This is in re Roger Franklin. I begin with this modern parable for our times:

Republican body slams reporter. This is how it begins.

The Republican candidate for Montana’s congressional seat slammed a Guardian reporter to the floor on the eve of the state’s special election, breaking his glasses and shouting, “Get the hell out of here.”

This is how it continues:

A statement by campaign spokesman Shane Scanlon blamed Jacobs for the altercation, saying that he “entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg’s face, and began asking badgering questions”.

“Jacobs was asked to leave,” the statement reads. “After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg’s wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground.

“It’s unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ.”

This is what happened next: Body-slamming a reporter just made Greg Gianforte a whole lot of money:

Montana Republican Greg Gianforte’s congressional campaign has raised $100,000 and counting in the hours since he allegedly “body-slammed” Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs.

And this is how it ended:

Republican businessman Greg Gianforte won Montana’s sole House district in a special election Thursday, keeping a seat in Republican hands despite facing assault charges for allegedly attacking a reporter who’d asked him about the GOP’s health-care bill.In his victory speech, Gianforte admitted to the attack and apologized for it. “I shouldn’t have treated that reporter that way,” he told supporters at his rally here.

And for a complete wrap-up of events, there is now this to be read in full, which adds this special feature that you cannot know from being so far away but is easily imaginable:

All presses were stopped, every other story swept aside for continuous coverage of the story in the hopes that it would bring about the Democratic victory they all so desperately wanted.

The media cannot be trusted to get a single political story right. They are of the left and so everything that is said or written by a journalist (with a handful of exceptions) must be read in that light. They will lie, hide and distort as a matter of course. So let me translate what Roger Franklin said the other day into plain English, not obscured by the satirical intent which the left is too obtuse to follow:

If a bomb had gone off during the taping of Q&A, no one at the ABC would say that such bombs are merely part of modern life and you are more likely to be killed by a falling refrigerator than a terrorist bomb.

No one on our side of the fence makes light of any of this. No one wants to see some teenage theologian blowing up anyone, not here, not there and not at the ABC. We are the ones who take all of this as a genuine problem. We are the ones who are disgusted by anyone else taking these things lightly. We are dealing with a deadly enemy who really will roll us over if they can. What part does the ABC play in defending our way of life? I know the part Quadrant plays. So far as the ABC goes, it is a cypher.

And let me finally say this. Anyone who thinks Quadrant has rolled over because they took down the post doesn’t understand a thing about the world in which we live. I have defended anonymous blogging against Mark Steyn who thinks everyone should do what they do under their own name. We have anonymous bloggers here and our comments are also anonymous, and for good reason. As is plain as day, there are dangers by the bushel-load for anyone on the right putting a hair out of line, and there are few enough ready to defend them. No one at the ABC has ever been fired for a thing they said, but to raise your head above the line for a conservative cause has become almost as dangerous as going to a pop concert filled with teenage girls.