Posted on 01/09/2011 7:08:16 PM PST by freespirited
On the day of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting, liberals went on the offensive, suggesting that overheated conservative rhetoric contributed to the Arizona attack.
On Sunday, conservatives pushed back – arguing that attempts to politicize the event were unfair, crass and therefore likely to backfire.
“It should not be, but the media, under the guise of ‘a full exposition’ of the evil in Arizona, is back to subtly and not so subtly pinning the blame for the attempted assassination of the congresswoman and the related shootings on the tea party movement, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, me, you, and everyone right of center,” wrote Erick Erickson, managing editor of RedState.com.
“Let’s be crystal clear: this is the supposedly objective news media doing this, not the openly, partisan left, though it is fueling the media witch hunt. And from what we now know, it is not just media malpractice, but a lie.”
Other conservatives said the criticism reeks of hypocrisy. “Keith Olbermann rants regularly about ‘fascists’ taking over the country, and each day for years has named one or more conservatives ‘the worst person in the world.’ Other liberal talk hosts are scarcely more restrained,” said law professor Brad Smith, a former FEC chairman, in POLITICO’s Arena.
“The comments sections of the Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, and other lefty sites are full of the most vile comments and death wishes for Republicans on a regular basis,” Smith added.
New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R) also voiced anger at Olbermann’s Saturday night comments, which laid at least some blame for the Arizona carnage on Palin, Beck and other prominent conservatives.
“Olbermann does more to coarsen the political rhetoric than virtually anyone else,” Carroll said. “For him, of all people, to urge a toning down of political rhetoric represents the very definition of chutzpah.”
Within hours of the Tucson shooting, prominent liberals had begun tying the event to the violent rhetoric bandied about by conservative media figures like Beck and Limbaugh. And in part because Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a Democrat, made similar criticisms about the “vitriol” on radio and TV in his discussion of the attack, the mainstream media also was filled with questions about the role that the tone of the day’s political discourse played in possibly motivating the alleged killer.
The anti-government language of the YouTube clips that the suspected shooter, Jared Loughner, had uploaded had drawn early connections to the tea party, but no evidence surfaced suggesting that Loughner was a fan or supporter of the tea party, Palin, Beck or any of the other media figures named in some liberal critiques.
The lack of any known connection between Loughner and Palin or the tea party prompted The Washington Examiner’s Byron York to accuse CNN and other media organizations of jumping to conclusions after congressional reporter Jessica Yellin told Wolf Blitzer that “clearly this is a moment to talk about our political rhetoric.”
Yellin pointed out that Palin had released a statement of condolence for Giffords and the other victims of the shooting and their families, but York objected to the notion that a discussion about political vitriol was fair game at that time, when the mainstream media went to great lengths to avoid jumping to conclusions about the reasons behind the Ft. Hood shooting in November 2009.
“Indeed, there is no ‘overt’ or any other sort of connection between Loughner and Palin,” York wrote. “If such evidence came to light, it would certainly be news. But without that evidence, and after a brief caveat, the CNN group went back to discussing the theory that Loughner acted out of rage inspired by Palin and other Republicans. Conclusions were jumped to all around.”
The National Review’s Jonah Goldberg criticized “those who immediately shoe-horned these awful crimes into their ideological prism,” and added: “There have been some truly disgusting displays of opportunism out there.”
Olbermann, New York Times’ columnist Paul Krugman and Joe Klein all pointed to Glenn Beck as a purveyor of the kind of violent rhetoric and conspiracy theories that might push a disturbed person over the edge. Beck was silent Sunday, but his website, The Blaze, was filled with examples of liberals politicizing the shooting.
The site links to Olbermann’s special comment, in which he said Beck “obsesses, nearly as strangely as this Mr. Loughner did, about gold and debt;” and to Krugman’s blog post in which he cites Beck and says “violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate.”
Taken together, these clips form the foundation of what could be a strong counterpunch from Beck on his radio and television shows on Monday.
Beck has been accused before of inciting people to violence, a charge that he has always denied. Last month, to illustrate the absurdity of these claims, he discussed the Florida school board shooting, noting with mock glee that the shooter had links to Media Matters, a frequent Beck critic, on his Facebook page.
“Let me make this very clear,” Beck said. “Media Matters did not try to go in and shoot the school board. It was the crazy nut job that did it. Period. Nobody’s responsible for making anybody go do anything violent except crazy people who decide that violence is the answer.”
Conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart has already begun to throw the left’s attempts to tie the shooting to the right back at them.
“Not since fake N-Word hurled at Reps Carson/Lewis has an anti-Tea Party strategy blown up in left’s face so Yosemite Sam-like,” tweeted Breitbart, referring to Rep. Andre Carson and Rep. John Lewis’s claims that racial slurs were hurled at them during a tea party event.
Although the episode was widely reported, no video or audio evidence ever surfaced to prove the claims, and the lack of evidence has remained one of the right’s favorite examples of the left’s attempts to smear them as racist.
