordinary knock-down, grab-her-purse mugging,” what else could we think?
But who knows what happened?
Last Monday, I got an e-mail asking if I knew anything about it (I didn’t) so I put her name in Google and clicked “News” to see what popped up. First thing up was THIS,
a column at themoderatevoice.com (never heard of them) and they quoted
Air America late night host Joe Elliott (never heard of him, either) who said Randi
had been “badly beaten” and she sustained serious mouth injuries.
Elliott suggested she was the deliberate victim of a mugging, but nothing was stolen so it seemed more of an assault than a mugging. Add to that the injuries to her mouth and one must wonder if that wasn’t to send a message – “shut your mouth.”
Then it came out that no, it wasn’t a street mugging, Randi apparently fell and hurt herself, which certainly doesn’t fit the first reports. So I gotta ask, where did Elliott get his erroneous information? Like I said, I never heard of the guy, but it’s unlikely that he fabricated this story out of thin air. He MUST have been fed bad information by someone – so I wonder who that someone was?
Is Elliott being chivalrous in keeping quiet?
Why would Elliott take the fall after being fed bad information?
Is there a cover-up here?
In case you don’t know, I love and respect Randi, so this isn’t a vendetta by any means, but our side took some hits for being fly-off-the-handle hysterical and too-eager to blame the oh-so-innocent Republicans, so we all have a small stake in this story and
how it got turned upside down.
In the first hours after the story broke, I read a few reports that mentioned the “incredible firestorm” that went burning thru cyberspace, but I didn’t see any of that.
I looked and looked for more information, but all I could find was re-hashes of the original reports and some super-mean-spirited comments by the right.
I had to wonder – what if this had been the vulgar Pigboy?
If the news hit that Rush was beat up by some left-wing thugs who broke his teeth so he couldn’t speak for awhile, trust me, all the networks would’ve lead their newscasts with that story, but when did the left ever get equal coverage in the whore media?
So Thursday, Rrandi was back on the air with what I’d call a “wild” recap of events.
Had she said what she said on a witness stand, both lawyers would’ve interrupted to get clarification because she was (let’s blame the pain pills) not making a lot of sense.
Hear Randi’s 7-minute statement that ends with “So I’m done with this,” meaning she doesn’t want to talk about it again, which sounds odd to me. As I said,
I love and respect Randi, but we’re not getting the real story – and maybe that’s OK.
Remember when Uber-Christian Michael Delgiorno talked about his casino arrest and closed with, “And that’s the last time I’ll ever mention this,” ? That’s what you say when you did something wrong or embarassing and you want to drop the subject.
Is that our only option here?
If she had what they called “a bad moment” in The Omen, and there’s nothing else to the story, then maybe we don’t need to know any more.
But how do you go from “I was smoking a cigarette” to “I woke up face down with a metal grating in my face?” I gotta tell you – Ol’ Bart has been extra drunk a few times in my life, but I never lost track of any time. There’s never been a time when I had to ask other people what happened to me when I was drunk in public – so what happened?
Again, I’m not out to “get” Randi, who has my love and respect, but all lefty bloggers became involved in this story the second the erroneous news went out that Randi was mugged suspiciously – so what happened?
Do we deserve any more information?
I’d like to read your comments.
It’s entirely possible the police are investigating this and asked her to keep quiet until they finish. Remember when Keith Olbermann got that white powder they asked him to keep quiet until an arrest was made.
Comment by greyhawk — October 22, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
Watching football in an Irish pub is not, shall we say, for teetotalers. I don’t know anyone who would find him or herself face down on a steel sidewalk grate with broken teeth and a bleeding eye who would not proceed immediately to an emergency room for treatment. Even if a few drinks were involved, immediate treatment would be in order. Can’t help noticing that she never mentions how she got home. New York cabbies are notorious for refusing to pick up anyone who looks even slightly problematic, and a woman bleeding from the face fits the bill. So, the story is bizarre, as is her repeated insistence she doesn’t know how the story of her being attacked got started. For pete’s sake, SHE started it! You wouldn’t think a celeb like Randi would have to lie to the boss to get the day off. You’d think she could call up and say, look, I’d rather not come in today; feeling a bit under the weather; need a few days off so see you on Thursday or Friday. Period. End of discussion. But nooooo, she fired off an email shortly after arriving home with a shiner and busted up teeth. Hmmmm. And the email was a stupid lie. She doesn’t know what happened, but she KNOWS she wasn’t mugged? Well, I think she does know what happened, but she’s not telling. Do we have a right to expect more or better from Randi Rhodes? Well…apparently not. I’d have to be drunk on my ass to make sooooooo many bad decisions in the space of what? An hour? Wow. Please note that her list of medical personnel does not include a neurologist. If she still really doesn’t know how she ended up on her face, she should be worrying less about her teeth and more about her brain. And that’s the last time I’ll ever mention this.
Comment by Joanne from WI — October 22, 2007 @ 4:00 pm
Newsday reported this “[Rhodes' attorney Robert] Gaulin confirmed that Rhodes was injured after she was floored by someone _ or something _ as she strolled the streets of Manhattan’s Murray Hill district around 8 p.m., but wasn’t sure herself what sent her tumbling to the pavement.”
I guess there’s not enough there to file a police report — “floored by someone or something” — but it’s still ighty strange, and, yep, you have to fall pretty hard to split your lip and need dental work. The alternative explanation is that she had a violent fight with a boy- or girlfriend and she didn’t want it to go public. Her refusal to mention the subject again bolsters that angle, in the view of a woman whose opinion I respect.
Comment by RS Janes — October 22, 2007 @ 6:44 pm
i’ve not been really following this story in detail (just the general news reports) but yes, something weird happened, i think. maybe ‘a date’ roughed her up?
Comment by animaux — October 22, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
I get the same feeling I had with Dan Rather’s “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” story on how he got a black eye.
Both stories leave me suspicious that the truth might be embarrassing. Embarrassing, and also probably none of our business. Unless the embarrassing truth was something that would compromise their professional integrity, I’m content to let it be.
Comment by sammythecat — October 23, 2007 @ 1:15 am
Here’s another theory a friend came up with: She was attacked by some right-wing goon but she doesn’t want the righties to know it got to her in any way, thinking it might encourage more attacks. She also, of course, doesn’t want to give the attacker any media play.
Comment by RS Janes — October 23, 2007 @ 4:37 am
Maybe she was afraid she had a stroke or somethjing and was freaked out but didn’t want her bosses to think she had health issues?
Comment by Avedon — October 24, 2007 @ 1:01 pm