YES, LET'S BAN ALL GOVERNMENT AID TO STUDENTS BECAUSE ONE RECIPIENT WENT NUTS

Oh, for crissake:





I don't just blame Drudge for this bit of idiot bait. I blame WNEW, a CBS news radio station in D.C., which posted the linked story, based on AP reporting. Drudge didn't pull that detail out -- it's WNEW's lede:

James Holmes Received $26K Grant From Bethesda-Based National Institutes of Health

James Holmes, the alleged gunman in the recent theater shooting that left 12 dead in Aurora, Colo., was previously awarded a $26,000 federal grant.

WNEW News reports that Holmes was awarded a prestigious grant from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

It gave the graduate student a $26,000 stipend and paid his tuition for the highly competitive neuroscience program at the University of Colorado in Denver. Holmes was one of six neuroscience students at the school to get the grant money....

Somebody at WNEW undoubtedly knows that rabid government-bashers on the right will eat up a story like this, a story that says an evil, horrible person was sucking on the government teat. Never mind the fact that most of us want the government to encourage education and science, and that Holmes absolutely seemed to be a deserving recipient until he took leave of his senses -- anything that stirs the blood and reinforces the prejudices of Randian rageaholics (even if some of them are part of the hypocritical "keep your government hands off my Medicare" crowd) is good journalism by modern standards, i.e., it pulls in an audience.

So, are the wingers going to be calling this massacre Obama's fault soon? Are they going to say he stole your tax dollars and gave them to a killer to buy massacre weapons? Thanks a bunch, WNEW.

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UPDATE: Clayton Cramer and Instapundit spread the stupid.