When Crazed Shooters Can’t Be Linked To The Tea Party, Liberal Media Displays Admirable Restraint

Mediaite.com:

Alleged Los Angeles shooter Christopher Jordan Dorner, influenced by left-leaning media coverage of gun crime in the wake of the Newtown shootings, has virtually paralyzed the City of Angels. Floyd Lee Corkins, a gunman incensed by anti-gay marriage bias after reading articles by the liberal advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center, took a firearm into the Family Research Council’s headquarters with the intention of killing “as many as possible.” He hoped to smash Chick-fil-A sandwiches in the faces of as many corpses as he could. These shooters were clearly moved by left-wing media, and we should thank every benevolent force in the universe that they were. Had either shooter possessed even a tenuous link to a conservative group, a media-driven hysteria about the malevolent influence of right-wing broadcasters and commentators would be gripping the nation today. Fortunately, when a crazed shooter’s ideology is explicitly and demonstrably left-wing, the media displays admirable restraint about linking a gunman’s politics to their acts of violence.


The instinct by many high profile voices in the media to link violence to right-wing politics is not a new phenomenon, but it has enjoyed a renaissance since the tea party began to achieve political power. The broadcasters who subtly implicated former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the 2011 attack on a Democratic congresswoman in Tucson, Arizona, is indicative of this bias. CNN host Piers Morgan exemplifies the lamentable instinct to blame conservatism for senseless violence well. 

In a November, 2011, interview with Mark Kelly, Morgan said he was shocked by the “extraordinary” fact that Palin did not reach out to former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) immediately after the shooting. Kelly agreed, saying that the infamous map on Palin’s website which featured targets over a variety of congressional districts that Republicans were “targeting” in that year’s midterm elections – an infraction which sparked a national uproar about the martial imagery employed by politicians since the time of Demosthenes – was “not the right thing to do.”

The implication was clear: Palin had some influence on the crazed gunman who shot up an impromptu meeting of a Congresswoman and her constituents. Palin’s crosshairs map had become a scapegoat for prominent voices from Paul Krugman to Randi Zuckerberg. It did not take much investigation into Loughner’s background to learn that he was not especially political, and was certainly not a fan of Palin’s. Nevertheless, nearly a year after this tragic incident, Morgan clung to that baseless charge.

Since the Newtown shooting, Morgan has been beating the drum about the need for stricter gun laws. His pro-gun control crusade made a deep impression on Dorner, who praised Morgan in his manifesto. So, having been specifically cited as someone who influenced Dorner, Morgan would engage in some introspection. Instead, he dismissed his influence on the L.A. shooter outright. 

Morgan tweeted confidently — just hours after the manifesto in which Dorner praised not just Morgan but MSNBC’s programming and a proposed Assault Weapons Ban – that politics has “nothing to do” with Dorner’s rampage.

Unfortunately, the spectacularly wrong-headed approach the media took to assigning nonexistent motives to Loughner did not lead the media to impose some restraint on itself when opining on the politics of crazed shooters. 

After Aurora, Colorado, shooter James Holmes attacked moviegoers this summer, ABC News reporter Brian Ross – minutes after the name of the suspect had been leaked to the press – sifted through the white pages to discover that there was one James Holmes in Colorado who happened to be a tea party activist. That incident forced ABC’s President Ben Sherwood to issue an apology.

In February, 2010, when the deranged Joseph Stack flew his Piper Cub into the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service in Austin, Texas, few in the elite media waited for the dust to settle before blaming conservatism. “The First Tea Party Terrorist?” asked New York Times columnist Robert Wright. 

Even though Wright had Stack’s online manifesto in hand – one in which he praises Marxist communism and laments the harsh excesses of American capitalism – Wright used a magicians sleight of hand to nevertheless link Stack to the tea party.

Was he a Tea Partier — or at least a Tea Party sympathizer? Conservatives who say no point to leftish themes in his manifesto. And it’s true that — in a line much-quoted by these conservatives — he seems to wish that the government would do something about health care. Then again, who doesn’t?
…
In the end, the core unifying theme of the Tea Partiers is populist rage, and this is the core theme in Stack’s ramblings, whether the rage is directed at corporate titans (“plunderers”), the government (“totalitarian”) or individual politicians (“liars”).

