Jealous Liberal Radio Hosts Join Chris Matthews in Blaming Conservative Talkers for Giffords Shooting
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Chris Matthews, joined by two liberal talk radio hosts on Tuesday’s Hardball, essentially blamed the likes of conservative hosts like Mark Levin for creating the climate of hate that led to the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords as the envious MSNBC host proclaimed: “People like Mark Levin, Michael Savage…every time you listen to them are furious, furious at the left with anger that’s just builds and builds in their voice and by the time they go to commercial, they’re just in some rage, every night, with ugly talk….They must have an audience. I looked at the numbers today. They have big audiences! And I guess that’s the question. Why and is it ever going to stop if it keeps working?”
Before that Matthews rant, Philadelphia area radio host Michael Smerconish coined a word in his attack on conservative chatter as he talked about “the hatriolic comments” he’s heard and in referring to a scene he saw at a town hall meeting worried: “These are people who are on the edge and if somebody pushes them over, God help us all.”
E. Steven Collins, another Philly area talker, sided with Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik who attacked Rush Limbaugh, as he hailed: “The sheriff in Tucson was absolutely right…It does impact people who may have a mental problem or may not” and added that there was a “direct relationship” with Sarah Palin putting crosshairs on her Web site over Giffords’ district and the loss of a life of “that little girl who went down to meet the congressperson.”
—Geoffrey Dickens is the Senior News Analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here
MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer: ‘People’ Are Blaming ‘Vitriolic Right-Wing Talkers’ for Shooting
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MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer on Tuesday spread the blame for Saturday’s spree shooting, singling out “vitriolic right-wing talkers and the Tea Party.” Several groups seemed to be on Brewer’s list, with the notable exception of Jared Loughner. He was only mentioned as a failure of the mental health system.
Closing the 12pm hour of News Live, Brewer summarized, “We’ve been following the fallout from the Tucson shooting and there is a lot of blame to go around. People are blaming the vitriolic right-wing talkers and the Tea Party.”
Finally getting around to the actual killer, Brewer opined, “They’re blaming the gun culture, but perhaps if we spent more time scrutinizing the gaps in our mental health system, perhaps people like Jared Loughner wouldn’t fall through them.”
— Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
Immediately After Arizona Shooting, MSNBC’s Russert Suggested ObamaCare Backlash Was the Cause
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During MSNBC’s live coverage immediately following Saturday’s attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), correspondent Luke Russert theorized that the shooting was probably a violent reaction to the passage of ObamaCare, for which Giffords cast an affirmative vote.
“Remember, this is the deepest fear that was in the back of everybody’s mind going through the health care debate. A lot of members were threatened,” Russert warned during coverage of the shooting. “It looks sadly like it’s come to fruition today.”
Russert’s comment came during the 3 p.m. EST hour of MSNBC News Live; the network was in ongoing live coverage of the event, which occurred around 10:15 a.m. local time, 12:15 p.m. EST.
Though the health care bill was opposed by groups on the far-Left because there was no “public option,” or because it did not constitute a Canada-like “single-payer” model, the much louder opposition came from conservatives.
In his commentary, Russert noted that many “fringe groups” opposed the health care law and felt the federal government was “overstepping its bounds.” From this statement it is clear that he was referring to either conservative or anti-government groups who opposed ObamaCare, since the chief conservative criticism of the bill is the government “overstepping its bounds” by requiring Americans to purchase health insurance under penalty of law.
“In the back of everyone’s mind, there was this fear that this type of attack could happen,” Russert continued. He predicted that the coming week will bring a sharp reaction from Congress to Saturday’s shooting, and a condemnation of all politically-motivated violence.
— Matt Hadro is an intern for the Media Research Center
Within hours of the mass shooting in Arizona, former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Saturday was offering Barack Obama tips on how to manipulate the outburst of violence for his political advantage.
Making comparisons to Bill Clinton’s response to the Oklahoma City bombing, he lobbied, “…Obama may be able to remind voters of what they like best about him: his sensible demeanor. Amid the din and ferocity of our political culture, he respectfully keeps his voice down, his emotions in check and his mind open.”
The piece, which appeared on the left-wing Huffington Post, featured this coldly calculating follow-up: “That is the pitch, at least. The trick is to make it without seeming to be trying to make it. He will, after all, be speaking at a funeral.”
Fineman urged Obama to portray himself and the wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who has a lifetime American Conservative Union score of 14 , as thoughtful centrists. He wrote, “He and Giffords think of themselves as fellow travelers on a middle path of civility and compromise in a dangerous world. The president will likely argue that, implicitly if not explicitly.”
Fineman wasn’t the only one who began measuring this tragedy for politicl gain. The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund wrote:
Politico.com quoted one veteran Democratic operative saying that the Obama White House should use the tragedy to score political points. “They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” he said. “Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.” Indeed, at the time of the bombing in 1995, then-Clinton strategist Dick Morris had penned a memo on how the tragedy could lead to a “permanent possible gain” because it “sets up Extremist issue vs. Republicans.”
— Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
CBS Admits Tucson Shooting ‘Not Partisan,’ Reveals Poll That Most Americans Agree
On Tuesday’s Early Show, correspondent Ben Tracy acknowledged that the facts in the Tuscon shooting do not support media spin that the tragedy was incited by right-wing political rhetoric: “Authorities tell CBS News that Loughner’s attack on Congresswoman Giffords’ was not partisan, but more likely because he was anti-government in general and she was a symbol of it.”
Minutes later, co-host Erica Hill reported on a new CBS News poll on the shooting: “The Sheriff [Clarence Dupnik] investigating the shootings in Arizona has publicly blamed the extreme political rhetoric across this country for the tragedy….A majority of Americans, however, don’t necessarily agree that’s the case….57% of respondents don’t believe the harsh tone had anything to do with the shootings. Just 32% say it did.” At the top of the 8:00AM ET hour, news reader Jeff Glor again touted the new poll: “…there’s more debate over whether a heated political atmosphere played a role….most Americans reject that idea.”
In contrast to the reporting of this new information, CBS, like rest of the media, was more that willing to engage in speculation and demagoguery over the notion that conservative political speech had contributed to the violence. As NewsBusters’ Editor at Large Brent Baker earlier reported, on Saturday’s Evening News, congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes claimed: “Giffords was one of 20 Democrats whose districts were lit up in cross hairs on a Sarah Palin campaign Web site last spring….Giffords and many others complained that someone unstable might act on that imagery.”
In addition, on Sunday’s Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer observed: “You know, Congresswoman Giffords had received threats before. That’s something that we might have overlooked here. Her office was trashed during the health care debate. When she showed up on Sarah Palin’s political action committee Web site as one of those who had been targeted for defeat, it shows her in the cross hairs there. She warned herself that this kind of thing could have serious repercussions.”
On Monday’s Early Show, Cordes proclaimed: “Now some are questioning whether the increasingly angry tone in politics could have contributed to a culture of violence.” Talking to Giffords’ communications director C.J. Karamargin on Monday, Hill asked: “There’s been the [Pima County] Sheriff [Clarence Dupnik], has brought up the rhetoric….Which he feels is incredibly damaging….Do you see a change in the rhetoric in this country?”
— Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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