Meida Reporting of Racial Attacks

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I was interested to read an story over the weekend about anti Obama statements being made around the country. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_RACIAL?SITE=CAVIC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT I listen to talk radio and have heard similar comments about people who supported McCain. I remember that there were similar comments made about President Bush after both elections. This type of talk is common and disgusting. One of the problems with anecdotal stories is that they are hard to prove or disprove and are easily taken out of context or misunderstood. By reporting a few incidents from different parts of the country it makes it seem very widespread. People who are prone to do violent and "crazy" things tend to see this as support for them and justification for their action. To be fair the AP should have noted that the same thing has happened to Senator McCain supporters and that such behavior is not acceptable in this country. One of the sources quoted in the article, Southern Poverty Law Center, is in the business of finding and reporting hate crime. They have an interest(financial donations) in seeing that hate crime is reported and people believe that it is a serious problem. Reporting the initial incident is very important and they don't care what the investigation shows. Often times it is a comment that is misunderstood, as was the case with one comment on assassinating President Obama. one girl made the comment in school that her dad said someone should assassinate President Obama, when he said he hopped that no one would assassinate him after watching the demonstrations in California. Rarely does the investigation results get reported because it is not news at that time. The public is left with the impression that the reported comment is the truth. I would be nice if the media would report the news and follow up or at lease report that the comment has not been confirmed by both parties.