When the facts make it impossible to indulge the instinct to link a violent extremist to the right – in Dorner and Corkins’ cases for example – the media displays appropriate caution about assigning political motives to their actions.

That is an laudable impulse. The motives that drive disturbed individuals to commit heinous acts of violence, whatever they are, should not be glorified. Dorner’s manifesto clearly indicates that the media, and its coverage of the gun control debate that has followed the Newtown massacre, influenced him significantly. A responsible media would take that into account and maybe, just maybe, ask what they may be doing to contribute to the increased incidences of mass shootings. 

That is a national conversation that Americans deserve. Rest assured, if Dorner or Corkins had been influenced to commit their crimes by right-wing media outlets, we would get it. Sadly, that level of self-awareness is nowhere to be found in today’s media landscape. 

RELATED:  Accused cop-killer left manifesto praising Obama, Hillary, Piers Morgan, gun control

Conservative Dr. Benjamin Carson Criticizes Barack Obama To His Face

RELATED: ‘That Guy Has A Lot Of Guts’: The Five Panel Celebrates Conservative Doctor Who Criticized Obama To His Face

Rihanna Disgraces Herself and All Women in Support of Abuser Chris Brown

NYPost.com:

Young women, I beg you — don’t be like Rihanna!

The ravishing songstress and Bad Example for Girls waltzed into an LA court yesterday with her past and present and, I guess, forever boyfriend, Chris Brown, who isn’t man enough to pick on men or dames his own size.

Smiling as she walked in, she blew a kiss in Brown’s direction. RiRi came to stand by the man who once pummeled her face into a bloody mess for the lamest of reasons. Rihanna had confronted Brown about racy texts from random babes.

But yesterday, she walked into the courtroom as if saying, That’s OK! Every man gets a freebie. 

With young women wanting to grow up to be Rihanna, this is a disgrace. 

Brown showed up in the downtown LA court, where the state of California has expended scads of expensive court time, zillions of man hours and a forest-worth of paper to avenge the songstress for the bloody bruising Brown inflicted on her noggin in 2009.

For there was Rihanna, trailing Brown like an idiot puppy. She was not there to glare at her man, or give him a richly deserved smack upside the head. 

RiRi instead engifted Brown with a little lovin’ before he faced a judge.

She humiliated herself.

She embarrassed all women.

Then she sat in the gallery beside Brown’s mom, Joyce Hawkins, in a show of support so vile, RiRi seemed to be telling the world that women secretly deserve to be punished.

Is this lady begging to be treated like well-dressed dog meat from a guy so wimpy and weird he can’t fathom waling on adult males?

Brown was in court to answer prosecutors’ charges that he faked records for the community service he was supposed to perform in his native Virginia, ironically as punishment for the felony assault of Rihanna. 

Cheating, whether on community labor or on a woman, seems part and parcel of Brown’s character. 

I had nearly forgotten how starstruck and accommodating LA judges can be to celebrity morons. 

I almost gasped in 2009, watching as Judge Patricia Schnegg awarded Brown a get-out-of-jail-free card — sentencing him to a slap on the wrist: five years’ probation and six months of “labor’’ in Virginia for a crime that would put away an ordinary hood for several years.

Then the judge praised Brown like a young, star-struck girl.

“I think it is commendable you took responsibility for your conduct.’’

Really? Why not send him to bed with milk and cookies? This is LA, where if you have a big enough name and enough money, anything is possible.

With kid-glove treatment like this, it’s no wonder that Brown thinks he can do no wrong.

Brown is accustomed to having women throw themselves at his head. And with her “kick me’’ attitude, Rihanna is setting an example I wouldn’t want my daughter to see.

There is no excuse for a man using a girl as a punching bag.

There is no excuse for a woman flaunting her abuse to save him.

Chris Brown already got away with using his fists to rearrange Rihanna’s face. And Rihanna has rewarded him for it. 

He kept his lady, his recording contract, his fame and, among men with anger issues who think women ask for it, he kept his reputation. If Rihanna forgives him, why can’t the rest of us? 

I’ll tell you why. He’s a chicken who can’t even seem to do a lick of work.

RiRi, if you want to make yourself into a fool, keep it away from impressionable girls who aspire to be just like you.

I’ve lost any respect I ever had for you.

