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Conservative Journalist Renews ‘Together We Thrive’ Tucson Memorial T-Shirt Controversy

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by Tommy Christopher | 9:07 pm, May 31st, 2011

» 16 comments

Pat Dollard, a contributing journalist to Andrew Breitbart‘s “Big” websites, reported via his Twitter feed that the University of Arizona had told him that the White House was involved in creating t-shirts with the slogan “Together We Thrive” for the Tucson Memorial in January. Both the White House and the U of A denied this in January, but in light of this fresh allegation, I decided to check with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney at Tuesday’s briefing.

The t-shirt “controversy” was part of an effort to charge the Obama administration with politicizing January’s memorial for the victims of the mass shooting in Tucson, but most of the allegations involved were quickly debunked. One such claim, that the White House was involved in creating and/or distributing the shirts, was refuted by University of Arizona spokesperson Jennifer Fitzenberger and The White House at the time:

A senior administration official confirmed the widely-reported fact that the administration had nothing to do with the shirts.

University of Arizona spokesperson Jennifer Fitzenberger told me that the shirts were, indeed, provided by the University. “The University wanted to give people something to remember that symbolized community spirit and continued the event’s positive energy into the future,” she said.

According to Fitzenberger, the shirts were designed by a University of Arizona student, and they cost about $60,000. “The University will pay for them,” she noted. “No tuition, state allocations, tax dollars or student fees will be used.”

On Tuesday morning, however, Pat Dollard reopened the case, tweeting the following:

@tommyxtopher Why also did you report that a U of A student wrote “Together, We Thrive”?. Your own UofA source denied telling U that, to me.

@tommyxtopher No, no one has debunked it. The University told me that the slogan came from conference calls with the WH & internal meetings.

I asked Dollard to verify that his source was, indeed, Jennifer Fitzenberger, to which he replied:

@tommyxtopher Yeah, it was a broad, and she said that you were the one she spoke to. Jennifer sounds right, don’t have those notes with me.

Dollard hasn’t published his article yet, but I thought it would be a good, collegial gesture to double-check with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney at Tuesday’s briefing, since I was there anyway:

Press Secretary Jay Carney later indicated that he had nothing to add to the statement made in January.

I also emailed Ms. Fitzenberger and her boss, Assistant Vice President for Communications Johnny Cruz, for comment on Dollard’s allegation. I asked, “Do you stand by the denial? Do you have any comment about this allegation? Were there any such conference calls with the White House?”

Mr. Cruz responded: (via email to Ms’ Fitzenberger and me)

The name and logo for the event were developed entirely by the University of Arizona. Branding for the event was not developed in consultation with any elected officials or political organizations.

So far, that makes two White House officials, and two University of Arizona officials, who confirm the provenance of the memorial shirts, but Mr. Dollard promises to keep on digging, and for what it’s worth, I was happy to help.

Andrew Breitbart, Arizona Shooting Tragedy, ed morrissey, Gabrielle Giffords, Jay Carney, Jennifer Fitzenberger, Johnny Cruz, Michelle Malkin, Pat Dollard, t-shirts, together we thrive, Tucson Memorial, University of Arizona

Barack Must Go

barack obama’s amerika where giving an honest or straight answer is against the law…….pathetic.
http://TheDividedStatesBlog.com Publius219

Barack Must Go said:
barack obama’s amerika where giving an honest or straight answer is against the law…….pathetic.

The partisan mind believes what it wants to believe.
WCinWI

Good to know you’re keeping up on all of those hard-hitting news stories.

Forget dropping home prices.

Tshirtgate!!!!!!!
Barack Must Go

Publius219 said:
The partisan mind believes what it wants to believe.

Just the facts ma’ am. Barack is the scum of the earth. He took that tradgedy in Tucson, the one Sarah Palin & Glenn Beck were blamed for by the scumbags in the MSM, and turned it into a quid pro quo Obama 2012 campaign rallye, and at whose expense?

The expense of us ” real ” American people and the memory of a murdered little girl, among others. Not to mention his people ( official ones anyway ) did not pay for the T shirts etc………then who did?

Obama is a cancer on this country that must be removed ( from office ) in the next election, because if he is not, we’re all as good as dead along with our country.
Nacho

I’ve made “Tens” of dollars selling by bootleg copies on eBay.
Gasket

WCinWI said:
Good to know you’re keeping up on all of those hard-hitting news stories.

Forget dropping home prices.

Tshirtgate!!!!!!!

No. We are keeping up with conservative lies and misinformation. Thanks Christopher, again, for debunking these specious lies from the wingnut echo-chamber.
Greg

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/dollard200703
ElCapitanAmerica

WCinWI said:
Good to know you’re keeping up on all of those hard-hitting news stories.

Forget dropping home prices.

Tshirtgate!!!!!!!

The “controversy” (geez) was reopened by another big*.com fake journalist, why don’t you complain to him?
http://www.perceptionasreality.blogspot.com/ skoorbekim

That Tucson “pep-rally” was difficult to watch…
Wellstone “memorial” + T-shirts = creepy…
TfT

How do you feel about the press being kept out of the Biden events? I haven’t seen your take on that.

Also, this was a pep rally in Tuscon,and it was shocking that hehimself would work overtime to promote hehimself rather than the victims. Typical lefty and the media working overtime to protect and defend hehimself.
TfT

How come Ihave never seen a headlinehere that read:

“Liberal journolist…..”?

Has it happenedand I just missed it, or does mediaite, like the rest of the media, reserve the qualifiers only for conservatives? bwahahahaha
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

TfT said:
How do you feel about the press being kept out of the Biden events? I haven’t seen your take on that.

Well, if the game is tit-for-tat, then how about Florida governor Rick Scott having Democrats removed from the budget signing ceremony, which was advertised as a public meeting. Also having Dems removed from his initial budget unveiling?

TfT said:
“Liberal journolist…..”?

Has it happenedand I just missed it, or does mediaite, like the rest of the media, reserve the qualifiers only for conservatives? bwahahahaha

Yes, it does happen. There is a daily slam at MSNBC for misreporting or opining in news pieces and CNN also gets noted. It just seems that conservatives get more attention because, right now, they are committing the nonsense thing more than others. Also, whether anyone likes it or not, Fox is the leader in cable news, or despite their protests, the mainstream. And as the leader/mainstream, they are going to get more attention.
http://www.swissarmyjew.com Keeva

TfT said:
“Liberal journolist…..”?

Has it happenedand I just missed it, or does mediaite, like the rest of the media, reserve the qualifiers only for conservatives? bwahahahaha

Personally, I think all sides of the media are awful and unreliable.
tatboy

The whole shooting was politicized for political gain by the Dems. Sheriff Dupnik had no shame. And now we know Dupnik murders Iraq vets. Hope you on the left never live down how you handled and reported that shooting. It was disgusting. Hope your all proud of yourselves.
Tedderman

Sounds more like a dullard than a Dollard.
david r

I’m sure the Arizona students all love Chairman Obama with all their hearts, but the $60,000 price tag was a little out of their budget. For that kind of money, the students could have brought a big rock concert to campus.

Tommy, you can huff and puff all you want, but you’ll never blow the house down. I believe this was a big Obama campaign deal all the way.