by Teh Nutroots | Remember the great Furore o' Right Wing Fury a few months back when the DHS published a report stating that right wing extremism and the threat of right wing extremism was on the rise in the US? No? If not, please see "Dept of Hollow Laughter: Right Wingers Incensed Over DHS Report on Rise of Right Wing Extremism," published on April 15 at this very blog. And while you're at it, see also Bill Kav's piece yesterday on the increasingly scary rhetoric coming from right wingers who watch Fox News.
In re: the DHS report that had certain vocal conservatives up in arms last April, Paul Krugman says:
And Krugman points out, as many have pointed out before, the role of conservatives and the conservative media establishment in fostering hatred.
There is, however, one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn’t say: Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.
Now, for the most part, the likes of Fox News and the R.N.C. haven’t directly incited violence, despite Bill O’Reilly’s declarations that “some” called Dr. Tiller “Tiller the Baby Killer,” that he had “blood on his hands,” and that he was a “guy operating a death mill.” But they have gone out of their way to provide a platform for conspiracy theories and apocalyptic rhetoric, just as they did the last time a Democrat held the White House.
But O'Reilly is by no means the only offender, and Krugman lists exhibits A-C as well: Fox's Glenn Beck, The Washington Times, and Limbaugh.
What will the consequences be? Nobody knows, of course, although the analysts at Homeland Security fretted that things may turn out even worse than in the 1990s — that thanks, in part, to the election of an African-American president, “the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years.”
And that’s a threat to take seriously. Yes, the worst terrorist attack in our history was perpetrated by a foreign conspiracy. But the second worst, the Oklahoma City bombing, was perpetrated by an all-American lunatic. Politicians and media organizations wind up such people at their, and our, peril. (NYT)
RELATED BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTINGS
Support for Republican Party Sinking as Omissions, Lies, Spin, and Hypocrisy Catch up with GOP
Undercurrents of Hate
Ginning Up the Fear Machine
The Terroristic Tiller-Murder: More Evidence that the Wall Street Journal is Just a GOP-Propaganda Rag
Olbermann on O'Reilly's & Fox's Complicity in the Tiller Murder: Time to Turn off Fox
The O'Reilly Jihad Against Dr. George Tiller (KosTV)
Murdered Doctor Target of Campaign by Bill O'Reilly; Meanwhile, Wingnuts Celebrate Success of Domestic Terrorism, While Right-Wing Hypocrites Speedily Try to Distance Themselves
you just cite a litany of far left extremists. They are the one inciting violence, just as did the Nazis and Communists that they admire. They are trying to deflect attention from their Marxist agenda. And they have their Messiah infecting the White House right now.
Posted by: SodiumPentathol | June 13, 2009 at 05:11 AM