Media whitewashes ultra-right in Arizona massacre

The Arizona shooting and the context of right-wing extremism
By Michael J.W. Stickings Offering some of the best commentary yet on the Arizona shooting, Slate's Jacob Weisberg makes the crucual distinction between what may have been going on inside Jared Lee Loughner's troubled head, "politically tinged schizophrenia," and outside: To call his crime an attempted Assassination is to acknowledge that it appears to have had a political and not merely a personal context. That context...

The foolishness of the 'blood libel' charge
Greg already touched on many of the more egregious aspects of Sarah Palin's video response to critics, but I wanted to focus more directly on her use of the term "blood Libel." First off, it would be a serious stretch to assign any blame to Palin for Jared Loughner's actions. But while this is a situation in which Palin has been genuinely wronged by critics, she has already squandered any Moral High Ground she might have fairly laid claim to. Part of Palin's appeal to her base comes from her w...

Re: Defending the Tea Party
Katrina’s piece on the homepage looks at how Tea Party–backed lawmakers have responded to the whirlwind Rhetoric surrounding the Tucson tragedy. I caught up with Mark Meckler, co-founder and national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, late last night. He confessed to having been bogged down in a “media frenzy” over of the past few days, and said he wasn’t exactly pleased with what he’d been hearing. “What we saw is an example of the depravity of people ...

Sharron Angle: I condemn all acts of violence (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Heavy metal band responds to allegations that their music had any influence on AZ shooter Chris Christie to Rudy Giuliani: Butt out Police visited Loughner's home before shooting Face of evil: Mug Shots of famous assassins [SLIDESHOW] Poll of Conservatives shows support for broad cuts to spending, including Military Spending Former Republican Senate Candidate Sharron Angle condemned Tucson shooter Jared Loughner and expressed concern about the politicize...

Why the surprise? Whats the urgency?
Since the shootings in that Safeway Parking Lot in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday, January 8, 2011, the Left and its major supporter, the Mainstream Media, have been having a field day with hateful non-statements against the Right: Everybody and his brother in those two camps has been taking every available opportunity to say something more or less like “Although there’s no evidence or solid reasoning to support it, it’s obvious that, even if he wasn’t actually hired and co...

Jared Loughner: Was It the Family's Fault?
​Details on Jared Lee Loughner and what occurred (and what may have occurred) prior to his shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and more than a dozen others, killing six, in a Tucson Safeway Supermarket last Saturday continue to unfold. The questions everyone wants answers to, of course: Could we have stopped him? Should we have known? And...why didn't someone know? Particularly, say, his parents? Inevitably, in situations like these, people seek someone or thing to blame...

Beck Stokes Fears Of "A Ban On Guns" Following AZ Shooting
Beck Claims Politicians Are "Pushing" To Ban Guns Following AZ Shooting Beck: Lawmakers Are Pushing "A Ban On Guns." On his Fox News show, Beck claimed that lawmakers are pushing "a ban on guns" in response to the Arizona shooting. Beck stated: BECK: It didn't take long for Washington to come out with their solution to the problem of the alleged violent Rhetoric. The solution, however, comes despite not having a shred of evidence that this crazed gunman was motivated by anything other than his...

Loughners photo
The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi looks at how various Newspapers treated the unsettling police-released photo of Jared Loughner Tuesday and finds his own employer to be the outlier. The New York Times, Daily News, New York Post all went big with the image – with the New York Tabloids even silhouetting it against a black background. But the Washington Post opted for a vigil photo, with Loughner’s small head shot tucked beneath it. The Washington Post, by contrast, chose to il...

Loughner In 2007: Die Bitch, Die Cops
From an ever so discreet Washington Post: ‘We don’t understand why this happened,’ parents say By Dana Hedgpeth and David A. Fahrenthold Wednesday, January 12, 2011; A01 TUCSON - Three days after their son allegedly killed six people and left a congresswoman critically wounded, Jared Lee Loughner’s parents issued their first public comments Tuesday night, saying that they, too, cannot comprehend what had motivated the shootings. "There are no words that c...

Wednesday round-up
Yesterday the Court issued two decisions, including Justice Kagan’s first decision as a Justice, and heard oral argument in two cases. The former attracted much more attention than the latter. In a tax case decided yesterday, Mayo Foundation v. United States, the Court (in an opinion by the Chief Justice, with Justice Kagan recused) unanimously upheld a Treasury Department rule that treats medical residents as full-time employees rather than Students, thereby subjecting them to Payroll Tax...

Risk, Prohibition, and Category 3
This post is insanely long, and it might be too obvious for most people, and some may decide at the end I've wasted their time. Maybe it is obvious; I don't know. Sometimes I think there's a value in stating the obvious explicitly, because otherwise people tend to assume it, and therefore overlook it -- and therefore its very obviousness makes it inobvious. You know when a post is long? When it starts with a Roman numeral. If you just want some anti-left invective, skip to VI. I. I'm good at s...

If you really believed political rhetoric caused Jared Loughner's killing spree, you wouldn't dare to say it.
Some people displayed a crazed Hunger for a vicious murderer who was inspired by the criticism of the government that has been so powerful over the last 2 years. Jared Loughner was not that guy, and, of course, they looked ridiculous and despicable jumping to say that he was. Now, what if it were really true that incendiary political Rhetoric pushed mentally unstable individuals over the edge and caused them to act out murderously? Picture such a mentally unstable person reading and listening t...

