A walk down memory lane with Al Sharpton and Tawanda Brawley

Ann Coulter does a masterful job of reminding us what had the news media fixated in 1987 - the hoax orchestrated by MSNBC host Al Sharpton:

Back in November 1987, 15-year-old Tawana Brawley was found curled up inside a plastic bag in an apartment building parking lot. She had feces and racist graffiti all over her body, her clothing was torn and burned, and she was apparently unconscious.

When she emerged from her (fake) unconsciousness, she claimed she had been held captive in the woods for several days, while being raped and beaten by six white men, including policemen and the local prosecutor.

The story being utterly preposterous, every law enforcement agency in the universe was called in to investigate -- the FBI, local, county and state police. Gov. Mario Cuomo directed the state attorney general, Robert Abrams, to investigate Brawley's claims.

MSNBC's Al Sharpton was one of Brawley's "advisers" throughout this massively expensive investigation, along with lawyers Alton Maddox and C. Vernon Mason -- both later disbarred.

Eight months and 1.3 million taxpayer dollars later (in today's dollars), the purported attack was exposed as a complete fraud. It turned out that Brawley made up the gang-rape story to avoid explaining to her volatile stepfather why she hadn't come home for four nights straight.

Among other findings, the grand jury's 170-page report noted these facts:

-- Witnesses saw Brawley getting into the plastic bag by herself, and then hopping around in it before curling up into a ball on the ground.

-- The hospital rape tests were negative and no semen was found anyplace on her body.

-- She had no recent bruises or other marks on her body consistent with rape.

-- Hospital technicians who evaluated Brawley concluded that she was faking unconsciousness.

-- Brawley was well-nourished, had clean breath, no bruises or injuries to her body and was not suffering from exposure, despite temperatures having dropped to freezing several times when she was allegedly being gang-raped in the woods.

-- Witnesses had seen Brawley in a vacant apartment where she had once lived during the period of the alleged attack.

-- In that apartment, investigators found charred fibers matching the burnt clothes Brawley had been found in, the source of the material that had been stuffed in her nose and ears, and the feces that had been smeared on her. Investigators even identified the dog whose feces it was. Her dirty clothes were still in a washing machine in the building.

At no point did Sharpton question Brawley's story or urge her to recant. To the contrary, as the case fell apart, Sharpton's demagoguery rose to Olympian heights.

He branded Abrams "Hitler," called Gov. Mario Cuomo a racist, and demanded that Cuomo appoint Maddox special prosecutor on the case. (It was a reasonable request: Maddox had accused Abrams of masturbating to photos of Brawley.)

Even in 1997 -- a decade after Brawley's story had been proved a hoax beyond a scintilla of a doubt -- Sharpton arranged for her to give a speech to his United African Movement at a Brooklyn church.

I find it hard to believe that Al Sharpton did not know Brawley was lying about being raped by a Nazi cult on the Wappingers Falls police force.

Just a reminder; this is the same news media that are feeding us the same kinds of lies by Team Obama and his allies including ... wait for it ... the "reporter" Al Sharpton.  Keep in mind that this was a "story" where the key element was race baiting.  Times really have not changed at all; the same race baiters are still at it.  You can keep this media, of you want it.  Me, personally, not so much.