RELATED:  Tina Brown slams Rihanna: Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief calls the singer 'a big fat zero as a role model'  

Obama, Drones, and the Blissful Ignorance of Liberals

TheWeek.com:

A

leaked Department of Justice memo outlining the legal rationale for President Obama's aggressive drone policy has sparked a heated debate — much of it centered on President Obama's apparent hypocrisy.
After all, Obama spent much of the 2008 campaign criticizing George W. Bush's policies on Guantanamo Bay and the waterboarding of three terrorists. And now he's okay with killing al-Qaeda-affiliated U.S. citizens without due process?

During one drone strike, a 16-year-old American was killed. You may write this off as collateral damage, but had this happened on George W. Bush's watch, you can bet it would have dominated headlines for days, if not weeks or months. So far, Obama hasn't even had to answer a question about it, and liberals who would have demanded Bush's impeachment have collectively yawned.

Still, in my estimation, President Obama has been consistent in practicing what I call "politically correct warfare" — which is to say that for most Americans, these drone strikes are out-of-sight, out-of-mind.
And here's the ugly truth: Obama is giving us what we want.

We have an unspoken agreement with the president. Obama never promised America he wouldn't kill people more aggressively than his predecessor. But with a wink and a nod, he gave us plausible deniability.

Americans, it turns out, don't really have the stomach for the unseemly business of taking prisoners, extracting information from prisoners, and then (maybe) going through the emotional, time consuming, and costly business of a trial.

American citizens want someone who will make the big, bad world disappear. Problems only exist if we have to confront them. Obama has made warfare more convenient for us — and less emotionally taxing. We should thank him.

This dynamic helps explain why some other liberal policies become popular. Ignorance is bliss. It's why many people believe that adults have more rights than the unborn (after all, we can see them, hear them complain. Likewise, an unborn baby cannot talk. The unborn can't hire a lobby.) The same could be said about spending. The notion of debt surpassing trillions of dollars is so ethereal as to be incomprehensible. See no evil, hear no evil...

And so, we appreciate Obama. With Bush, we had to see pictures of inmates. Yes, it's possible that some of the information extracted might have led us to bin Laden — but it still makes us feel bad. And we had to hear about waterboarding. How barbaric! It is far better to simply cause your enemies to evaporate. It's like pulling a band-aid off all at once. It's so much tidier — so much more sophisticated.

Dead men tell no tales.

RELATED: Jon Stewart Tears Into Obama Hypocrisy And Secrecy On Drones: Only Transparent ‘About The Last Guy’s Secrets’

Disrespectful Behavior Only A Liberal Could Defend: Judge Sentences Florida Teen Penelope Soto To 30 Days In Jail For Cursing At Him

Mediaite.com:

18-year-old Penelope Soto taught an important lesson to millions of young Americans when she was called before a Florida judge yesterday on a drug possession charge. Soto laughed when the judge asked if she had consumed any drugs in the last 24 hours and then said “adios” after he set her bail at $5,000. She stopped laughing when he asked her to return and raised the bond to $10,000.

“Are you serious?” Soto asked. The judge replied, “I am serious. Adios.”

At that point, Soto apparently gave the judge the finger and shouted an expletive at him. He then asked Soto point blank, “Did you say ‘fuck me’?” When she said she did, he found her in criminal contempt of court and sentenced her to 30 days in a county jail.

More Gay Lies: Homosexual Cruise Ship Staffer Drops Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against John Travolta

John Travolta, a Hollywood celebrity who practices the high moral tenets of Scientology and who tragically lost his young son to a rare illness not too long ago, has recently been the target of smears and lawsuits from anti-God homosexuals feening for him to choose same-sex intimacy over his wife and kids. Thank goodness truth overcomes all lies:

The former cruise ship staffer who claimed John Travolta assaulted him with a naked, full-mast hug has dropped his lawsuit against the actor.

The surprise reversal came just three days after a federal judge denied Travolta's request to force the matter into private arbitration — a decision that cleared the decks for a public trial.

Fabian Zanzi claimed in his bombshell lawsuit last June Travolta tried to rock his boat in 2009 after he delivered a room service meal to the "Pulp Fiction" star aboard a Royal Caribbean ship.

"Travolta forced his naked person and his erect penis against plaintiff's person causing plaintiff to experience pain, shock, embarrassment, distress and fear," the complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles stated.

Lawyers for Zanzi and Travolta signed paperwork dismissing the action Monday, according to court records.

