TIME Magazine "Jumps the Shark"!

U.S. Census Bureau employee Bill Sparkman was found dead, hanging from a tree earlier this year on September 12th, in an area of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Clay County, Kentucky.

Mr. Sparkman’s body had the word “FED” written on his chest at the time his body was discovered.

Shortly thereafter the Kentucky State Police, assisted by the FBI announced that they were investigating the death to determine both the cause and means of Mr. Sparkman’s death (homicide, suicide, accident, etc.)

Despite the fact that the investigation of Mr. Sparkman’s death was still ongoing, on September 25, 2009, TIME Magazine published a story entitled Government Distrust and a Dead Census Taker which portrayed the death as a homicide, attempting to link the Census worker’s death to the ongoing Tea Parties, Town Hall Meetings and demonstrations by the conservative right of our nation.  The article  included references to  the fact that this rural aea of Kentucky is possessed with a strong anti-Obama fervor and voted predominantly for John McCain in the last Presidential election.  The story even managed to sneak in references to Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly within in their hypothsis.

"The discovery of the body of Bill Sparkman, 51, a substitute teacher and a field worker for the bureau, comes at a time when talk media, tea parties and white-hot town-hall meetings have fanned antigovernment sentiment. Speculation has run rampant that the Sparkman case may be related to the vitriol. Kentucky...voted overwhelmingly for Senator John McCain during the 2008 presidential election….was it part of the recent rage at what right-wing commentators decry as the big-spending, socialistic government of the first African-American President?"

Just last week Kentucky authorities determined that Mr. Sparkman had, in fact, committed suicide and had intentionally staged his death in such a manner as to make it appear as a homiicde.  Investigators stated Mr. Sparkman's motive for doing so was to ensure his family could collect on a recently purchased life insurance policy.

In addition to making a mockery of a tragic human situation with their lunatic conspiracy theory reporting, TIME Magazine has finally "jumped the shark" and joined the rest of the mainstream media on the trash heap which represents the sad epithet of objective journalism in our country.

Peter J. Mahon