Glenn Beck Rant on Tides leads to Violence

hazlnut · Jul 30, 2010

This is the danger of uneducated people (or those with a basic education who lack critical thinking skills) watching Glenn Beck and other fringe-right partisans. They get all worked up about non-existant boogey men - Tides, Acorn, La Raza...

Then some unstable person goes off.

This guy makes a good point--Fox news has become somewhat irresponsible IMO. Doocy, Beck, and Hannity all spew crap from their mouths and many FNC viewers are all too impressionable.

A what point does hyper-partisan rhetoric (from the Left or Right) become inciting violence?

Josie · Jul 31, 2010

When did this country come to the notion that speaking out against something you disagree with makes you a terrorist?

If Glenn Beck ends up dead, is that Keith Olbermann's fault? If members of the Tea Party Express are shot, is that the fault of the far-left blogs that constantly bash them? Who was to blame for the death of Lincoln - southern Democrats? Who is to blame for the WTC towers coming down - anti-capitalists?

The ONLY person at fault when something criminal happens is the person (or people) who supports and carries out the crime. NO WHERE has Glenn supported violence against ANY GROUP or ANY PERSON that he has bashed. He's constantly saying to NOT become violent. If you disagree with Glenn, disagree intelligently instead of resorting to dishonest attacks like this.

eace

Josie · Jul 31, 2010

And, no, the comments he made in jest about Michael Moore and Nancy Pelosi cannot be used as evidence. They were obviously bad jokes and he even said he was stupid for saying it.

Dittohead not! · Jul 31, 2010

Mellie said:
When did this country come to the notion that speaking out against something you disagree with makes you a terrorist?

If Glenn Beck ends up dead, is that Keith Olbermann's fault? If members of the Tea Party Express are shot, is that the fault of the far-left blogs that constantly bash them? Who was to blame for the death of Lincoln - southern Democrats? Who is to blame for the WTC towers coming down - anti-capitalists?

The ONLY person at fault when something criminal happens is the person (or people) who supports and carries out the crime. NO WHERE has Glenn supported violence against ANY GROUP or ANY PERSON that he has bashed. He's constantly saying to NOT become violent. If you disagree with Glenn, disagree intelligently instead of resorting to dishonest attacks like this.

eace

While I disagree with Beck a lot of the time, I totally agree with your post. What are we supposed to do, tone down rhetoric until it is so bland that even the extreme nutjobs aren't going to be incited by it? Beck has his obvious biases, as do most of the pundits. The last I heard, the First Amendment was still part of the supreme law of the land, and biases were still legal.

Your Star · Jul 31, 2010

Glen Beck twist facts, and is intellectually dishonest, but to blame him for the violence this guy committed is also twisting facts, and being intellectually dishonest.In no way is Beck responsible for violence. Blaming Beck is just giving the guy who did it an excuse for his horrible behavior, when he is the only to blame.

StandUpChuck · Jul 31, 2010

hazlnut said:
This is the danger of uneducated people (or those with a basic education who lack critical thinking skills) watching Glenn Beck and other fringe-right partisans. They get all worked up about non-existant boogey men - Tides, Acorn, La Raza...

Then some unstable person goes off.

This guy makes a good point--Fox news has become somewhat irresponsible IMO. Doocy, Beck, and Hannity all spew crap from their mouths and many FNC viewers are all too impressionable.

A what point does hyper-partisan rhetoric (from the Left or Right) become inciting violence?

If that's the case, then 85% of your posts would be liable for inciting violence, Hazlnut. You're really not much different than Beck in that regard. :shrug:

LizardofOz · Jul 31, 2010

What I am upset about is Comedy Central STILL hasn't picked Glenn Beck up for some episodes. He needs to get his viewers back somehow ya know.

Harshaw · Jul 31, 2010

StandUpChuck said:
If that's the case, then 85% of your posts would be liable for inciting violence, Hazlnut. You're really not much different than Beck in that regard. :shrug:

That IS the obvious irony here. Especially:

A what point does hyper-partisan rhetoric (from the Left or Right) become inciting violence?

Chappy · Jul 31, 2010

“This was a very dramatic situation. To perform a routine stop and have it turn into this is basically every officer's worst nightmare.” — CHP Sgt. Trent Cross

I wonder if people really understand what a horrific massacre was averted by the California Highway Patrol two weeks ago. Williams was dressed to kill, literally.

“There is no doubt in our mind, given the body armor and the extensive amount of ammunition he had, that he was on his way to do a very serious crime against either someone or a group of people.” — CHP Sgt. Trent Cross

It is pretty clear that the outrageous language of the right wing in this country will end in innocent bloodshed. And, it's the enablers within the conservative movement, the ones who don't speak out and reject this conduct, that allow this tragic outcome to come about.

