In the aftermath of the killing in Tucson, Times reporters and commentators placed blame on conservative talk radio, Sarah Palin's campaign map, anti-immigration politics, hostility over Obama-care, access to guns - everywhere but on the shooter himself.
By
Clay Waters
January 21, 2011 - 6:48am
"We don't have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was. She's been the target of violence before. And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she's a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist. (Her father says that 'the whole Tea Party' was her enemy.) And yes, she was on Sarah Palin's infamous 'crosshairs' list." - Columnist Paul Krugman in a January 8 post at nytimes.com, the day Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Tucson.
Blaming Arizona Gov. Brewer, Not the Shooter, for Tucson Rampage
"But fairly or not, Arizona's image has been forged in part because of [Gov. Jan] Brewer herself, who has been identified with the tough law aimed at illegal immigrants, budget cuts that include denying aid to people who need life-saving transplants and laws permitting people to take concealed guns into bars and banning the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools." - Reporter Adam Nagourney, January 12.
Blaming "Extremist Right-Wing Groups," Not the Shooter, for Tucson Rampage
"[Loughner] became an echo chamber for stray ideas, amplifying, for example, certain grandiose tenets of a number of extremist right-wing groups - including the need for a new money system and the government's mind-manipulation of the masses through language....A few days later, during a meeting with a school administrator, Mr. Loughner said that he had paid for his courses illegally because, 'I did not pay with gold and silver' - a standard position among right-wing extremist groups." - Front-page story by Dan Barry, January 16.
For more of the Times' incredibly slanted coverage of the shootings in Tucson, visit Times Watch Quotes of Note latest edition, "Blame Conservatism, Not the Shooter, for Rampage in Arizona [1]."