The Wrath of Fools: An Open Letter to the Far Right
It's by William Rivers Pitt whom I admire very much.
Here's just a part:
There's more. It's passionate. It's good. And, I would assert, Pitt is right.I'm talking to you, "mainstream" media people, who created this atmosphere of desperate rage and total paranoia out of whole cloth because of your unstoppable adoration for spectacle, and ratings, and because the companies that own your sorry asses agree with the deranged cretins you helped make so famous and powerful. It was sickeningly amusing on Sunday to watch Wolf Blitzer bluster and bluff on CNN about how the media owns no responsibility for this disaster. It was like watching a ten-year-old try to explain how a lamp got broken while he was running through the living room, but no, it wasn't him. It was, in reality, a pathetic display...but that is what you generally get whenever Wolf is on your screen.
"Mainstream" news personalities like David Gergen and John King bent over backwards warning people not to blame Sarah Palin and her ilk for this calamity. It was a sick man who did this, they said. Bollocks to that. I hate to break this to the "mainstream" media know-betters, but words matter. When people like Palin spray the airwaves with calls to violence and incantations of imminent doom, people like Loughner are listening, and prepared to act. The "mainstream" media lets it fly without any questions or rebuttal, because it's good for ratings, and here we are. Words matter. Play Russian Roulette long enough, and someone inevitably winds up dead.
...
And yes, I'm talking to you, Sarah Palin, you unutterably disgusting fraud. You pulled it off your ridiculous website, but it's out there: you put cross-hairs - literally, cross-hairs - on Rep. Giffords, you blithered about "reloading" instead of "retreating," and you made this country more stupid and violent with every breath you took. Well, congratulations, you failure, you quitter, you inciter of mobs. You put the cross-hairs on her, and someone finally pulled the trigger. Run from it all you like, Lady MacBeth, but this blood will never be washed from your hands.
I'm talking to you, Sharron Angle, you walking punch-line, who talked about "Second Amendment remedies" being necessary if you didn't get your way on health care reform during your failed Senate campaign.
~~~
Have you seen this as well? It's not focused solely on the media, but your post reminded me of it: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2011/01/lets-get-this-straight.html
ReplyDeleteThe author deftly and lucidly argues in great detail how "Both [political] sides are, in fact, not 'just as bad,' when it comes to institutionally sanctioned violent and eliminationist rhetoric."
Oh, thanks for that, Sara. I completely agree and I get very annoyed with the "false equivalency" argument put forth.
ReplyDeleteIt's just not true.
Wow...well written indeed. Although I take issue with his identifying Loughner as mentally disturbed. I've had some discussions with friends here about how quick the media and everyone else has been to label him as disturbed when really we have no idea...he hasn't undergone any type of psychiatric exam yet. Yes he was odd, but he also appears to have had full use of his mind and wits. It's just far more difficult to understand and against our instinct to allow people who do things like this to be completely sane and in full knowledge of what they were doing (eg McVeigh, the two boys from Columbine H.S.).
ReplyDeleteHi, Maggie. You might be interested in my post today (Friday) about "false equivalency" and the last paragraph I quoted from the article.
ReplyDeleteI had to think about your comment for a while regarding the rush to brand people as mentally ill and I think I'm seeing your point now.