Last night, Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP found itself the target of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
Stewart lampooned the station’s story about Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges flashing gang signs with a convicted criminal, who just happened to be volunteering to get out the vote in a local neighborhood.
Stewart played a clip from Melissa Harris-Perry’s MSNBC show pointing out that the gang-sign story probably started when Hodges wrote an open letter about Minneapolis police, saying “…some officers abuse the trust that is afforded to them, and take advantage of their roles to do harm rather than prevent it.” Jay Kolls, the story’s reporter, said it was the police who tipped him off about the gang signs that aren’t gang signs.
According to Stewart, #pointergate, as the story is known on twitter, is less about the mayor siding with a known gangster who isn’t in a gang and more about Minneapolis police throwing a sign of their own to the Mayor, the extended middle finger.