Alexandria, VA - Brent Bozell, MRC President, issued the following statement and provided evidence on the double standard of blaming conservatives for the tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona while repeatedly ignoring left-wing media outbursts wishing death upon conservatives:
"The so-called 'news' media have zero currency in this debate because we have documented the Left using hateful, vicious language far worse than any conservative. Their attacks on conservatives are untrue and utterly hypocritical. If they really cared about the effects of political rhetoric, they would have gone after any number of those left-wingers who have directly incited violence - starting with the man with the world's biggest audience: President Obama. After all, he did say, 'If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.'
"But that would be a ridiculous charge. And besides, the media aren't really concerned about violent rhetoric. This is part of a much more insidious and calculated campaign to criminalize conservative thought.
"Next they will ramp up support to regulate free speech on radio airwaves and the like. They want to illegalize opposition to liberal thought and are willing to accuse, indict and prosecute anyone who stands in the way of that Socialist goal."
Lowlights of Left-Wing Media's Death Wishes [1]
■ "I'm waiting for the day when I pick it up, pick up a newspaper or click on the Internet and find out he's choked to death on his own throat fat or a great big wad of saliva or something, you know, whatever. Go away, Rush, you make me sick!" - Left-wing radio host Mike Malloy on the January 4, 2010 Mike Malloy Show, talking about Rush Limbaugh going to the hospital after suffering chest pains.
■ "Rush Limbaugh is beginning to look more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody's going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he's going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come. Not yet, but we'll be there to watch." - Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Morning Meeting, October 13, 2009.
■ "So, Michele, slit your wrist! Go ahead! [chuckles] I mean, you know, why not? I mean, if you want to - or, you know, do us all a better thing. Move that knife up about two feet. I mean, start right at the collarbone." - Montel Williams talking about Representative Michele Bachmann on Air America's Montel Across America, September 2, 2009.
■ "He is an enemy of the country, in my opinion, Dick Cheney is, he is an enemy of the country.... 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.
■ Author/humorist P.J. O'Rourke: "It's the twilight of the radio loud-mouth, you know? I knew it from the moment the fat guy-"
Host Bill Maher: "You mean Rush Limbaugh and Sean-"
O'Rourke: "-from the moment the fat guy refused to share his drugs...."
Maher: "You mean the OxyContin that he was on?...Why couldn't he have croaked from it instead of Heath Ledger?" - HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, February 8, 2008.
■ "I hear about Tony Snow and say to myself, well, stand up every day, lie to the American people at the behest of your dictator-esque boss and well, how could a cancer NOT grow in you. Work for Fox News, spinning the truth in to a billion knots and how can your gut not rot?" - San Francisco radio talk show host Charles Karel Bouley in a March 27, 2007 article at The Huffington Post that was later pulled "at the request of the author."
■ "I'm just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That's a fact." - Host Bill Maher on his HBO show Real Time, March 2, 2007, discussing how a few commenters at a left-wing blog were upset that an attempt to kill Vice President Cheney in Afghanistan had failed.
■ "Earlier today, a rental truck carried a half a million ballots from Palm Beach to the Florida Supreme Court there in Tallahassee. CNN had live helicopter coverage from the truck making its way up the Florida highway, and for a few brief moments, America held the hope that O.J. Simpson had murdered Katherine Harris." - Bill Maher on ABC's Politically Incorrect, November 30, 2000.
■ Host Tina Gulland: "I don't think I have any Jesse Helms defenders here. Nina?"
NPR's Nina Totenberg: "Not me. I think he ought to be worried about what's going on in the Good Lord's mind, because if there is retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it." - Exchange on the July 8, 1995 Inside Washington, after Helms said the government spends too much on AIDS.
■ "I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease....He is an absolutely reprehensible person." - USA Today columnist and Pacifica Radio talk show host Julianne Malveaux on Justice Clarence Thomas, November 4, 1994 PBS To the Contrary.
For more examples and additional information, see MRC's recent report: " [2]While Media Indict Conservative Speech, Left's Lunacy Is Ignored [2]"