Excerpted from “Glenn Beck's incendiary angst dangerously close to having a body count; The pundit's crusade against the Tides Foundation is the latest in a line of tirades that have led to violence” BY ERIC BOEHLERT, Salon, TUESDAY, JUL 27, 2010 11:28 ET
… [[SIZE="+2"]T[/SIZE]]hankfully, Williams wasn’t able to take his place alongside a growing list of domestic, anti-government terrorists, such as the recent Pentagon shooter, the Holocaust Museum gunman, the kamikaze pilot who flew his plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, and the Pittsburgh cop-killer who set up an ambush because he was convinced Obama was going to take away his guns.

All the vigilante attacks appear to have been fueled by an almost pathological hatred for the U.S. government -- the same open hatred that right-wing bloggers, AM talk radio hosts, and Fox News' lineup of anti-government prophets have been frantically fueling for the last year, pushing doomsday warnings of America's democratic demise under President Obama.

And the sad truth is we’re going to see more like Byron Williams. We’re going to see more attempts at vigilante violence during the Age of Obama simply because the right-wing media, led by Beck, continue to gleefully (albeit irresponsibly) stoke dangerous fires with the kind of relentlessly incendiary rhetoric that has no match in terms of modern-day, mainstream use in American politics or media.

Josie · Jul 31, 2010

All the vigilante attacks appear to have been fueled by an almost pathological hatred for the U.S. government -- the same open hatred that right-wing bloggers, AM talk radio hosts, and Fox News' lineup of anti-government prophets have been frantically fueling for the last year, pushing doomsday warnings of America's democratic demise under President Obama.

Right-wing bloggers, Fox News and talk radio generally are not anti-government. I cannot think of anyone I have listened to or read that is, actually. Why are they trying to portray them as anarchists?

Chappy · Jul 31, 2010

Mellie said:
Right-wing bloggers, Fox News and talk radio generally are not anti-government. I cannot think of anyone I have listened to or read that is, actually. Why are they trying to portray them as anarchists?

Perhaps, you're not listening very closely unlike “the recent Pentagon shooter, the Holocaust Museum gunman, the kamikaze pilot who flew his plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, and the Pittsburgh cop-killer who set up an ambush because he was convinced Obama was going to take away his guns.”

Josie · Jul 31, 2010

Chappy said:
Perhaps, you're not listening very closely unlike “the recent Pentagon shooter, the Holocaust Museum gunman, the kamikaze pilot who flew his plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, and the Pittsburgh cop-killer who set up an ambush because he was convinced Obama was going to take away his guns.”

Please cite references of quotes from Fox News or other media that incited those people to be violent. If you think simply speaking out against certain groups or people incites violence, then you must have a problem with almost everyone in this country on both sides of the aisle.

And who in the media is an anarchist? Please cite your sources.

Thanks.

Harshaw · Jul 31, 2010

Chappy said:
Perhaps, you're not listening very closely unlike “the recent Pentagon shooter

Ummm . . . .

Bedell left an electronic trail thick with written, video and audio manifestoes. In an audio address posted on the Internet, he suggested that after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy the United States had been infiltrated by a cabal of gangsters he called the "coup regime." Bedell believed that the group has continued manipulating the country "up to the present day" and was probably responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq war.

In recent years, in conversations with friends and in Internet postings, Bedell seemed obsessed by what he saw as attacks on personal liberty. He was especially irked by criminal penalties for marijuana use, said Reb Monaco, a family friend who knew Bedell for most of his life. But Bedell had never expressed hostility toward the military, Monaco said.

Sounds like he's been listening to Truffers to me.

That being the only actual news story you linked to, I'm not inclined to take Media Matters' and Frank Rich's childish games of connect-the-dots into much consideration. Wow. Rabid liberals think these things were done because of right-wing media. Yadon'tsay.

Chappy · Jul 31, 2010

Mellie said:
Please cite references of quotes from Fox News or other media that incited those people to be violent. If you think simply speaking out against certain groups or people incites violence, then you must have a problem with almost everyone in this country on both sides of the aisle.

And who in the media is an anarchist? Please cite your sources.

Thanks.

You brought up anarchists, not me.

As to specific quotes relevant to this thread, I offer this: Beck denies being "responsible" for planned massacre at office of group he demonized | Media Matters for America (scan down to, “Beck has a history of promoting violent rhetoric”)

Also, here's an upcoming opinion piece: Milbank to Beck: "Stop encouraging" potential murderers | Media Matters for America

Orion · Jul 31, 2010

People should keep in mind that Fox News is privately owned, and the people who own it have an agenda just like anyone else. IMO they should be the ones being attacked, not Glenn Beck. He is just being paid to be outrageous.

Josie · Jul 31, 2010

Chappy said:
You brought up anarchists, not me.

As to specific quotes relevant to this thread, I offer this: Beck denies being "responsible" for planned massacre at office of group he demonized | Media Matters for America (scan down to, “Beck has a history of promoting violent rhetoric”)

Also, here's an upcoming opinion piece: Milbank to Beck: "Stop encouraging" potential murderers | Media Matters for America

Perhaps you need to go back to 3rd grade literature class where you were supposed to learn "metaphor".

