Grimm’s Fairy Tale:The Legend of Vicki Soto

In this article titled Grimm’s Fairy Tale:The Legend of Vicki Soto we’ll examine a recent hit-piece published by the Miami Herald directed at, among others, Tony Mead.

In the 1920s American newspaper magnate, racist, war-monger and all around megalomaniac, William Randolph Hurst single handedly necessitated the coining of the term “yellow journalism” during his efforts to demonize everything from cannabis to Mexicans. It is a term that has come to be understood as…

“A type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers.[1] Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism.”

On January 2, 2016 the Miami Herald did Hurst proud.

Grimm’s Fairy Tale:The Legend of Vicki Soto

In an article titled Florida’s unhinged ‘truthers’ exacerbate Newtown’s grief columnist Fred Grimm unashamedly lays his ignorance, bias and hypocrisy bare for the entire world to see. I must say it’s somewhat refreshing, in this day and age, to see a grown man so gleefully unencumbered by concepts like honesty, integrity and fairness.

Grimm contacted Tony Mead – co-administrator for the Sandy Hook Hoax facebook page and contributing author to Insanemedia – to get Tony’s thoughts on the recent events surrounding James Tracy and his employers at Florida Atlantic University.

Little did Tony know the disdain in which his words would be wrapped.

Tony Mead feels victimized. “I’ve been attacked online. My business has been attacked. My ex-wife has been contacted. Google my name, you’ll see blogs attacking me as a pedophile.”

Poor, befuddled Tony can’t understand why he has become the object of so much vitriol. After all, the Hollywood man told me, he’s only the administrator of the Sandy Hook Hoax Facebook page, where he hosts fantastic assertions about the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre of 26 school kids and teachers, where first responders and parents of the victims are characterized as cunning and mendacious “crisis actors” in a government-orchestrated hoax.

Mead seems shocked that others might stalk him with the same aggressive hostility that he and his followers employ against the grieving parents of massacred children.

The intellectual dishonesty required to conjure up nonsense like that is truly staggering. Using Grimm’s Logic – a term I am seriously thinking of copyrighting – it would be completely understandable if we began attacking Mark Zuckerberg for every opinion shared on fb. Actually, it would make more sense. Zuckerberg at least profits off those opinions.

Simply because one provides a forum for discussion does not mean they necessarily agree with all opinions expressed within that forum. The Miami Herald has a comments section for it’s articles. Are we to assume that Mr. Grimm concurs with all thoughts and opinions shared in those sections?

It’s laughable but exhaustingly typical of Mr. Grimm and his ilk. Here’s a man blissfully ignorant of the inherent hypocrisy in making a living as a media columnist, offering opinion, while condemning others for doing the same.

Grimm goes on to suggest that Tony has “stalked” Sandy Hook family members in an “aggressive and hostile” manner. This asinine assertion, in my opinion, rockets over the line of libel.

I’ve known Tony Mead for a good portion of the 3 years since the events at Sandy Hook – both as a co-administrator of the Sandy Hook Hoax pages and as a fellow researcher/author – and I can assure you I have never witnessed or heard of Tony “stalking” anyone, aggressively or otherwise. He has reached out to people connected to the Sandy Hook Event in an effort to gather further information, yes, but to compare that with the very real crimes of stalking and harassment is not only insulting to those who actually experience them but it should also send a shiver down the spine of every reporter on the Miami Herald staff who phone people everyday with questions or for comment.

Mr. Grimm would likely be in favour of the type of laws proposed by Diane Feinstein that would limit exactly who could be considered a “journalist” deserving of the protections afforded to journalists.

Feinstein Wants to Limit who can be a Journalist

In a proposed amendment to a media shield law being considered by Congress, Feinstein writes that only paid journalists should be given protections from prosecution for what they say or write. The language in her proposal is raising concerns from First Amendment advocates because it seems to leave out bloggers and other nontraditional forms of journalism that have proliferated in recent years thanks to the Internet.

Heaven forbid anyone other than people like Mr. Grimm be allowed to excrete that much emotionally charged invective while simultaneously providing zero substantiating evidence.

Grimm’s Fairy Tale:The Legend of Vicki Soto

Speaking of “zero substantiating evidence” if the regurgitation of proven falsehoods were slightly more appreciated Mr. Grimm would surely be headed for a Pulitzer with this next effort.

In November, a truther disrupted the Vicki Soto 5K Memorial Run, organized to honor the heroic Sandy Hook teacher killed while trying to shield her students.

Man Arrested After Disruption at Vicki Soto 5k Charity Run

Stratford police say that while at the event, 32-year-old Matthew Mills of Brooklyn, N.Y. went up to some family members and said the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings were staged and part of a conspiracy.

Generally I am not in favour of confronting family members connected to the Sandy Hook Event. Apart from leaving yourself wide open to accusations and condemnations I doubt you’d get a straight answer out of anyone to whom you spoke. In this case I’m willing to cut Mr. Mills some slack for his efforts to ask questions. You’ll see why in a few minutes.

In fact we have no idea what Mr. Mills did, or did not, do or say. The fact the press has printed an accusation and Mr. Grimm has regurgitated it certainly does not, on it’s own, make it true. The media often feeds us fantasy disguised as truth. As the character Maxwell Scott said to Ransom Stoddard in the John Ford classic, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance – “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Which brings us to the legend of Victoria Soto

As has been widely reported and as Mr. Grimm reinforced in his article, Victoria Soto was a teacher at Sandy Hook who heroically lost her life on December 14, 2012 trying to save her students from a mad gunman. We know this is true because it was written about in leading media outlets around the world.

