Associated Press Fans the Flames of Dubious Ferguson ‘Body Count’ Conspiracy

During the 1990s and early 2000s, the "Clinton body count" conspiracy was all the rage. Perhaps you got the same chain email I did: did you know over 50 individuals connected to President Bill Clinton have died in mysterious circumstances?

The conspiracy relied on a combination of innuendo and statistical ignorance. Most of the "Clinton connections" are simply fabricated: a cashier killed by a robber was actually an "accountant for the CIA." The dozen or so deaths remaining seems high, but tens of thousands of people are vaguely "connected" to a president: Four Marines who were killed in a helicopter crash were listed because Clinton was on the helicopter two months earlier.

A new, woke version of the body count conspiracy has cropped up in liberal circles, with mysterious government assassins targeting protesters of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

"Puzzling number of men tied to Ferguson protests have died," reads the Monday headline from the Associated Press. Other outlets have expanded on this innuendo: "Deaths Of Six Men Tied To Ferguson Protests Prompt Fear Of Sinister Connection"; "Deaths of six men tied to Ferguson protests alarm activists"; "Deaths of Ferguson activists lead some to believe something sinister is at play."
Despite its "puzzlement," the AP cites police statements noting most of the deaths weren't murders and also the crime rate and lack of mental health resources available to black Ferguson residents. But the AP also takes a bizarre "both sides" approach to the issue, quoting activists insisting there is something sinister going on, perpetrated by shadowy "white supremacists or police sympathizers." The deaths are listed out one by one, often with clarifying details omitted.

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