This was an angle I was not readily expecting following the Tree of Life Shooting.
I was bracing for the usual anti-gun and anti-NRA wave that always follows a mass shooting.
What I didn’t expect is this:
Opinion | Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media can’t escape responsibility https://t.co/u4W4dub65R <– THIS
— Jennifer Truth Over Phony Balance Rubin 🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@JRubinBlogger) October 29, 2018
Here is the article:
Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media can’t escape responsibility
After a “lone wolf” Islamist militant attack, the media invariably ask: What inspired him to kill? Usually the answer is found in Islamist militant propaganda. We need to ask the same question about right-wing terrorism. What inspired Cesar Sayoc to allegedly send mail bombs to prominent liberals? What inspired Robert Bowers to allegedly gun down 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue? What inspired Gregory Bush to allegedly kill two African Americans in Jeffersontown, Ky., after failing to enter a predominantly black church?
To ask these questions in no way obviates the perpetrators’ ultimate responsibility for the evil that they do. But terrorists do not operate in a vacuum. So who created the environment in which right-wing terrorism has become far more commonplace — and, since 9/11, far more deadly — than Islamist terrorism in America?
President Trump — by championing “nationalism,” denouncing “globalists” such as Jewish financier George Soros, vilifying immigrants as “snakes” and “animals,” fearmongering about a refugee caravan and defending white supremacists as “fine people” — bears a substantial share of the blame.
Where do these politicians get these noxious ideas? From a right-wing media industrial machine that includes Fox News, Breitbart, Infowars, Newsmax, the Daily Caller, Gateway Pundit and many other outlets. It was Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business Network who asked Grassley if Soros was behind the Kavanaugh protests — and after Grassley endorsed the charge, Trump gave it his imprimatur. The Wall Street Journal, in turn, ran an op-ed endorsing this calumny. Last week, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs interviewed Chris Farrell of Judicial Watch, who claimed that the Central American caravan was directed by the “Soros-occupied State Department,” echoing neo-Nazi propaganda about a “Zionist-occupied government.” (Fox Business has since apologized.)
There is partisanship on both sides of the political spectrum, but no left-wing outlets propagate extremism as successfully or widely as conservative media do. A new study of “Network Propaganda” by three Harvard researchers notes that liberals, by and large, get their news from sources such as The Post, the Times, NPR and CNN that, regardless of any political bias, also engage in rigorous fact-checking. Conservatives, by contrast, are being brainwashed by right-wing media that are an “echo chamber” for “rumor and conspiracy theory.”
The frightening thing is that the right-wing media will be here long after Trump and the current crop of Republican politicians are gone. These outlets have a First Amendment right to say what they want, but investors and advertisers also have a right to take their dollars elsewhere. If Rupert Murdoch and his sons won’t rein in its extremist propaganda, advertisers should flee Fox, and investors should flee its parent company, News Corp. Its stock should become as toxic as shares of mining companies that produce “blood diamonds.” The propagandists and politicians who are radicalizing the American right must not be allowed to escape responsibility for the dangerous consequences of their actions.
So according to Max Boot, and endorsed by Jenifer Rubin, the problem isn’t just Trump, it’s the “Right Wing Media.”
The blood of 11 Jews from Pittsburgh is squarely on Tucker Carlson’s hands.
If Boot’s proposed boycott doesn’t work, obviously the goverment should do something. The Right Wing Media must be reigned in from spreading this kind of hate.
Then there was one time Presidential candidate and governor Howard Dean.
https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/1056710782342311938
Gab.com is apparently a platform like Twitter but without Twitter’s desire to control the speech of its users. It is a platform of unapologetic free speech.
Bowers, just like Dylann Roof used Gab to post hateful and bigoted messages that would have gotten him banned on Twitter and Facebook.
Howard Dean believes that makes Gab an accessory to murder.
I guess if some neo-Nazis publish a news letter or flyer for a hate rally, Hammermill Paper is an accessory to murder too.
Three high profile people are now using the Tree of Life Shooting as an excuse to gut the First Amendment. No more free press and no more free speech. If you espouse an idea, or host that idea unchecked on your platform, that could be blamed for inciting violence, you deserve to be shut down and treated as an accomplice.
This is a level of extremism that is beyond anything we’ve seen before.
“We want to fight neo-Nazis by taking away your guns and only allowing the press and speech we agree with to be published” is not a good look.
I will not allow any of my rights to be taken because people, even my people, were murdered.
Never forget: If they hate the Second Amendment, it is a sure bet they do not have a high esteem for the rest of the Bill Of Rights.
Another way to phrase it: Why do they want you disarmed? To be able to do things to you that they would be unable to do if you still had your weapons?
By the way: credit for that phrasing goes to L. Neil Smith.
These are the same sort of people who tried to jail Phil Zimmerman for daring to write and publish an effective encryption program several decades ago.
Just some common sense restrictions on free speech, free press to stop all hate speech, and we (who ever that is) get to determine what hate speech is. Hate speech anything that might make someone uncomfortable.
“Hate speech is not free speech” – Tim Kaine, the man that was almost our Vice President, and by the grace of God, is not.
JBW, your definition of “hate speech” and even “controversial ideas” is incorrect and serves just one side. Only if it make LEFTISTS uncomfortable and outraged and homicidal is it “hate speech” or “controversial”.
