The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Andrew Sullivan Gets Punked?

Posted on | July 6, 2010 | 12 Comments

Reacting to a blog report that an LGBT activist in Uganda had been beheaded, Sully headlined it:

The Wages Of Christianism

And then the blog that ran the original report added this:

Updated — Possible Hoax
. . . Sources in the U.S. and Uganda now tell me that the young man in question was not connected with Integrity Uganda, and that Bishop Christopher Senyonjo did not make the statement attributed to him . . .
The Rev. Erich K Kasirye, identified as the “General Secretary, Integrity Uganda” and who gave an extensive quotation that I reproduced below, appears to have been involved with a few money-raising scams . . .

“This just in from the Dept. of Too Good to Check . . .”

UPDATE: From the Uganda Daily Monitor:

Detectives had by last night taken into custody two men suspected of beheading a colleague worker at a farm in Wakiso District that authorities said belongs to Electoral Commission chairman Badru Kiggundu.
The trio, witnesses told police, stayed in the same house in Kibiri A zone, a rural lakeside residential area overlooking the posh Munyonyo and Buziga suburbs. Police Spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said the arrests followed the finding, in a pit latrine, on Friday of a human head believed to be that of Pascal Kashushu killed a week earlier.

So, according to the local newspaper, police believe Kashushu was killed by “colleague workers” with whom the dead man had been staying at the same house. No word on the motive, and nothing to implicate homophobic “Christianists” in the murder.

UPDATE II: It seems that the campaign to turn the murdered man into Uganda’s Matthew Shepard began with an Anglican gay activist named Colin Coward who (a) spells the victim’s name “Pasikali Kashusbe” and (b) so far as can be determined, has never set foot in Uganda.

Coward’s report ricocheted around the gay blogosphere, onto DKos and HuffPo and thence to Memeorandum, where I saw it, but there is not a single regular-news source in Uganda or anywhere else reporting this as an anti-gay hate crime. The blog that Sully linked as his source now says:

The young man’s murder is no less horrific. But the connection to homophobia, for now, appears doubtful.

Perhaps Sully should go back to obstetric theorizing about Republican women, which seems to be his chief area of expertise.

UPDATE III: Local news video:

If I understand the reporter correctly, one of the suspects who has been questioned by police is the cousin of the victim, and police have not yet established a motive.

UPDATE IV: Why did some people leap so quickly to the conclusion that homophobia was to blame for Kashushu’s death? The Advocate reports:

They were looking for the Rev. Henry Kayizzi Nsubuga, who disappeared last month after delivering a sermon supporting gay people.

It seems to be taken as a given by gay-rights activists, post hoc ergo propter hoc, that Nsubuga has fallen victim to homophobic violence. Well, read this story in the Uganda New Vision and see if you find any reason to be skeptical toward such an assumption.

Everybody with access to the Internet nowadays seems to think they’re a detective, and this is like CSI: Kampala or something.

UPDATE V: Bad week for Sully: Levi Johnston admits he was “just makin’ stuff up.”

Category: Andrew Sullivan, Gays, Uganda

Comments

12 Responses to “Andrew Sullivan Gets Punked?”

  1. BulletMagnetEd
    July 6th, 2010 @ 10:16 pm

    I guess the fact that the report said “Uganda” instead of “Nigeria” must’ve thrown him…

  2. BulletMagnetEd
    July 6th, 2010 @ 6:16 pm

    I guess the fact that the report said “Uganda” instead of “Nigeria” must’ve thrown him…

  3. Robert Stacy McCain
    July 6th, 2010 @ 11:56 pm

    I guess the fact that the report said “Uganda” instead of “Nigeria” must’ve thrown him…

    What gets me here is Sully’s utter absence of skepticism — this Anglican activist who lives in Wiltshire asserts a hate crime in Uganda based on an e-mail and, hey, it must be true!

    My natural instinct led me to wonder, “Hey, what’s the local press saying about this story?” Y’know: Maybe there are some extra details that might be important. All it took was a quick Google search (“Uganda+beheaded”)to find the Monitor story which, as I say, doesn’t seem to corroborate the gay-martyr angle — an angle that, suspiciously enough, was only being reported by this one gay-activist guy in England.

    BTW, I’m not leaping to the opposite conclusion. For all we know, maybe there’s just some confusion about the identity of the victim and the motives for his murder — natural enough in the wake of a heinous crime. But what you don’t know, you don’t know, and “confirmation bias” isn’t evidence.

  4. Robert Stacy McCain
    July 6th, 2010 @ 7:56 pm

    I guess the fact that the report said “Uganda” instead of “Nigeria” must’ve thrown him…

    What gets me here is Sully’s utter absence of skepticism — this Anglican activist who lives in Wiltshire asserts a hate crime in Uganda based on an e-mail and, hey, it must be true!

    My natural instinct led me to wonder, “Hey, what’s the local press saying about this story?” Y’know: Maybe there are some extra details that might be important. All it took was a quick Google search (“Uganda+beheaded”)to find the Monitor story which, as I say, doesn’t seem to corroborate the gay-martyr angle — an angle that, suspiciously enough, was only being reported by this one gay-activist guy in England.

    BTW, I’m not leaping to the opposite conclusion. For all we know, maybe there’s just some confusion about the identity of the victim and the motives for his murder — natural enough in the wake of a heinous crime. But what you don’t know, you don’t know, and “confirmation bias” isn’t evidence.

  5. Andrew Sullivan
    July 7th, 2010 @ 3:29 am

    The Palins got to Levi Johnson. That is why he is changing his tune. It has gotten so bad that Levi denies that Trig is his son. That is how dangerous the Palins are. They torture you by running their snow machines without mufflers. It is unbearable. Joe McGinniss told me so.

  6. Andrew Sullivan
    July 6th, 2010 @ 11:29 pm

    The Palins got to Levi Johnson. That is why he is changing his tune. It has gotten so bad that Levi denies that Trig is his son. That is how dangerous the Palins are. They torture you by running their snow machines without mufflers. It is unbearable. Joe McGinniss told me so.

  7. Andrew Sullivan
    July 7th, 2010 @ 3:30 am

    And being me is never having to say you are sorry. If Ace and you get too mean, I will just break from blogging for a few days.

  8. Andrew Sullivan
    July 6th, 2010 @ 11:30 pm

    And being me is never having to say you are sorry. If Ace and you get too mean, I will just break from blogging for a few days.

  9. Kojocaro
    August 27th, 2010 @ 6:39 pm

    no doubt the gay suprwmacists over at little green molesters will gleefully run with this

  10. Kojocaro
    August 27th, 2010 @ 10:39 pm

    no doubt the gay suprwmacists over at little green molesters will gleefully run with this

  11. Kojocaro
    August 27th, 2010 @ 10:39 pm

    supremacists*

  12. Kojocaro
    August 27th, 2010 @ 6:39 pm

    supremacists*