Like here – Connecticut Shooting: Hero Teacher Died Saving Students and here – Victoria Soto, Newtown Teacher, Emerges As Hero After Shooting and here – She died a hero’: Teacher shot dead trying to protect children in Sandy Hook massacre laid to rest and here – Teacher from Stratford shielded students

And here, in an article discussing the Soto family’s desire to trademark Vicki Soto’s name. Heaven forbid someone distort the legend of Victoria Soto or dare to profit in some unscrupulous manner.

“Vicki is a national public figure and a hero, and her foundation is focused on helping kids get scholarships to college,” said family friend Ryan Graney, who has helped the Sotos battle dozens of unofficial tribute pages, some of which have solicited donations in her name.

It makes up part of Wikipedia’s stirring official entry on the Sandy Hook Event

Soto had hidden several children in a closet, and when Lanza entered her classroom, she told him that the children were in the school gym. When several children ran from their hiding places, Lanza began shooting the students. Soto was shot after she “threw herself in front of her first grade students”

It’s referenced on the official Victoria Soto Memorial Fund page

Vicki lost her life tragically in the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, CT on December 14, 2012 protecting her first grade students. Many of those students are alive today because of her heroic efforts to hide and protect those children whom she dearly loved.

And most recently was reiterated by Vicki’s sister, Jillian, on CNN



“She would have done exactly what she did that day. She would have tried to hide as many of her kids as she could. She would have been going to that door to lock the door and keep her kids safe.”

Case closed. Victoria Soto is a true blue American hero who died sacrificing her life for the lives of her students. Off of this premise her family tries to change gun laws, they attempt to trademark her name, they fund raise and profit – they even named a school after her – New school named for slain Newtown teacher Victoria Soto – they want a street named after her and as we’ve seen they have no problem having someone who dares to ask questions, arrested.

There’s just one problem. According to the State Police report absolutely NONE of the accounts of Victoria Soto’s heroism are true. None.

Click on the banner for the entire page from the State Police report



The above file comes directly from Book 1 – pdf 00172566 of the Connecticut State Police report into the events at Sandy Hook. It states that on January 21, 2013 – slightly more than one month after the events at Sandy Hook – Connecticut State Police met with the family of Victoria Soto and relayed to them the following information regarding the reports of Victoria’s “heroism”.

“…unfortunately the earlier media reports of Vicki’s actions were not truthful. We advised them that there was no information, based on the physical evidence and the statements of the children survivors, that Vicki was able to do any of those things. We told them she was most likely one of the first persons shot in that classroom and it appeared they were taken by surprise and therefore, there just wasn’t any time for her to hide the children anywhere.”

That’s right…she didn’t hide anyone. She didn’t misdirect the shooter. She didn’t shield her students and she didn’t save anyone’s life. All she allegedly did, according to the official report, was get shot. Her family knows this. They’ve known it for 3 years. Why do they continue to trade off the “hero” narrative for political and personal gain?

If nothing else it really should cause one to stop and wonder how a story with absolutely no corroborating witnesses or evidence even got started in the first place. It should also cause one to call into question the veracity of the claim that she was taken by surprise. Multiple rounds fired to gain entry. Multiple rounds fired to kill 2 women in the hallway outside her classroom, yet somehow she and her class are taken by surprise?

Contradictions piled on top of lies and half truths.

Grimm’s Fairy Tale:The Legend of Vicki Soto

At this point I wish to make it perfectly clear that we at Insanemedia do not condone the harassment or intimidation of anyone connected to the Sandy Hook Event, be they believer or researcher. As you’ll notice if you read through the blog we often reach out to people about whom we write to offer an opportunity for comment or rebuttal prior to an article’s release but that is precisely what “professional journalists” do. You’ll also be hard pressed to find an unsubstantiated claim or unsourced quote.

So why the hostility?

All we have been provided in terms of evidence for the event at Sandy Hook is in the form of a narrative – an urban legend – of heroic women charging an armed gunman, diving in front of students, stuffing over a dozen children into a 4×3 bathroom, etc…but if we take the time to peel away the layers of the legend you begin to find it’s full of plot holes and continuity errors.

For noticing this we are harassed, intimidated and demonized both by a media who’s alleged role is to investigate and provide facts and Sandy Hook family members who preach peace and love while simultaneously hounding researchers and those who dare to express an opinion.

Tony Mead recently wrote a guest post on James Tracy’s Memory Hole Blog regarding this very issue. I encourage you to follow the link and read the entire piece.

Lenny Pozner’s HONR Network: The Fine Art of Online Stalking and Harassment

Since so many people are showing up on my Facebook page for the first time, not knowing the persecution that we’ve endured, I think it appropriate that I introduce you to the HONR Network.

The HONR Network was founded by Lenny Pozner to seek out, identify, stalk and harass anyone who investigates the suspicious and confusing facts surrounding the Sandy Hook incident. They are dedicated to investigating individuals’ backgrounds, places of employment, family and friends, and then attacking their targets by posting personal information, pictures and even contacting people’s employers with accusations of harassment.

You may also find this effort of ours instructive

The REAL Sandy Hook Stalkers

Grimm’s Fairy Tale:The Legend of Vicki Soto

From the very earliest stages of the events of December 14, 2012 we were misdirected and demonized by a sycophantic media. A media that long ago gave up any pretense of being a true investigative arm of the people. A media to which Mr. Grimm so obviously belongs. We have been lied to by authorities and the families and we have been hounded and harassed by their allies and agents. And people wonder why we might be a little concerned. Why we might have questions.

As Tony Mead stated in an open reply to Mr. Grimm’s article…

This story is being used to change gun laws, mental health laws, school security measures, and to attack our 1st Amendment rights. You better believe I’m asking questions !! EVERYBODY should be asking questions !!

Indeed they should.

~SwanSong~

Thanks for reading Grimm’s Fairy Tale:The Legend of Vicki Soto. As always we welcome your thoughts and comments on this, or any of our articles.