While most of the media interrupted regular programming to report on the tragic shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, you’ll be pleased to know that Fox News provided breaking news coverage from 1-3 PM ET, then continued with its regularly scheduled hate campaign for an hour from 3-4 PM. Topics of great debate: How the media took Willard’s cultural superiority comment out of context. How homophobic Chick Fil A is poor and misunderstood; however Conservatives never protest anyone they disagree with (right, tell that to the Dixie chicks) and how the “librul” media never pays attention to the issues conservatives care about. yada, yada, yada. Ok, at least they acknowledge that coverage of a shooting at a Sikh Temple doesn’t matter to conservatives. Got it.
To their credit, they did manage to put a story on this tragedy on their website. They even managed to throw in a few facts.
Fox News resumed breaking news coverage, after their bloc of regular programming. Call me a skeptic, but somehow, I suspect that if this tragedy occurred at a “Christian” Church Fox would have been all over it from when the story broke. They would have had their various talking spokes models referring to Liberal persecution of the holier than though, perhaps with a smattering of the Obama administration’s alleged war on Christianity etc.
I’m still waiting for Mitt Romney to act like a serious contender for the Presidency by at least making a standard statement conveying his sympathy for the families of the dead, or if nothing else, at least the police officer who was shot- a veteran of 20 years. (Editor’s Note: the Romney campaign put out at statement after 4 PM ET.) Perhaps he could use this moment to point to the danger of Michele Bachmann’s hate rhetoric and that of others on the far right. But, I’m not holding my breath – not for the statement and definitely not for a public condemnation of the hate rhetoric that comes from the far right.
There was a time that when a tragedy happened in America to Americans, politicians on the right at least pretended to give a damn. But now that WASPcentric thinking is all the rage (in more ways then one), the deafening silence regarding this shooting is so loud that we are forced to face the reality that unless you are pale and male, you just don’t matter to this version of “Conservative.”
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Reynardine
Aug. 5th, 2012 at 7:12 pm
I don’t doubt that the long, loud, and shrill “othering” of more and more outgroups is contributing to the frequency and violence of massacres lately. Just a couple of days ago, a pop psychologist wrote that the murderous spree of James Holmes occurred because women rejected him, and that unless women quit being so fussy and started accepting more mediocre and inferior men, massacres in general and murderous rampages against women were going to increase. In fall of 2009, NewsMax published an editorial by John Perry, advocating that if there were not at least a Congressional sweep in 2010, the military should stage a covert coup, keeping Obama only as a figurehead for a junta (remarkably like the Business Plot of Roosevelt’s first term). Everywhere, we hear advocacy that if the “other” won’t stay in their place or go back where they came from, force…even lethal force…should be used. Us “youpeople” just don’t understand enough about “how things work” to be allowed a voice.
Under the circumstances, these instigators do *not* regret stochastic violence. It is their *aim*. Enough of it, and it will be clear that the “youpeople” can’t keep order; therefore it must be kept for them. For that reason, this instigation must be always and completely exosed for what it is. Otherwise, what we’ve seen until now will likely just be an hors d’ouevre.
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William House
Aug. 5th, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Bigotry is a SHAME, not a Value.
Senseless Bigotry breeds Senseless Violence.
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mikeyhatesit
Aug. 6th, 2012 at 12:44 am
Reynardine- I wish I had known the word “stochastic” years ago. I only just discovered it myself in the last few weeks. You’re correct that O’Reilly, Beck, nor Limbaugh regret ever saying anything that might have tipped someone into committing murder.
I’d have to say Holmes was more frustrated by the economy and the lack of employment available to him. There’s a lesson that Marie Antoinette’s acquaintances learned the hard way, and I don’t want to see that kind of violence in this country even though many say it is inevitable. Holmes might actually be related in spirit to the man who flew his plane into the IRS building.
Regardless, these recent shootings are terrorism, plain and simple. Whether motivated by desperation or discrimination, they are not acceptable in spite of the NRA’s fearmongering. FOX has to be held accountable, since even they acknowledged their lack of news content when a Tampa channel converted to their network a few years back. A lawsuit trying to prevent the change forced FOX to half-heartedly admit what Canada knows is propaganda pretending to be infotainment.
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Ralph Weston
Aug. 7th, 2012 at 12:08 pm
The only hate rhetoric I see is from this website. It is a shame that a tragedy has to be politicized, and turned into a logical fallacy. Guns do not kill, people do. If guns were banned, people would still kill. The way to change people is not through gun control, but through their heart. Assault is a behavior, not a device. Also pointing to supposed hate crimes on the right and ignoring blatant hate crimes on the left by chris matthews, Bill Maher, etc. is hypocritical and deceiving. You should be ashamed for your bigotry. Also Nazis are not from the “right-wing”. That is another fallacy. Obama’s healthcare bill is a page out of Hitler’s. Hitler was about control, the Reich was everything. If Nazis were far right (which on a scale is far far right= anarchy and far far left= socialistic control)then socialists are also right-wingers. Yes Nazis and socialists had their disagreements, but the main disagreement was the issue of “control”.
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