Charlie Sykes of WTMJ radio has posted on his website a correction concerning the alleged particiption of Robert Miranda in a protest and shouting down of a Pro-America Rally at UW-Milwaukee in October 1991. Mark Belling was to have been the featured speaker that day but left as the crowd threw things at the stage and prevented the rally speakers from being heard.
It turns out Robert Miranda was not at the rally.
However, before making the correction Sykes and his attorney went to great lengths trying to see if possibly Miranda had in fact attended the rally. Part of their efforts was to contact anyone involved with the UWM Times, the conservative campus newspaper, which helped organize the event.
I was listed as one of the editors at the time of the event and I was one of the people Charlie Sykes called. I told Sykes that unfortunately it was one of the few times I actually attended class and that I had nothing to do with organizing the event. I also gave him a few names of people who did organize the event and helped him find a videotape of the incident. I suggested he might have the wrong "Miranda" as there was a different person named Miranda on campus involved in campus activism and that may have been the source of the confusion.
Whether Sykes' correction finally settles this case appears to be an open question. However, given the correction, I suspect this case is coming to an end, as well as it should. It was clearly an honest mistake and the record has been corrected.
In the meantime, conservative bloggers should not shy away from talking about this as they would any other topic. It happened, though what harm has come to Robert Miranda's reputation I doubt would be measurable.
Update 8:46 AM Owen at Boots and Sabers has more on the timing on the retraction of the original post, and what it means for other bloggers.