By their own definition, nearly 100% of the LEFT’s opinions and statements are as much hate speech to us as anything we say. It’s just another way the left has managed to co-opt the meanings of the entire dictionary.
BTW, the media still touts Jennifer Rubin as “conservative”, too so they’ve even stolen that word too,
Of course we have to exclude 9/11, to make sure “Right Wing Terrorism” is more deadly than Islamist terrorism. Also, apparently the Pulse Night Club shooting was perpetrated by a right wing homophobe who happened to have a Muslim name and called the FBI to declare allegiance to ISIS, and the Fort Hood shooting was “Work Place Violence” carried out by person with a Muslim name and shouting “Allah Akbar.” Likewise, the San Bernardino shooting was carried out by peace loving Muslims who just couldn’t take the Right Wing Christians celebrating Christmas and thus insulting the Prophet Muhammed.
“After a “lone wolf” Islamist militant attack, the media invariably ask: What inspired him to kill? Usually the answer is found in Islamist militant propaganda. We need to ask the same question about right-wing terrorism. What inspired Cesar Sayoc to allegedly send mail bombs to prominent liberals? …”
They answer their own question right there in the first two sentences.
The answer is found in militant Islamic propaganda. Imams call for the death if Israel and infidels. They call for the death of the US. They promise an afterlife in paradise for those that carry out these acts. it is clear and obvious that these terrorists are doing so because of their religion.
Show me where any right wing news, or social media outlet is proposing anything even similar.
Every example they identify is a stretch at best. Nationalism is some kind of “dog whistle” calling the anti-semites to action? Really, that is the argument you are using to blame conservatives across the board for acts of terror?
It does not hold water.
Sure, this “MAGAbomber” has a lot of background that would lead someone to believe he acted after getting emboldened by right wing rhetoric, but there is a lot more evidence indicating he is a severely unstable individual that would have done something stupid like that regardless of what talk radio he listened to. There is an equal possibility, had Hillary gotten elected, this guy would have mailed bombs to prominent Republicans.
These people would love to see any opposing views removed from the airwaves and the internet, and they are using any excuse they can to make that happen.
It ALWAYS Trumps fault or the NRAs fault. Its NEVER dumbacrats fault and its never the jackwagon who dunits fault. Whatever
At least Rubin is admitting she’s not conservative. I hope she doesn’t realize it will be as effective an end to her career as Ellen Page coming out.
Yeah, one disadvantage of American politics is that the parties don’t have control over their membership. In most countries, Rubin would have been thrown out of the Republicans long ago. Also, left-wing media does “rigorous fact checking?’ I’d be rolling with laughter if it wasn’t such an obvious lie in service of an evil agenda. How many corrections does the NYT run a day alone?
Max Boot does exactly what he accuses others of – deliberately issuing false and misleading statements to incite hatred.
Inside every leftist, there’s a totalitarians screaming to get out.
( = Howard Dean)
We will NOT give up our liberty for temporary safety.
Who remembers the Kerner Commission? The Deep State once relied on fear of their thug minions to shake the rest of us down. The Second Amendment is why this does not work.
We should all understand that the progressive Left, having gutted the 2A and 1A, will go after the rest of the amendments very quickly. After all, according to them “right wing hate groups” have no right to counsel, to confront witnesses, to secure bail, and to have a jury in an open trial. Heck, they don’t even have a right to avoid excessive and unusual punishments.
We all see where this goes. Gut the 2A and 1A and the rest of the Bill of Rights will fail. That’s exactly what the progressive Left wants.
If the “right wing media” causes these attacks then why are there so few attacks? If the “right wing media” was causing attacks there would be many more. Seems to me that the facts prove the opposite. Since there are so few attacks, I think the numbers prove that Fox et al are NOT inspiring people to violence. How can you infer positive correlation between years of publishing, 320 million people, and two attacks? Two? Are you kidding? Do the math.
Democrats are about taking away freedom, not supporting it. Keep that in mind when you vote.
“no left-wing outlets propagate extremism as successfully or widely as conservative media do.”
OMFG, ROFLMAO. Seriously? Are they so self blind?
They’re not blind. It’s just that everything is subjective to them, based on their position. To the Left, every position they hold is the “common sense”, “smart” position, and therefore invariably the moderate one. To ask them, there ARE no extremists on the Left. People who believe in abortion at 9+months and who call for the elimination of all civil rights for men accused of vague party-related trespasses three decades ago aren’t extreme, they just “care a lot”.
Therefore, since they’re moderate, everyone who doesn’t agree with them MUST be “extreme”.
One protester in Berkley throws a punch at some greasy chick who was trying to hit him first: “violent extremism”.
Five thousand masked rioters bussed in from around the country, setting cars on fire and smashing store windows: “Young people concerned about the future, and who are we to say they’re wrong to be?”.
They really believe that shit.
That’s why arguing with the Left rapidly hits the point of diminishing returns: They simply don’t care about facts and feel that any opinion not in line with their own must of its very nature be either a lie or an expression of hate.
I used to try to reason with a “moderate” liberal. No logic would work. No appeal to reason or the Constitution would work.
We finally just agreed to never speak of such things again, no matter what. It’s been difficult, but at least we don’t argue….