Not everyone in the Karl Rove "reality based community" understands metaphor. Not everyone who listens to Glenn Beck on Fox News understands that his frothing diatribes against enemies on the left supercharge Rupert Murdoch's profit machine. On both the Left and the Right, the deranged draw energy from perceived slights. But the worst of it, comes from the Right. In the mainstream media, there is a pronounced effort to balance blame for the decline of civil discourse exposed last weekend as a bloody punctuation mark: the political execution administered by a deranged individual in Arizona. What balance? The Left has been effectively neutralized by fear mongering from the Right. America is in a state of tense anxiety as it becomes clear our status as a first world superpower has been eclipsed by economic realities we long ignored. What is rising behind the public anger-- expressed as the Tea Party whatever it stands for-- is a form of right-wing corporatism foreign to recent American history.
Last Fall, a gunman was arrested on his way to shoot up the liberal Tides Foundation in San Francisco. Tides has been involved in supporting liberal media outreach; playing catch up to the sophisticated mechanisms deployed by the Right to coopt the mainstream media, altogether. Media Matters wrote then, about the connection between Fox host Glenn Beck and the thwarted assassin. "In total, prior to the attempted rampage, Beck had attacked the Tides Foundation 29 times. On September 28th, more than a month after the shooting, Beck reiterated his focus on the Tides Foundation, warning, "I'm coming for you." In jailhouse interviews, the gunman confessed he views Beck as a "schoolteacher" who "blew my mind." My would-be killer admitted that Beck "give[s] you every ounce of evidence you could possibly need" to commit violence."
After the attempt against him in San Francisco, Tides former president Drummond Pike wrote a public letter to Fox News advertisers, "The next ‘assassin’ may succeed, and if so, there will be blood on many hands. The choice is yours. Please join my call to do the right thing in this regard and put Fox News at arm’s length from your company by halting your advertising with them."So far, the body count is six dead and fourteen wounded. What can you do? To start, there is a petition circulated by CREDO, calling on Sarah Palin to renounce the use of shooting images in political rhetoric immediately, and stop using her platform to promote and validate violent calls to action on the right. Click here, to access the petition.
14 comments:
Certainty no one would argue the point that Glenn Beck plays on fears and tells lies; but is his obnoxious rhetoric necessarily a call to violence?
It sounds like this Loughner kid, like any other terrorist, had no G_d, no ideology or any faith beyond his paranoia and megalomania. No rhetoric from either side could have ever changed that
Unhinged political rehetoric leads to unhinged people doing unhinged (and tragic) actions. This is an excerpt from Salon.com:
When the GOP didn't have the votes to stop healthcare reform from passing, their strategy -- and it almost worked -- was to scare Democratic elected officials. That was the point of telling everyone to shout themselves hoarse at the town halls: to terrify House members. Convince them that their constituents were incensed. If some LaRouchites or other unclassifiable political entities got into the mix, fine -- more voices for the choir of rage. What was formerly a sort of uneasy tolerance of the extremists inched closer to open acceptance. Fox News' Roger Ailes allows Glenn Beck to run amok spreading classic Bircher paranoia. Matt Drudge links to conspiracy-mad broadcaster Alex Jones. Everyone in the party had to pretend to be cool with idiot extremist Oath Keeper Sharron Angle, because the craziness the right-wing whipped up led their primary voters to select her over the safe party hack who would've handily defeated Harry Reid. There are connections -- both direct and spiritual -- between the far-right Patriot movements that flourished in the '90s and some of the more out there elements of the Tea Parties.
...and in fairness, the left was just as wrong to toss around terms like "fascists" during the Bush/Cheney years.
Sticks and stones. But the left never created a Goebbels like spin machinery called Fox News. Anyone remember him?
I just signed the Credo petition, along with Move-on. Does anyone use Credo? We are ready to get a new phone contract and I love the basis behind the Credo Company; however, we need smartphones and would really like to get IPhones. I really hate giving my money to AT&T, even though I use them for home phone and internet. Anyone have any suggestions for me?
tom
GET THE SMART PHONE...IPhone and worry about AT&T later
Don't forget Rush Slimeball in this mix. He rants with half truths and lies for hours everyday. Normal people can deal with it but for the unbalanced who think GOD is talking to them through TV and radio, it is a call to action. It is possible to listen to hate media non-stop, 24/7 in this country. It has to stop!
President Obama held a "Moment of Silence" for the victims of the Arizona shooting. I am just curious why he did not do something similar for the victims at Ft Hood.
Joe Manchin a DEMOCRAT from West Virginia actually shot the Cap and Trade bill as part of a campaign commercial. Did this inspire the dude? Just asking!
If Sarah Palin and Fox News can be inspiring why can't a W. Virginia Governor running for senate who uses a prop to prove to W. Virginia voters who are not so keen on the values of DC Democrats be an inspiration.
I am just amazed how quickly the Sarah Palin, Fox News Meme has spread across the blogosphere. The problem is no one believes it except kooks on the left and of course Paul, my veins pop out my neck when I hear Bush's name, Krugman.
Go to Michelle Malkin's website, she posted all of the left wing lunacy, that the MSM failed to include this weekend.
Malkin's one of the biggest purveyors of hate, though she's still steaming over Beck upping her schtick a notch.
But her examples, while thoroughly detestable, lack the prominence and cultural currency of what can be seen on the right. For example, the Getty Images guy doesn't have the most popular radio show in America and Dem leaders in Congress don't regularly cite "Getty Images guy" as their ideological hero.
I'm not a card carrying GOP member, but I believe that when things like this happen, the entire, media - all of the outlets, go on a feeding frenzy blaming one group or the other.
Whoever mentioned Ft. Hood was spot on. Where was the rhetoric then? Oh no, we shouldn't blame muslim extremists, but it's okay to point to Fox News as the problem in the case when no connection has been proven.
Give me a break!
The whole thing is tragic. An unbalanced kid, and I say kid because in reality, that's what he sounds like from his rantings. This is of his own doing and ideals - Rush, Beck, Fox & Palin didn't tell the kid or suggest he do anything he did. He had the communist manifesto as reading material!
Please - what's good for one insane person is good for another. Can I blame the bleeding heart liberals for the Ft. Hood shooting? No, because there's no connection - nor is there one here!
It is shameful that you are attempting to use this tragic shooting by a person with obvious mental illness to further your political agenda. For the record, Jared Lee Loughner was a registered independent who didn't vote in the 2010 election.
The inflammatory rhetoric of the Republican right created the climate within which this tragedy occurred.
National political figures, news media stars, and recently-elected freshman congressman with their "no compromise" positions have built the stage for violence and reprisal.
The Republican message is that all opposition to their perspectives must be eliminated. Please don't fool yourselves, Palin's "reload" rhetoric, videos hunting Elk, and maps with gun sight cross-hairs are milestones in violence.
Individuals of questionable mental stability are encouraged to violence in this political climate. If encouraged, hate breeds more hate -- with dire consequences.
Turn Off Fox!
Sarah Palin Effigy Hangs in West Hollywood. Is this fault of Fox News or Rush Limbaugh?????
http://laist.com/2008/10/27/effigy_of_sarah_palin_hanging_in_we.php
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