It's been just a week, and we've gone from an outcry against the violent rhetoric of the extreme right to an equally rapid backlash, with “responsible” opinion cautioning against blaming the right-wingers for talk about crosshairs, reloading, and being armed and dangerous.
Now that backlash appears to be infecting our news coverage.
Today the Associated Press ran a story about a former Congressional candidate facing criminal charges for threats against Indiana judges.
Here's how the AP describes the defendant:
A woman who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress last year
What party, you might ask, was this woman a member of? Well you might as, but in the AP coverage you will never find out, because her party affiliation appears nowhere in the story.
If you're interested, she's a Republican.
But apparently, we're not allowed to say, or even know, the party affiliation of someone who engages in violent rhetoric.
That would be irresponsible.
After quickly marginalizing the talking heads of both the right and the left, mainstream media discussion of the Arizona shootings has carefully skirted the causal nature of anti-government anger by presenting a face of false-equivalency with regard to the incendiary inclination of both sides. Facts, the true currency of news reporting, may well fall victim to this corporate “clean-up.” So lookout for more of the same!
They fail to grasp the fact that even during the Bush years, the right was actively churning out paranoid scenarios, villainizing everyone from moslems and the French to anyone who objected to the war in Iraq. The left kept somewhat apace with the right in paranoid scenarios; but much of their speculation was based on the vast amount we knew for a fact about the Bush family history and the record of the Neo-Cons. Paranoia from the right during the Obama years sky-rocketed almost immediately after he assumed office and has been largely based on speculation as to what they think is not known about President Obama. There is no equivalent on the left.
Add to that the obvious statistical likelihood that more right-wingers own and carry guns than those on the left and you have the traditional media simply not doing their job of reporting the facts.
I also see that one of the Tuscon victims has been arrested for threatening a tea party activist. I guess the words of the strident left have consequences too.
And yet I’ve been called here a “teabagger.” Where on this site have I been angry, petulant, and argumentative? I just don’t happen to agree with you, Undamned Yankee.
Now the high capacity clip — there’s an ISSUE we can discuss. It ought to be severed from the rest of the assault rifle ban. Because most of that bill was a joke. I believe a bill has been introduced to ban the high capacity clips. They aren’t necessary for protection, hunting, or recreational target shooting.