In the wake of the murder of a security guard by a white supremacist at the Holocaust Museum earlier this week, Shephard Smith, a Fox anchor, was so shaken that he actually went off-script and denounced the hate speech and irrational fear mongering that is regular fare of his network's own talking heads. Smith read an example of an email that he described as indicative of "hundreds" that he sees everyday coming into Fox news. In a normal world, the diatribe he read would be denounced as the rants of a crazy person. Today, it's normal. After years of bile and vitriol spewed by the likes of O'Reilly, Hannity, and Beck along with regular pundits Coulter, Savage, Limbaugh, Kristol and a whole host of other incendiary characters, the results of that kind of language have exploded onto our television screens.
This killing comes only 10 days after another right-wing extremist gunned down a doctor in his own church for being an abortion provider. Once again, the much-maligned DHS warning on the dangers of right wing extremism has come true, and Smith actually expressed the same opinion. Finally, at least one Fox talking head has awakened from the long nightmare of hate speech and denounced it. Fox's audience has dumbed down from the years of propaganda to the point that thousands of watchers now stupidly parrot back the hate in writing through the magic of email. They also spout the same hateful talking points on websites such as Craigslist.org on a daily basis.
Such are the fruits of intemperate speech that "amps up", using Smith's own words, emotion, hate, bigotry, racism, and xenophobia, for which Fox and Limbaugh are famous. Political discourse is one thing. However, this kind of slanderous and false hate speech is psycho-talk and inflammatory. And it foments hate, fear, and irrational rage. When that kind of hate boils over it results in violence like we've been seeing lately with the murders of innocent people by right wing extremists. After this latest tragedy, apologists' arguments of "random event" and "isolated incident" now ring pretty hollow.
The argument about free speech is sometimes not crystal clear. Yes, free speech is a basic tenet of our rights as Americans. However, screaming "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre can injure or kill people. The rabid rhetoric that spews forth from talk radio and Fox Noise in a continuous stream is the electronic version of doing the same thing. It's time for the GOP, it's leaders, and it's elected officials to immediately and forcefully denounce this kind speech and those who use it. Maybe doing so will save a few innocents from killings like the Black security guard who lost his life at the hand of the racist murderer. (Best wishes to his family, BTW.)
And what I heard recently is that the there's a perfect storm brewing, caused by the election of the natinon's first Black POTUS, illegal immigration, a Hispanic selected for the supreme court, failing economy and talk of gun control, and it was revealed earlier this week that the former head of the Southern Baptist Convention spewed publicly over the radio that he "prays that Obama gets killed." You just know some bigoted psycho will try to prove that "God answers prayers".
You don't need a blowtorch to start a fire. Just a match. Which is why you should be careful with matches ... lighting them can have unintended consequences.
Just wanted to share some thoughts with my BIA siblings, we cannot let down our guards or give up the fight. These are dangerous people and we are living in dangerous times.
Peace.
Posted By: Craig Amos
Saturday, June 13th 2009 at 2:47PM
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