After a weekend of media coverage fretting about the tone of political discourse, MSNBC's resident shouter Ed Schultz on Monday pointed his finger (literally) at Fox News for supposedly inciting its audience to "think that doing something radical is the right thing to do," but sidestepped his own history of shocking comments.
"I get passionate, but not in a violent way," Schultz insisted.
MRC's recent Special Report, The Real Radio Hatemongers [1], detailed outrageous statements from Schultz and other left-wing radio stars. Among the supposedly "passionate but not violent" rants from Schultz in the past couple of years: wishing Dick Cheney would die; saying of Cheney's heart, "we ought to rip it out and kick it around and stuff it back in him;" and his advice to the Democratic Senate leadership: "Shove the Republicans into the ditch! Shove those bastards right into the dirthole! This is about power! It's about winning!"
And, the New York Post reported in August [2] that Schultz had erupted in a news meeting when he learned he would not be included in promotional spots MSNBC was preparing to tout its election coverage: "I'm going to torch this [bleep]ing place," Schultz allegedly screamed.
But with the liberal media elite trying to make conservative talk radio and the Tea Party a co-conspirator in Saturday's attempted assassination of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, NewsBusters' Mark Finkelstein caught [3] Schultz shamelessly trying to walk away from his record of wild rhetoric (video here [4]):
ED SCHULTZ: But in the wake of all of this, what are we teaching the next generation? Hell, we can't even communicate without yelling at one another. And you know what? I'm at fault. I admit it. I get passionate: but not in a violent way! And I believe that we have to say things on this show and we have to be honest. Because there's a lot of stuff, especially across the street [FNC is located on Sixth Ave., across the street from MSNBC at Rockefeller Center] that is not the truth, that is embellished to the point where it might make somebody think that doing something radical is the right thing to do.
I'm not aware of any Fox News hosts wishing death upon prominent liberals or screaming about "shoving Democrats' into a ditch." Here are fuller examples of Schultz on his radio program doing exactly that to conservatives (each with a matching MP3 audio clip):
"He is an enemy of the country, in my opinion, Dick Cheney is, he is an enemy of the country. He's making it harder for those who are in power right now to protect the country. He's about the political divide. It just, I just think the guy's such a freakin' loser. You know, Lord, take him to the Promised Land, will you? See, I don't even wish the guy goes to Hell, I just want to get him the hell out of here." - Ed Schultz, The Ed Schultz Show, May 11, 2009. (MP3 audio [5])
"You're damn right, Dick Cheney's heart's a political football. We ought to rip it out and kick it around and stuff it back in him. I'm glad he didn't tip over....How come Dick Cheney's health care isn't being dropped? Do you realize that if you had five heart attacks - hell, you wouldn't get past two heart attacks and they'd dump you. But, because you're a war criminal, and because you are on the take from Haliburton and you had these executive meetings in 2001 back in the, you know, the days of the rolling blackouts and executive privilege on how we're going to develop energy policy in this country, you do stuff like that - hell, you can get the best health care on the face of the earth." - Ed Schultz on The Ed Schultz Show, February 24, 2010. (MP3 audio [6])
"To hell with the Republicans! They're anti-American! They're psycho talkers! They don't care!...Harry [Reid], you are ball-less! You won't do the nuke option for the American people and shove the Republicans into the ditch! Shove those bastards right into the dirthole! This is about power! It's about winning!" - Ed Schultz on The Ed Schultz Show, July 14, 2010. (MP3 audio [7])
For more such examples, see our August 2010 report, The Real Radio Hatemongers [1].
- Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here [8].