{"id":76,"date":"2008-10-24T15:06:57","date_gmt":"2008-10-24T15:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/10\/selfinflicted-wound-was-ashley.html"},"modified":"2008-10-24T15:06:57","modified_gmt":"2008-10-24T15:06:57","slug":"selfinflicted-wound-was-ashley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/10\/selfinflicted-wound-was-ashley.html","title":{"rendered":"self-inflicted wound: was Ashley Todd the final nail?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story was sensational, and suspiciously stereotypical in invoking racial prejudices and conservative dogma about liberals’ irrationality. Sure enough, it was also a hoax<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Ashley Todd, of College Station, Texas, confessed to making up the
\nstory about an attacker scratching a letter “B” into her face with a
\nknife and will be charged with filing a false report, police said at a
\nnews conference Friday.Todd admitted there was no robbery or
\nattacker and said she had prior mental health problems, according to
\npolice.
…
On Thursday afternoon, police
\nreported that Todd told them she was using an ATM at Liberty Avenue and
\nPearl Street when a man approached her and put a knife to her throat
\njust before 9 p.m. Wednesday.Police spokeswoman Diane Richard
\nsaid Todd told them the robber took $60, then became angry when he saw
\na McCain bumper sticker on the victim’s car. The attacker then punched
\nand kicked the victim, before using a dull knife to scratch the “B”
\ninto her face, Richard said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Todd’s story kept changing, though, over small details like whether it was her bumper sticker or her campaign button that triggered the assailant’s rage, adding more details like sexual assault to the original story, and inconsistencies on whether she was attacked from in front or knocked down from behind. The “B” on her cheek was backwards, as if self-inflicted in front of a mirror, and there was no record of the attack on the ATM camera. Ultimately the story fell apart.<\/p>\n

As they say, it’s not the crime, but the cover-up, and in this case the hoax is making the rounds on Twitter (where “Ashley Todd<\/a>” is a Election Hot Topic) and blogsphere and news channels. Suffice to say, this doesn’t bode well for McCain, which may be unfair (since Todd was a volunteer and her actions do not represent those of the campaign in any way), but it is still a reality. <\/p>\n

What will the true impact of Ashley’s October Surprise be? John Moody, executive Vice-president for FOX News, mused on his blog (before it was confirmed that Todd’s account was a hoax) that the incident represented a “moment of truth”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Less than two weeks before we vote for a new president, a white
\nwoman says a black man attacked her, then scarred her face, and says
\nthere was a political motive for it.<\/p>\n

Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old white volunteer for John McCain’s
\npresidential campaign, says she was mugged at an ATM machine in
\nPittsburgh (my hometown) by a big black man. <\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I dont know if McCain’s quest is over, but it certainly has been dealt an ugly blow – ironically, by guilt-by-association, the very same tactic that McCain sought to employ against Obama to discredit his reputation. <\/p>\n

The simple fact remains that Todd’s motivations are laid bare – naked political opportunism, attempting to harness the worst stereotypes of black men and tie them to the Obama campaign. The incident would have “revealed” the true nature of Obama’s supporters; instead it revealed the nature of McCain’s. Ashley Todd was plaing with fire and John McCain is the one burnt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}