Maybe it's not the left vs the right. Maybe...

[Patriot]

It's the Media!

Out of context soundbites, vitriolic media commentaries/analysis, accepting/publishing outlandish advertising, the 'if it bleeds it leads' mentality.  All shoveled at the speed of light, 24/7/365, ad nauseam, to anyone with access to a TV, a magazine stand, a computer, an iPod, etc.

Maybe the incitement to violence should be placed on the shoulders of media & web operators (and their agenda driven backers) who don't recognize the difference between free speech & responsible speech.  Organizations that use their freedom of press rights irresponsibly as a license to say or publish anything, anywhere, anytime about anything.  Who, instead of protecting the public's right to know, use their freedom to publish & foment outrage for ratings & profit at the expense of reasonableness. Who, in a drive for ratings (and thereby greater revenues) spend more time 'shit disturbing' rather than reporting vetted fact.  Those same media groups who excuse a lack of fact checking with an ability to fix it later with a page 30 retraction/correction.  

Maybe government intelligence isn't the only sick oxymoron...  maybe journalistic ethics is another!

There's a word oft found missing from much media driven public discourse......  ETHICS!

None of this is written to minimize very real and serious ideological differences.  Those differences exist, to be sure.  It is to say that the current state of media often promotes, facilitates and exacerbates the class warfare that so divides & weakens our society. The media creates divisions, drives emotional passions higher and leads to implacability and and a lack of reason among the masses.  The media sometimes creates the very environment that can push the less stable among us to frustrations that act out in the most horrendous ways.  Then they have even more to write & talk about!

[Diane Amberg]

Ya Think? Some of us have been suggesting this for YEARS! With 24 hours a day to fill and the likes of Rupert Murdoch making billions out of our American "Free," but not necessarily, true or responsible speech, what else could eventually happen? There are a lot of unstable people out there, some who can and will be pushed over the edge with out too much trouble. It has happened before and will happen again. Perhaps it's time to stop with all the so called "innocent hyperbole" programs and understand that very large numbers of people don't get it and assume that all statements are true and are never sarcasm, allegory, satire, metaphor and especially hyperbole.  They don't understand that putting a target on some one's face is meant to be hyperbole, not a suggestion that the person should actually be killed. Perhaps these media personalities and "entertainers" should wake up and stop telling people what to do and how to think over and over and over because there are those that, given the opportunity, will do as they are told without thinking about the consequences.  You aren't really supposed to kill the umpire!

[jarhead]

Maybe you are right Diane but makes me sick to hear the lefties blame the right and Palin for this newest tragedy  all because of Palin and her dopey bulls eye over places they needed to concentrate on winning the past election when -------

(quote )
a nearly identical map, included in a Democratic Leadership Committee publication in 2004, featured nine bulls eyes over regions where Republican candidates were considered vulnerable that year, and was accompanied by a caption reading: TARGETING STRATEGY. A smaller caption, beneath the bulls eyes, read: BEHIND ENEMY LINES. The map illustrated an article on campaign strategy by Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute

[Diane Amberg]

 The problem is on both sides and they ALL should stop it. The pendulum had swung far enough already and the end does NOT justify the means.

[Patriot]

Of course, a diligent study of media will likely show that the vast majority of inflammatory story lines from mass media tend to be supportive of the liberal progressive perspective.  For example, right now we are hearing no end of S. Palin's 'Don't retreat, reload' comment, but in recent past the media made nothing of Obummer's 'We're going to punish our enemies' or  'Hit back twice as hard' comments.  We're not being bombarded with the fact that this AZ kid's favorite reading list included the Communist Manifesto.  The 'left' seem to get a distinct pass on anything  inflammatory, or inaccurate for that matter.  Not so with right leaning views.  So maybe media isn't the real problem..... maybe most media is the left and should be viewed as just an arm of the progressive ideology.  After all, when the leftonistas take over, somebody will get the 'state sponsored media' title as a reward. 

[Patriot]

The pendulum had swung far enough already and the end does NOT justify the means.

I agree!  Let's do what mankind historically does in these cases... let's have a shootin' war and get this thing decided once and for all!

[Patriot]

The  guardian.co.uk has an article placing blame for the AZ shooting squarely on right wing/republican/tea party rhetoric.

Among the comments to that article were these comments:


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rhetorical hatred and violence went through the roof with the extreme vitriol shown towards George W Bush during his presidency, especially from the keyboards of many contributors to Guardian columns. And these same people now have the gall to try to paint this nutter, who lists the Communist Manifesto among his favourite books, as a right wing conservative.

Absolutely disgusting!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    "Guns don't kill people, republicans do."

Yeah, when lefties kill they tend to use death camps, mass starvation, gas chambers... - not to mention bombing people they have no argument with from 50,000 feet, just to show that they're serious about "liberal" interventions.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe the rhetoric played a part, but then you do not know that. You are speculating. Further what are people supposed to do if they oppose government policies? Bite their tongue and only engage in a debate the parameters of which have been set by liberals and leftists?

I'm sure many on the left would love that, but you can not restrict free speech (at least not in America unlike the UK). Further the left can not have their cake and eat it. They use violent rhetoric all the time. Look at the language used by labour MPs and the media in support of the violent student protests, where a policeman was near killed.

Or look at the violent rhetoric used against the BNP, even on Question Time. Were they not attacked with darts on parliament Green. Was not someone else attacked with a hammer in the face?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frankly I think its absolutely sick that the left is trying to politicise the murder of 6 people.

The perpetrator's youtube account has been found and he lists 'the communist manifesto' under his favourite books. So this entire train of thought should more or less go out the window.

I really dont know why I continue to read the articles published by the guardian, they are getting more and more ridiculous by the day.

[Diane Amberg]

Let's see...a shoot out? I'll send my friend Carl, his wife June and our friend Jim M. They all shoot competitively. I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of any of them. Then there's Gene N. and Jim B. and Sam , Ed, Andy G, and Pugs the Marine.  (I'd add Scott but he's still deployed.) Geese, ducks and deer shudder to hear their names. I suppose they would be a good start. Us VS the Maniacs. By the way, I'd like to see the American liberal gas chamber. And not some duped photo cooked up by someone. All that stuff on all sides is suspect to me.Too easy to"create" what one wants someone to believe. I'm sure without much effort I could go to a few derelict farms and some run down abandoned factories and create something believable. This is bad stuff all the way around!

[Varmit]

Your friends may be able to shoot competitively but can they do it while being shot at?  Geese, ducks, and deer don't shoot back. 

The Media had absolutely NOTHING to do with this. 

[jarhead]

Diane,
You say you are going to send your crack shot friends to the shootout. Where exactly do you mean you're sending them too ? Maybe I should ask, where do you think this shootout will take place ? Just curious.
Good point Varmit, about  the sharpshooter being able to hit didly crap  while dodging bullets