Words have consequences (Leo W. Gerard)
Five years ago, a 47-year-old Missouri woman began a duplicitous on-line courtship through MySpace with a 13-year-old neighbor who once had been friends with the woman’s daughter. The adult, Lori Drew, flirted with the 13-year-old, Megan Meier, through the guise of a fictitious, 16-year-old character named Josh Evans. Suddenly, “Josh” broke up with Miss Meier, writing to her, “the world would be a better place without you.”  Just hours later, Miss Meier hung herself in h

Worst Human Being in the World: Rush Limbaugh
By Michael J.W. Stickings He could be our Craziest Conservative of the Day, but I think he's actually much worse than that. (Our newest contributor, Nicholas Wilbur, will have more on Rush this afternoon.) On his Radio Show yesterday, Dear Leader Rush actually said -- I kid you not -- that Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner has the full support of the Democratic Party: What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full sup...

The Right Word: Fox and inflammatory rhetoric | Sadhbh Walshe
Rightwing talkshow hosts were horrified by the Arizona massacre - and by the allegations that their fiery Rhetoric may have somehow influenced the shooter. O'Reilly is convinced that the attack was simply the work of an out-of-control "nut job" and was furious with others in the media for suggesting that anyone on the right was in any way responsible for fostering a hostile political environment (View clip here). "The killer Jared Loughner is a psychopath. Civilisation has always had them ...

Krauthammer on Tucson, Palin, and Krugman
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. The charge: The Tucson massacre is a consequence of the "climate of hate" created by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, ObamaCare opponents and sundry other liberal betes noires. The verdict: Rarely in American political discourse has there been a charge so reckless, so scurrilous and so unsupported by evidence. As killers go, Jared Loughner is not reticent. Yet among all his writings, postings, videos and other ravings - and i...

Palins Persecution Complex Culminates with Blood Libel Accusation
This gaffe -- demonstrating both an ignorance of religious history and language -- tops a disastrous week: her crosshairs map has been Exhibit A in the discussion of the use of gun-related imagery in political Rhetoric. But her PR has been woefully inadequate in explaining the map away as "surveyors symbols." Her TLC show will not be renewed by TLC, her chances for a successful run at the presidency have been downgraded, and even Barbara Walters expressed "feeling a bit sorry for her." Palin, ho...

Sarah Palin calls out liberal hate merchants for creating "Blood Libel"
Sarah Palin came out swinging Wednesday by calling out the liberal media and pundits for creating "a blood Libel" for last weekend's Arizona shooting.  Palin said; "acts of monstrous brutality ... begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively" with Americans exercising their constitutional freedoms. "If you don't like a person's vision for the country, you're free to debate that vision. If you don't like their ideas, you're free to propose better ideas. But, especi...

This conversation is a set-up
Harsanyi: My only contribution to the crumbling discourse, it seems, is believing in the tenets of classical Liberalism. That, in and of itself, is a Sin. This leaves the person with two choices: revise your viewpoint or shut up. Which, of course, is the point. The always-civil Jacob Weisberg of Slate was more forceful in this regard, claiming that, “At the core of the Far Right’s culpability is its ongoing attack on the legitimacy of U.S. government . . . .” Which, as you kn...

Blood Libel? Dangerous Critics? Palin, Angle Doth Protest Too Much
Sigh. So I guess I have to comment on Sarah Palin’s statement on the Tucson shooting, which was actually a statement about Sarah Palin, of course. First of all, the faux sincerity achieved by shaking her head a little bit from side-to-side is grating. But enough of the theater criticism. Second, you have to love the statement, cribbed from Reagan, that “we have to restore the American precept that each person is accountable for his actions” from the woman who sent out her spo...

Should Tucson Prompt a Discussion About Climate Change?
Some angry e-mails this morning about civility, specifically about my earlier posts asserting that, so far, the Tucson massacre story has more to do with Mental Illness and Gun Control than it has to do with violent Rhetoric in political discourse. Here's one such e-mail: Get your head out of the sand Goldberg. These kinds of shootings wouldn't happen in a country that wasn't ruled by Fox. Wait until your targeted for Death Threats, then you'll see. Put aside that bit about death threats -- I ke...

Rhetoric and Perceived Status
The Left in the last 48 hours has tried to make the argument that the Tucson shootings were the result of Tea Party angst, health-care furor, Talk Radio, opposition to illegal Immigration — almost any contemporary hot-button hoi polloi issue or any Populist forum. And the more the public refuses to buy any of it, instead seeing Tucson as a madman’s evil attack on the innocent and noble, the more the liberal media seems weirdly intent on promulgating its absurd narrative. Arguments th...

GOP Leaders: We oppose Rep. King's new gun control idea
The Republicans may just have to agree to disagree. House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are against a new gun-control proposal put forth by a fellow GOPer in response to the Tucson shootings. Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said Tuesday that he'd introduce a new bill that bars anyone from carrying a gun within 1,000 feet of a federal official. He believes the Legislation could have prevented the Jan. 8 Arizona shooting...

Palin: Were above the mindless finger-pointing (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Face of evil: Mug Shots of famous assassins [SLIDESHOW] Poll of Conservatives shows support for broad cuts to spending, including Military Spending Washington's top five most ridiculous reactions to the Arizona shooting Jared Loughner and the ins and outs of the insanity defense Mark Sanford exits the stage Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin released a video Wednesday of her first long-form statement on Saturday’s Tucson, Ariz. shooting that left six ...

Suddenly the Media is Concerned About Tone
Last night on John King USA I tried very hard to keep my blood from boiling. Cornell Belcher, a very good guy, tried to claim that the right’s history of Rhetoric is worse than the left’s. I’ll meet you half way on that, just for the sake of argument, and say the left and right can at times be equally vile, but only for the sake of argument. But really, maybe the right’s history of Rhetoric is greater if only because the left goes beyond Rhetoric to outright violence. ...