April 6, 2009

(Very big file: 30 mgs)(Youtube)

(Jed Lewison has the video too and writes: Beck: Daily Kos, C&L blame me for cop killer. Because it’s all about him, right? How self-absorbed can one man possibly be?)

As soon as we posted information about the Pittsburgh execution of three police officers and did a little digging into the type of person Poplawski is, I knew the right wingers would immediately cry foul and say we're trying to silence their opinions and blaming them for the tragedy. Isn't that always the case? Any form of criticism sets off a whinefest.

Free speech is a wonderful thing, but sometimes our words do have consequences. The insane rhetoric that comes out of the mouths of mainstream right-wing talkers is having an effect on the fringe element of the hard right.

When Sarah Palin tells a national audience that Obama hangs out with terrorists, that is fed directly into the arteries of the Patriot movement's militia cells. Obama is a Muslim terrorist lover who hates America, is a spy for al-Qaeda and isn't an American citizen -- all that garbage quickly followed on its heels. Did you hear that kind of treatment of John McCain?

In any event, Glenn Beck says we're blaming him for the shootings and Noel Sheppard heartily agrees:

Beck: Blaming anyone except the nut job for what happened in Pittsburgh is crazy. Police officers over the weekend were killed by a crazy with a gun and blaming anybody else besides him is like blaming the flight attendant after a terrorist takes down a plane. Giving passengers a nice little safety talk to prepare them doesn't mean your responsible should a terrorist actually make that worst case scenario happen. One person is providing who would have acted that way no matter what.

Bloggers rushed to paint this killer as a conservative, presumably one who is clinging to his God and his guns.

Actually, we didn't paint him as a "conservative," we called him a "right-winger" -- which he is. It turned out he was an extreme right-winger, but the description was accurate.

Now, notice how Beck uses 9/11 as his defense? We do agree on that fact that the man was a crazy person, but flight attendants don't get involved in fearmongering and scapegoating and have a megaphone that reaches millions of people a day. They don't call Obama and liberals "socialists" and "fascists" who want to take your guns away, either. They don't spread cockamamie stories intended to drive up the fearfulness quotient in the populace.

And when right wingers talk about the insane possibility that an "upcoming revolution" is on the way -- that isn't preparing America for anything except more acts of violence by crazy people, Glenn. Michelle Bachmann is sitting in Congress telling Americans that she's a foreign correspondent on enemy lines. Watch out for those re-education camps for young people too. Oh, and let's not forget about the nonexistent "global currency" both Bachmann and Beck believe is going to be forced upon us. Meanwhile, Bill O'Reilly goes on the air and informs millions that Obama is selling us out to a One World Government.

I doubt you'll see Beck invite somebody on who would be able to counter his argument -- although it might give him a chance to shed a few more tears for the camera to show us how much he cares for America. He does think the 9/11 widows are whiners, but that doesn't count to his fans. I didn't see him crying for the families of the three police officers who had their families ripped apart by this weekend's violence.

Beck: Civil unrest for a number of reasons is coming. Lone nut jobs and people who are just angry and frustrated and have had enough. You've got to seek those people out. You've got to start asking people in your own neighborhood, "How are you?" And actually care about the answer.

... Is this what these bloggers think what conservatives are when they say, "Oh yeah, he's a Nazi isn't he. He's a conservative?" Is that really who they think we are?

Noel Sheppard: The incident actually happened probably somewhere around eleven O'clock, eleven thirty eastern time, and by oh, I guess two o'clock eastern time, a gentleman had clipped a FOX News report -- FOX had reported that a friend of the assailant apparently was worried about his gun rights because of Obama, so a liberal blog took a piece of this video and posted it at a very, very popular liberal website called CrooksandLiars, and now the game was on and every liberal blogger was linking to his post. What was kind of interesting is in the piece the blogger mentioned, Where do you think this killer got the idea from?, and in that sentence is a link to an article about you interviewing Wayne LaPierre, the NRA head.

Beck: Acchk...Wow,

Sheppard: So that's where this all started.

Beck: They're not offended, all the want to do is to do anything they can to discredit not just people like me, but the people who watch people like me. We are allll dangerous. This has nothing to do with Barack Obama.

Thanks Noel for at least crediting C&L with doing our homework and breaking the story. By the way, they should ask Bill O'Reilly about his use of the word Nazi and why he calls Kos and other left-wingers Nazis and a "hate group". For all their denials, the militia patriot right is indeed voting Republican and became part of the conservative movement after Pat Buchanan ran for President on the Reform Party ticket (which comprised the David Dukes of the right along with Ross Perot-style "independents") in 2000, but when he added an African American women to the ticket they rebelled -- ran from the party and voted Republican.

And notice how Beck mocks President Obama with his little doll? It's another way to dehumanize him and turn him into a caricature. I don't think Beck paraded around with a cute little doll of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

At the end of his segment they are both lamenting the thought that lefties will blame them for violent actions and once again we will silence them.

Sheppard: We'll they're the NY Times and they are allowed to say what ever they want, buy you're a conservative; you're not allowed to say what you want.

Beck: And I don't want to blow this out of proportion, but I am allowed to say what I want, but let's, you don't honor freedom of speech by shutting one side down or the other. Everybody can say what they want.

Once again, we're not trying to shut conservatives down. Actually, the more they speak, the better it is for America, because they are exposed as crazy people. But they should understand the impact their words do have on the "nutjobs" of America.

Beck included a long rant about how "freedoms" always entail "responsibilities" -- and we heartily agree. But he forgot to mention freedom of speech and the responsibilities that come with that. Those responsibilities include not using words that scapegoat and incite fearfulness in the public, especially when there is no actual evidence to support those fears. Those responsibilities are magnified a thousandfold when you hold a major media megaphone like Glenn Beck does.

By the way, the hate mail I've been receiving ever since Barack Obama was elected has become really scary and nuttier than ever. I won't post the lynching pictures I received, but now it's getting more violent.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon