Democracy for Vancouver

A case of pre-mature blog-u-lation, apparently:

Randi Rhodes, the Air America radio host who began her talk-show career on South Florida’s WIOD 610-AM, was injured Sunday night when she fell near her apartment on Manhattan’s East Side.

The circumstances of that fall were murky Tuesday. Monday night, Air America’s Jon Elliott announced on his show that Rhodes had been assaulted while walking Simon, her Yorkshire terrier, about a block from her Park Avenue home.

He speculated that the attack was the work of “the right-wing hate machine.”

The New York Daily News soon reported on its website that Rhodes, 49, hadn’t been attacked, and Air America posted a statement on its website saying that ``the reports of a presumed hate crime are unfounded.”

Rhodes, 49, is an outspoken anti-war, anti-Bush administration progressive and a regular target of right-wing blogs.

n a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, her attorney, Robert V. Gaulin, said that Rhodes ``was disoriented after she hit the ground and sustained facial injuries…We have no reason to believe she was a target…She’s at the doctor.”

He wouldn’t elaborate on her injuries but said she was in pain. He said that onlookers helped.

“She was assisted and went on her way. She did not at the time file a police report.”

Gaulin noted that ‘’some people get hit from behind. She did not walk into anything,’‘ but he wouldn’t say if Rhodes believes she was hit from behind.

Simon the Yorkshire terrier, he said, “was not involved.”

He called the situation ”a mess,” adding that Elliott ``didn’t talk to us and didn’t get any information from us.”

Late Tuesday Elliott issued a statement saying, “I shouldn’t have speculated based on hearsay that Randi Rhodes had been mugged and that it may have been an attack from a right-wing hate machine. I apologize for jumping to conclusions based on an emotional reaction.

“I wish Randi nothing but the best and look forward to a speedy recovery.”

Gaulin said she hopes to be back on the air Thursday. Air America’s Sam Seder has been filling her 3 p.m.-6 p.m. slot.

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