TED KOPPEL: There’s nothing new, of course, about using media to commit political slander. In 1796, an anonymous editorial accused Thomas Jefferson of cowardice, of running away from British troops. The unidentified author? The current toast of Broadway: Alexander Hamilton.
Our revered founding fathers could sling mud with the worst of them.
It’s not the nastiness that’s new; it’s the delivery systems.
A radio talk show host by the name of Alex Jones can be heard nationwide spreading the manure that fertilizes conspiracy theories all over the Internet.
ALEX JONES (CLIP): 'Pizzagate’ as it’s called, is a rabbit hole that is horrifying to go down.
KOPPEL: The charge, that Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager, John Podesta, were running a child pornography ring out of the basement of a Washington pizza restaurant did not, as best we can tell, originate with Jones. The accuser remains anonymous. But that story had real consequences.
VOICEOVER (CLIP): Twenty-eight-year-old Edgar Welch, after driving from North Carolina, entered the pizzeria and fired shots from a semi-automatic rifle. No one was hurt. He told police he came to rescue child victim.
