ABC’s Brian Ross's [1]disgusting attempt to link Friday morning’s tragic
shooting to a Tea Party member is just the latest example of the liberal
media’s knee jerk reaction to impugn conservatives in the immediate
wake of horrific crimes. After the shooting of former Democratic
Representative Gabrielle Giffords liberal reporters were quick to
condemn the Tea Party and conservatives like Sarah Palin and Mark Levin.
Just two hours after the attack on Giffords, New York Times columnist
Paul Krugman pulled a similar Brian Ross-like assumption without the
facts when he wrote in a January 8, 2011 blog that “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....Her father says that ‘the whole Tea
Party’ was her enemy.” During MSNBC’s live coverage of the Giffords
shooting Luke Russert blamed Obamacare opponents when he theorized:
“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...It looks sadly like it's come to fruition today."
Palin was also singled out for judgment from liberal reporters for the
crime of having listed Giffords on a political map. CBS’s Bob Schieffer,
on the January 9, 2011 Face the Nation charged: “When she [Giffords]
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 crosshairs
there. She warned herself that this kind of thing could have serious
repercussions.” NBC’s Matt Lauer, on the January 10, Today show
speculated: “While there is no evidence her [Palin’s] Web site featuring
a target on Giffords' district had anything to do with this attack,
some are asking if today's political rhetoric is inspiring the lunatic
fringe?”
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews got into the blame game on the January 11, 2011
Hardball when he pondered: “What's been the role of talk radio in
fueling the heated language?...People like Mark Levin, Michael Savage,
for example who every time you listen to them are furious, furious at
the Left with anger that 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...And they use that language, when they talk about the
other side, isn't that part of the problem? And my question is doesn't
that give the moral license to people who have crazy minds to start
with?”
That wasn’t the first time, on Hardball, that a conservative was blamed
in the immediate aftermath of a tragic shooting. Salon’s Joan Walsh, on
the June 10, 2009 show, linked Rush Limbaugh to the Holocaust Museum
shooter when she blurted: There is a very disturbing and disturbed
element of political discourse. And I would, I would throw in Rush
Limbaugh. Not blaming him, but when you say that our President is more
dangerous than al-Qaeda you've gone off into crazy nut job land. You are
off the charts crazy. And you are, you are whipping people up.”
The following is a collection of examples of the liberal media’s rush to blame conservatives in the wake of tragic events:
"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....Her father says
that 'the whole Tea Party' was her enemy. And yes, she was on Sarah
Palin's infamous 'crosshairs' list. Just yesterday, Ezra Klein remarked
that opposition to health reform was getting scary. Actually, it's been
scary for quite a while, in a way that already reminded many of us of
the climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing....Violent acts are
what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it's long past time
for the GOP's leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers."
- New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in a 3:22pm ET January 8, 2011 blog posting [2], less than two hours after news broke of Giffords' shooting.
"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. Congresswoman Giffords' windows at her district office were broken....There is [sic] a lot of fringe groups that were very upset with the health care law, felt that the federal government was overstepping its bounds, and that was in - within everyone's mind. It looks sadly like it's come to fruition today."
- NBC/MSNBC correspondent Luke Russert during MSNBC live coverage at about 3:30pm ET January 8, 2011.