The voluntary action includes a clause that prevents Zanzi from refiling the case, the paperwork states.

Attempts to reach the parties Tuesday were not immediately successful.

Zanzi's original claim mirrored sexual battery lawsuits filed - but later withdrawn - by masseurs in Beverly Hills and Atlanta last year.

Travolta has vehemently denied the horny high-jinks asserted in the legal claims.

Zanzi, who lives in Chile, first gained headlines last May when he told a Chilean news program that the high-flying Travolta drew him close during their alleged encounter with a gripe about something hurting his neck.

Jon Stewart Summed Up: Liberal Hypocrite, FOX News Hater and Race Baiter

Mediaite.com:

The true rise of the artist formerly known as Jon Stuart Leibowitz came not during his roommate role in Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy or taking over for Craig Kilborn on The Daily Show in the late 90s. Instead it was a 2004 appearance on the soon-to-be-doomed CNN Crossfire with Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. 

Watch the clip (below) to witness one guest (a non-controversial comedian at the time, no less) single-handedly destroy a highly-successful cable program in the span of ten minutes. Stewart’s unfiltered perspective, along his unique ability to capture that palpable feeling everybody is thinking but nobody actually talks about, completely disarmed the hosts (particularly Carlson). The show would be abruptly canceled within a year. 

Stewart’s mantra throughout the TKO was pithy and pointed:
“Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America,” he pleaded repeatedly, later adding: “You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.”

Stewart would proceed to label the Crossfire hosts as “political hacks,” and equated both to professional wrestlers: “You’re doing theatre when you should be doing debate.” 

The hosts never saw it coming. 

Carlson: “You need to get a job at a journalism school…”

Stewart: “You need to go to one.”

Game, set, match…

Over 5.3 million YouTube hits later, Stewart was elevated to a broadcast pantheon few in political media have ascended to in terms of respect, admiration and power. As a result, the daily routine for every cable network producer is to assign an associate producer or intern to watch Stewart’s program to find the best clips to insert into a program. If you miss the Daily Show on any given night, no worries…best-of replays are seen all morning on cable news (the target that is Fox News notwithstanding). 

Beloved by Democrats and feared by Republicans for his awesome influence on young voters, AskMen even named the 50-year-old the country’s Most Influential Man of 2010. 

In the end, when talking about dominance in political programing and the hosts who get it — who truly understand what audiences want and how to do a show right — the roster is made up of two people: 

Jon Stewart. 

Bill O’Reilly. 

And that’s it. 

So that’s why it is regrettable to declare that Mr. Stewart has dubiously earned receiving the same lecture given to Carlson and Begala nine years ago:

Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America, Jon. 

This plea comes after Stewart crossed over the line this week during a segment on President Obama and guns. In it, Stewart rightly called out the media for questioning whether the President fabricated a story around his recently revealed affection for skeet shooting. 

The silly season continues for conspiracy theorists choosing to attack the president on this, as the White House has since released a photo of Obama as part-Terminator/part-Matrix-Laurence Fishburne (the protective shades are unquestionably badass) while doing the skeet thing out at Camp David. 

The exercise once again proves certain media members need to be more selective in terms of where to burn their calories when criticizing this president…because when these kind of small-time charges are disproven, it only continues to diminish their already-struggling credibility. 

But regardless of how things turned out here, it was a question Stewart asked on his show that only helps push a toxic racial narrative we’re seeing way too often on cable news. 

Stewart on Thursday’s Daily Show: “Why won’t the black man half the country lives in fear of release a picture of himself holding a gun?” 

With statements like this, it is Stewart who is now hurting the country.

And before applying the same “I’m-just-a-comedian-don’t-take-anything-I-say-seriously-defense” Stewart invariably resorts to when called out in situations like this, keep in mind that he lost that get-out-of-jail-free card when he decided to become as serious as a heart attack on Crossfire on the importance of responsible public discourse. 

Here’s my beef: By automatically believing half the country (OK, 47 percent) only voted against the president because he’s black, because they fear him, it is an affront to the tens of millions who voted for the GOP candidate for reasons other than skin color. 

Maybe, just maybe, it was a listless economy, high unemployment, spiraling debt, the creation of unaffordable entitlements, and a different philosophy on taxes that compelled voting for the other guy…at least that’s what the exit polls showed. 

