On Thursday's American Morning, CNN's John Roberts repeatedly decried
the "troubling language" against pro-ObamaCare congressman which
"violate any sense of common decency." But his own program over three
years earlier helped promote a controversial 2006 movie which forwarded
an imaginary assassination attempt against then-President George W.
Bush.
Just after the top of the 6 am Eastern hour, Roberts responded to a
report by correspondent Carol Costello on ten Democratic
representatives' request for extra security after their reportedly
received threatening messages: "Wow. It really is, as you said, at the
top, it is troubling, some of the language out there."
An hour later, at the top of 7 am Eastern hour, the anchor expanded
on his earlier thought as he introduced a report from correspondent
Brianna Keilar: "The message from emotional voters to Capitol Hill this
morning could not be clearer: 'Go to hell.' From profanity-laden
voicemails to faxes with Nazi insignias on them, thousands of Americans
are venting their anger, in some cases, extremely inappropriately. The
shouting is not bound to the Beltway. At least ten members of Congress
with home districts stretching all the way from New York to Arizona have
reported either harassment, vandalism, or outright death threats."
After Keilar's report, Roberts gave another commentary on the
reported threats: "You know, it's one thing to express your displeasure,
but these type of threats- I mean, they violate any sense of common
decency." Later in the hour, he echoed Rick Sanchez's insinuations that
conservatives/Republicans were somehow responsible for the threats:
"This morning's top stories just minutes away now, including the FBI
investigating reports of vandalism and death threats aimed at Democrats
who voted for the health care bill. Is the rhetoric in Washington
responsible?"
Later in the 7 am hour, during an interview of House Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer, Roberts asked the Democrat about the alleged incidents:
ROBERTS: Congressman Louise Slaughter who had a couple of incidents, a brick thrown through an office window, as well as a voice mail left something about a sniper said, quote, 'It's more disturbing to me that the Republican leadership has not condemned these attacks and instead, appears to be fanning the flames with coded rhetoric.' But the Minority Leader John Boehner did come out yesterday and did say this is not the way to do things. It's not the American way. What- do you need to hear anything else from the leadership?
The anchor also read viewer comments which blamed the Republicans for
the reported harassment. During the 6 am hour, Roberts read an e-mail
from a Bob in Houston who equated the GOP with terrorists: "The
Republicans are committing acts of domestic terrorism because they
disagree with President Obama's health insurance reform plan. They
accused the terrorists of palling around with terrorists in the 2008
election, and now, they are using terrorism in the political process."
About two hours later, he read another anti-Republican letter which
included a suggestion of retaliation: "Sarah Palin, Senator McCain, and
all the top Republican senators are all getting out of control, seems to
me, since they cannot win on the argument on the House floor. Let's get
some people to threaten them. The threats and name-calling by the
Republicans make them look like a bunch of kindergartners. They pretend
they care about the unborn babies and then they encourage all of this
violence."
Roberts did read one e-mail from the other side however which was
critical of the mainstream media: "Calling someone a scumbag no matter
how uncouth is not a threat of violence. I have heard similar ugly
comments from liberal radicals against President Bush and Republicans in
the past. Those did not seem to command the same amount of media
attention."
Despite these condemnations from the American Morning program in the
present day against Democrats, they had not problem with devoting a
four-minute segment [1] to promoting director Gabriel Range's "Death of a
President" and its hypothetical scenario where former Republican
President Bush was assassinated. Then-anchor Miles O'Brien acted very
mildly during the interview, and tossed softball questions to the
director. Only once did O'Brien ask, "Do you think what you're doing is
responsible? Does this inspire, perhaps, somebody who might wish to do
harm to the President?"
-Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You
can follow him on Twitter here [2].