Even Keith Olbermann is Blasting the HuffPo for Hiring the DUI-Killing, 9/11-Truth-Peddling Donte' Stallworth as a, Get This, "National Security Fellow"

"Fellow."

Like it's an academic position.

Hot Air covered this, noting his long history of pushing 9/11 Truth claims, such as his belief that the planes which hit the buildings that day had actually been diverted and replaced by radio-controlled drones.

This isn't ancient history; his last tweet advancing 9/11 "Truth" conspiracy theories dates from last year.

Byers noted that some of Stallworth's comments are well outside the mainstream:

"NO WAY 9/11 was carried out by 'dying' Bin Laden, 19 men who couldn’t fly a damn kite. STILL have NO EVIDENCE Osama was connected, like Iraq," Stallworth tweeted in 2009. Stallworth also doubted tweeted, "Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrr @ ppl who actually believe a plane hit the pentagon on 9/11… hole woulda been ASTRONOMICALLY bigger, God bless lost lives."

The former football player's most recent tweet questioning the nature of the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 was sent out less than a year ago, on November 24, 2013.

He should not have this job. Let me distinguish this situation from my normal take on these cases where there is a call for someone's firing based upon unpopular statements they've made:

Donte Stallworth is not being hired as just an aggregator or the like. He's being hired specifically as a National Security "fellow."

I think it is an undebatable proposition that HuffPo would not hire someone pushing the Birth Certificate Conspiracy Theory as the "Barack Obama Biographical Fellow."

You cannot hire a Fake Moon Landing Conspiracist as your "Space News Correspondent." Right? I'm not saying a Fake Moon Landing Conspiracist shouldn't be permitted to work in the media, necessarily.

But... let's keep him away from any story involving astronauts, mm-kay? (Or, as Nina Van Horne would call them: "Actor-nauts.")

Sometimes someone's views are simply crazy (and crazy-uninformed; see some of his other gems at Hot Air) and this is, obviously, disqualifying, and renders someone entirely unemployable in a specific field.

The man cannot write about National Security given that 90% of America's current national security posture is animated by the events of 9/11, events that Donte' Stallworth claims to have never happened at all.

Not only does Donte Stallworth have no qualifications whatsoever to cover National Security (as a "fellow" or other), but his only forays into the field have generated nothing but embarrassment and exposure as a loon.

So even Olbermann feels compelled to say something about this.

"Your supposed news website just hired to cover national security a still theoretically active NFL player with no journalism experience who’s a 9/11 truther, supposedly reformed about being a 9/11 truther, but lying about when he reformed, and, oh by the way, pleaded guilty to killing a man with a car during a DUI five years ago,” he said. "Maybe Donte should have taken this [his transition to a post-NFL career] in easier stages."

Update: Stallworth is now claiming (in a tweet, I think, from yesterday or the day before) that he no longer believes these insane things he believed as of this year.

The HuffPo is generally in damage-control mode, claiming that Stallworth has now done his research or whatever and now understands that Crazy Conspiracies are Crazy.

Note that Stallworth claims that he believed in these Crazy Things five years ago. However, we have that tweet from November 2013 in which he pushes this Crazy Thing anew.

This is why Olbermann accuses him of dishonesty as far as the date upon which he "reformed" from his Crazy Crack Conspiracy Theory days.

Um, you know, I wanted to link Nina Van Horn talking about the Moon Landing Hoax, but all the videos are about a jazz singer with a rough voice calling herself "Nina Van Horn."

Bizarrely, the keyboardist, seen here at 1:55 or so, looks exactly like Elliot DiMauro.

What does this mean?

I don't know, but it seems strange and meaningful, like crop circles.

I'll get Donte Stallworth on it as my Strange Coincidences Fellow.

posted by Ace at 11:39 AM

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