And by the way, included in the final tally for the Republican ticket were 2.4 million votes by African Americans. So, are they afraid of one of their own…the black guy with the gun? 

Remember when we heard that the only way Obama could lose would be because of closet racism and code words the Romney campaign was subtly imbedding in its talking points like “golf,” “Chicago,” and “lazy”? 

Well, it should be noted that the president received more white votes in 2012 than any Democratic candidate since FDR. And it’s not like he had the tailwinds of a great, or good (or even average) economy at his back.

So much for all that rampant racism derailing the president’s path to a second term…

But Stewart continues to push a racial narrative only thought to exist on a cable news network he rarely criticizes. 

Of course, this is the same host who once did an awkward Amos ‘n Andy imitation of Herman Cain. In this week’s “could you imagine if?” segment, could you imagine if O’Reilly put on black face and did his best impression of Barack Obama? 

Is Jon Stewart a racist? 

Of course not…

But does he play the race card when it comes to painting all conservatives with the same brush? 

Absolutely. 

Apparently over 60 million people in this country fear President Obama as if he was a gun-toting African-American member of a Chicago gang. 

At least that’s the implication. 

Please Jon…

Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting the country.

RELATED: Jon Stewart To Al Gore On Current TV Sale To Al Jazeera: 'I Thought It Was An Odd Move' (VIDEO)

Jesse Jackson Urges Barack Obama to Address Chicago Violence

But the 1st half-black president still won't talk about inner-city violence, even after winning his re-election thanks in part to naive and idiot black and hispanic Americans who overwhelmingly helped get him his 2nd term. But he sure has time to talk about stuff that "really matters" to minorities like faux climate change, illegal immigration (which hurts unemployed blacks already competing for jobs) and allowing gays in the boys scouts. Why Mitt Romney didn't point out Barack Obama's blatant disrespect, dismissal of and disloyality to black Americans on the campaign trial is another reason he lost:

Sunday brought a continued outcry in Chicago over the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, the honors student and band majorette who was shot and killed days after performing at the president’s inauguration ceremony. Rev. Jesse Jackson led a march Saturday from Pendleton’s King College Prep high school to the 4400 block of South Oakenwald where she was shot. Jackson and Chicago residents have requested the presence of President Obama as the city struggles to cope with a wave of gun violence, having suffered the deadliest January in a decade.

During a press conference Saturday, Jackson asked that the president “please come home,” and that his presence alone would “illuminate the condition.” A Chicago resident himself, Jackson acknowledged that the city’s problems extended beyond gun control, and fears that citizens “might be taking death for granted.”

“You cannot police poverty. You cannot police broken dreams, you cannot police aspirations,” Jackson said. “This cannot be dealt with on just a citywide level. We have drugs and guns coming in, and jobs going out. In most of the areas where these shootings are taking place, the unemployment rate is between 45 percent  and 55 percent.”

The park where Pendleton was shot is just a mile from the Chicago home of the president, and her shooter is still at large. Police have offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest but have not named any suspects.

“We need to turn him in immediately. A person who shoots once will shoot again,” Rev. Michael Pfleger told reporters. “If we don’t turn him in, and there is no question there are a number of people who know, if he shoots again they should be tried for being an accessory to their crime. It’s not about snitching, it’s about life-saving.”

The Pendleton family announced that Hadiya will be laid to rest on Chicago’s South Side this weekend, with a visitation being held Friday, and a wake and funeral on Saturday.

RELATED: Petition Urges Obama To Attend Slain Chicago Girl's Funeral

Politiks As Usual: In The News 2/4/13

Washington State Considers Final Gender-Neutral Language Bill

Obama Encourages Boy Scouts Of America to End Ban On Gays, Gov. Perry Says Keep It

Why I'm Canceling My Sports Illustrated Subscription

ObamaCare Will Cost Your Family at Least $20,000

Gallup: Conservatives Outnumber Liberals in 47 Out of 50 States

Only Truth in ‘True Life’ is MTV’s Contempt for Conservatives

Wanda Sykes on Super Bowl: 'I'm Gay...Not Rooting for San Francisco Is Like Booing Africa'

White House Brandishes Obama Skeet-Shooting Pic for Reporters

Mother’s Blog Demonstrates Aggressive Atheist Arguments

The Top Ten Reasons Hillary Must Be the Next President