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US right-wing radio host fails to back up his slander – sued

Glenn Beck sued for defamation after calling victim of Boston Marathon bombings the ‘money man’ behind attack

On a mid-April day last year, Glenn Beck was in a full lather. Less than one week had passed since a pair of bombs had exploded at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring hundreds more. The FBI had just identified the Tsarnaev brothers as primary suspects behind the attack. But to Beck, cloaked in a gray button-down and a sheen of indignation, this wasn’t enough.
In attendance at the marathon had been a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian student named Abdulrahman Alharbi. He was on a full ride to study at the nearby New England School of English. He’d been injured at the marathon, later questioned by police and ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.
Beck, however, had suspicions. The radio host urged the U.S. government to release information on Alharbi or Beck would “expose” him. “Let me send this message very clear,” said Beck, who left Fox News in 2011. ”We know who this Saudi national is…. We know who this man is and, listen to me carefully, we know he is a very bad, bad, bad man.”
Beck continued days later: “While the media continues to look at what the causes were [behind] these two guys, there are, at this hour, three people involved,” he said, alleging the U.S. government had “tagged” Alharbi as a “proven terrorist.”
The broadcaster eventually called Alharbi an al-Qaeda “control agent” and the “money man” behind the attacks. “You know who the Saudi is?” Beck asked. “He’s the money man. He’s the guy who paid for it.”
“Is this speculation or are you reporting something?” a co-host asked.
Beck ignored the question. “He’s the money man.”
The “money man” has now filed a defamation suit against Beck, who has made a career out of conspiratorial musings. Beck has not responded publicly to the suit, which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Boston. He had not responded to e-mails from The Washington Post as of early this morning.
“Alharbi, like many others, was questioned by federal authorities investigating the events of that day,” says the lawsuit. “The authorities quickly concluded that Mr. Alharbi, other than being injured in the attacks, had no involvement.
“Beck repeatedly and falsely identified Mr. Alharbi as an active participant, repeatedly questioned the motives of federal officials in failing to pursue or detain Alharbi and repeatedly and falsely accused Mr. Alharbi of being a criminal who had funded the attacks,” the lawsuit says.
Beck’s allegations added to a cacophony of misinformation that rose out of the Boston bombings, as anonymous Redditors vented unsubstantiated suspicions, and the New York Post plastered its own accusations on the paper’s cover. (The New York Post was sued for defamation in Massachusetts court over the matter, and the case is pending.)
Beck, normally a frenetic tweeter, has remained quiet since the lawsuit was filed.
The host’s allegations have haunted the Saudi student, according to the complaint. “Alharbi has received numerous messages, internet postings and other communications based on Beck’s false statements accusing him of being a murderer, child killer and terrorist.”
Alharbi told the Islamic Monthly in May that such accusations have left him changed forever. “All the police officers and the FBI … and all the nurses and all the doctors were staring at me…. I was looking [at] them like, is it because of the color of my skin, or is it because of the name of my country?”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/01/glenn-beck-sued-for-defamation-after-calling-victim-of-boston-marathon-bombings-the-money-man-behind-attack/?tid=hp_mm

It is slander from a right wing shock jock, pure and simple.
How do they get away with such stupidities…?

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By: trumper - 2nd April 2014 at 20:16

Richard Jewell
[I]
“Despite never being charged, he underwent a “trial by media” with great toll on his personal and professional life. Eventually he was completely exonerated

Happens alot over here as well.The poor landlord who was vilified when the young lass was murdered http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2421800/Joanna-Yeates-murder-police-chief-apologises-landlord-suffering-endured-detectives-failed-publicly-rule-suspect.html

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By: RpR - 2nd April 2014 at 19:35

No different from the major media left-wing news that ruined the life of a man by accusing him of an attack down south some years ago.

Richard Jewell

“Despite never being charged, he underwent a “trial by media” with great toll on his personal and professional life. Eventually he was completely exonerated and Eric Robert Rudolph was later found to have been the bomber.
In 2006, Governor Sonny Perdue publicly thanked Jewell on behalf of the state of Georgia for saving the lives of those at the Olympics.”

Also from New York Post

4 innocent people wrongly accused of being Boston Marathon bombing suspects
Everyone, please remember:
It’s better to be late and right than early and wrong

By Chris Gayomali | April 19, 201

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By: snafu - 2nd April 2014 at 09:45

Info?

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By: RpR - 2nd April 2014 at 02:29

No different from the major media left-wing news that ruined the life of a man by accusing him of an attack down south some years ago.

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