In a post titled “Breaking: Democrats Plotted to Blame Tea Party for Slaughter,” Jim Hoft, a blogger on Breitbart’s Big Government website, picks up a quote that an anonymous Democratic operative gave to POLITICO as evidence of what he believes is a similarly orchestrated smear.
“They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” said the Democrat. “Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.”
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, suggested the left has a “sad” history of politicizing violence.
“When John F. Kennedy was killed by a supporter of the Soviet Union and Cuba – Lee Harvey Oswald – the establishment left announced that conservatism in Dallas was to blame. A communist kills, conservative America is to blame,” Norquist said.
“Now we have a 22-year-old with no discernible politics (one hint, the “Communist Manifesto” cited approvingly on his website)….and Keith Olbermann is joined by the Democrat Sheriff Clarence Dupnik from Southern Arizona who both blame conservatives. Violence is bad. Liberal Democrats blaming violence on conservatives is so old and anticipated it is now a cliche.”
And Fran Wendelboe, a Republican New Hampshire state representative until December 2010, knocked the idea put forward among liberal commentators that stricter gun control measures would have prevented the Arizona tragedy.
“I hope that this act of a deranged individual does not open the door to finger-pointing against imagined causes,” Wendelboe said. “As a thirty-plus year concealed carry license holder, I accept a deep responsibility to be always ready and vigilant when armed to protect the public from such attacks. As the saying goes, firearms don’t kill people, it is the person pulling the trigger who kill people. Using acts such as these to try to limit the possession/use of firearms of honest citizens will make America a much LESS safe place to live.”
Meanwhile, Jerry Rivers is giving Sheriff Dipsh!t a forum on Fox News right now to slander conservatives.
What’s wrong with Fox News?
The shooter was an atheist and a liberal. He was “leftist”. People like him should be rounded up.
Fox News has unfortunately, due to fear of the Fairness Doctrine, has brought in a bunch of liberal a-holes to destroy the Network. I only watch Fox News because its the only news channel I can tolerate without puking, but its gone downhill in these past few months, really downhill
dunham says punish our enemies...october 2010..
http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-to-latinos-punish-our-enemies/
Quite surprising from Politico, which was among the first to jump on the Blame the Tea Party bandwagon.
There’s quite a lot more ammunition out there that they could have used, but this is still pretty strong.
Let's bombard Fox, Geraldo, that snake, and our Reps and Senators about this kind of thing. Tnhey do not need to sit back and take it.
vaudine
Jerry Rivers apparently has an ironclad contract.
ping
What the bloody hell does Sharron Angle have to do with this..she never even went against Giffords, and never said anything bad about the woman..good God Fox News, again with the idiot Sheriff..are they just having him on for comic relief or what
This banter, spin and lies from Democrats, Liberals, Left-Wingers, Gun Control Freaks, etc. is going nowhere and will fail miserably. Something is terribly wrong with our nation and it is not the Conservative right wing folks that are the problem. The Democrat Party has a very short time to get its act right and inline with majority American thinking. The election of 2012 is coming up quickly and....unless the Democrat Party, their minions and their leader POTUS Obama change their tune, the political destruction of the Democrat party will go forward across all of America. These Democrat fools are living in denial of what happened on November 2, 2010!!!
I don't remember the name of the "documentary" that came out in 1964 about the JFK assassination, but when I first saw it on TV years later, there was a line to the effect, "Dallas was thrilled to see the president, but not everyone there shared in the joy." I looked up at the screen expecting to see something like a drawing of Oswald glowering through a window of the Book Depository, but instead, it was a film clip of a small crowd holding Goldwater signs.
Defamatory liberal propaganda isn't new; it's just become less subtle.
You know, we can boycott FOX news too. Tirades are a turn off, and for their ratings we are putting up with a lot of crap from our own tv. Turn the dang thing off and tell them you’re done until you hear they have toned it down. Everyone gets tired of being angry all the time in their own home.
That so called sheriff is a complete bung-Hole and needs sued and fired ,he is supposed to state the facts, not Leftist talking points and the lefty murderer was his responsibility and on his watch,as is enforcing the law which he refused to do.
Just saw that Jerry Rivers and the Sheriff exchange. Unbelievable.
Sheriff, do you regret what you said?
No (and more of same.)
Sheriff, I’m going to take some heat for this but I agree with you.
I sent a very direct and sharply worded (although respectful) email to Roger Ailes at FOX News yesterday regarding Shep Smith and Geraldo Rivera. They both make me sick.
bttt
What the f*** is wrong with Fox allowing political HACKS like Dupnik ANY air time?
Clarence Dupnik: “The shooter acted out because of Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, the Chamber of Commerce, Glen Beck, unaffordable health care, the failure of Cap and Trade, and Union card checks.”
And what the F*** is wrong with Fox, allowing Jerry Rivers to say a word on the air?
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