So exactly what happened to Air America host Randi Rhodes on Sunday night? When her crash and burn over the weekend was first reported by her own network it was detailed that she had been attacked, possibly by a mugger. Immediately a network host grabbed the tin foil hat and claimed that she was attacked by a conservative. It was a conspiracy.
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| Was Randi Rhodes Drunk and Belligerent Before Mystery Fall? |
Now it appears she was not attacked at all. One witness has even claimed that the left wing host was under the influence of what sounds like a hard night of drinking when she did what certainly sounds like a face plant on a Gotham sidewalk.
Whatever happened – it didn’t go well for Rhodes. She fell and lost some teeth according to a statement . But Air America host Jon Elliott reported it this way: Reports claim that he first said she was mugged on Sunday night on 39th Street and Park Ave, nearby her Manhattan apartment, while she was walking her dog Simon. He opened his show by saying “it is with sadness that tonight I inform you that my Air America colleague Randi Rhodes was assaulted last night while walking her dog near her New York City home.”
Pointing out that Rhodes was wearing a jogging suit and displayed no purse or jewelry, Elliott speculated that “this does not appear to me to be a standard grab the money and run mugging.”
But a report from Gawker has a much different take from someone that claims to be a witness to Rhodes on that night: The report notes thatthe person claims he was there and this is what he wrote that he saw:
“Randi Rhodes was no more assaulted by a right-wing fanatic on Monday than Dick Cheney was. She, in fact, fell down and injured her teeth outside of a Midtown Irish bar at around 6 o’clock Sunday evening after downing about fourteen Ketel One Bloody Marys. She was abusive to the barstaff and generally gross, crass, loud, and pretentious. I genuinely hope she has a speedy recovery.”
Continuing: “I never would’ve disclosed this (I believe that anyone should feel free to hang out at Irish pubs at any time and not be concerned about someone publishing their behavior) if Air America hadn’t grossly interpreted a drunken indiscretion and allowed it to be morphed into some bullish rhetoric on air. Whatever journalistic integrity the station may have ever had is now completely compromised. The manipulation of the public diminishes any cause, whether just or fabricated.”