Harshaw · Jul 31, 2010

OK, using REAL news stories, not Media Matters and a Frank Rich column . . .

Chappy said:
the Holocaust Museum gunman

This dude was all over the place, and had been an armed problem for 30 years:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/us/12shoot.html

A notebook that law enforcement officers discovered in Mr. von Brunn’s 2002 red Hyundai, which he had double-parked outside the museum’s 14th Street entrance on Wednesday, appeared to offer insight into his mind-set before the shooting.

“You want my weapons — this is how you’ll get them,” Mr. von Brunn wrote in a note he had signed, according to the arrest affidavit.

“The Holocaust is a lie,” the note read. “Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do. Jews captured America’s money. Jews control the mass media.”

Mr. von Brunn’s note refers to himself in the third person by his initials, JVB, saying that he swore “to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

He lashes out at Jews and includes the name of his book, “Kill the Best Gentiles!”

The shooting was the third publicized anti-Semitic incident in the last five weeks. In early May, a Wesleyan University student of Jewish heritage was fatally shot on the Connecticut campus by a man who had written in his personal journal that he thought it was “O.K. to kill Jews.”

In mid-May, four men were arrested in the attempted bombing of two Bronx synagogues.

The F.B.I. said Mr. von Brunn — best known to law enforcement authorities for walking into the Federal Reserve System headquarters in Washington on Dec. 7, 1981, with a bag containing a revolver, a hunting knife and a sawed-off shotgun — was not under investigation at the time of Wednesday’s shooting. But the assistant F.B.I. director for the District of Columbia, Joseph Persichini Jr., said the bureau knew he had an “established Web site that expressed hatred of African-Americans and Jews.”

Where are you finding anti-Jew, holocaust-denial stuff these days? It ain't "right-wing media." But it is, say, Oliver Stone. Palestinians and their supporters. Various and sundry left-wing nuts and sympathizers.

Which isn't to blame this douchebag on them, either, only that his douchebaggery has nothing to do with Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, or anyone else you want to include. But Media Matters won't tell you that (obviously).

the kamikaze pilot who flew his plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/us/19crash.html

“I knew Joe had a hang-up with the I.R.S. on account of them breaking him, taking his savings away,” said Jack Cook, the stepfather of Mr. Stack’s wife, in a telephone interview from his home in Oklahoma. “And that’s undoubtedly the reason he flew the airplane against that building. Not to kill people, but just to damage the I.R.S.”

Gosh, imagine being angry about that without anyone telling you you should be.

and the Pittsburgh cop-killer who set up an ambush because he was convinced Obama was going to take away his guns.”

No, this guy was another white supremacist douche who had it out for all sorts of people. But of course, Media Matters concentrates on his anti-Obama "take away his guns" angle.

Alleged cop-killer Poplawski's 'hit list' surfaces - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Richard Poplawski discussed a "hit list" on an Internet radio show in the weeks before he allegedly gunned down three Pittsburgh police officers in an ambush at his Stanton Heights home, according to a police affidavit.

The hit list included a Pittsburgh police officer, a black, a Jew, his ex-girlfriend, her parents and neighbors' pets, the affidavit states.

Homicide investigators relied on statements provided by Edward Perkovic, 23, of Lawrenceville and his estranged girlfriend, Jocelyn Moffitt, 22, to get permission to search computers used by Poplawski and Perkovic for their radio show, Eddie and Po. The documents were filed this week with Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning, who is presiding over Poplawski's trial for the April 4 slayings.

The affidavits indicate Poplawski was more deeply involved in white supremacist activities than previously disclosed. He posted material on the Web site Stormfront.org and frequently e-mailed racist content to his radio co-host, Perkovic told police.

During one show, Moffitt told investigators, Poplawski said: "'When the (expletive) hits the fan,' and that he knew he was going to 'go down'; and that he has a hit list of which people he is going to take out."

The show was hosted on PirateRadio.com and linked through a MySpace account controlled by the hosts, the affidavit states.

The slayings of police Officers Eric G. Kelly, Stephen J. Mayhle and Paul J. Sciullo II prompted Perkovic to immediately begin deleting any on-line references to the Eddie and Po show, he told investigators. The officers died while responding to a call for help from Margaret Poplawski, the suspect's mother, after an argument with her son.

You know, these things are not difficult to find. That is, if thinking for yourself is important to you.

pbrauer · Jul 31, 2010

I suppose you think BillO's constant rants about Dr. Tiller had nothing to do with Scott Roeder's deed? Legally BillO is not responsible, but in my opinion morally he is.

Josie · Jul 31, 2010

pbrauer said:
I suppose you think BillO's constant rants about Dr. Tiller had nothing to do with Scott Roeder's deed? Legally BillO is not responsible, but in my opinion morally he is.

Show me where Bill called for the murder of Dr. Tiller and then we can talk.

Interesting how people were upset about the murder of Dr. Tiller, but applauded the thousands of murders HE committed.

MKULTRABOY · Jul 31, 2010

Mellie said:
When did this country come to the notion that speaking out against something you disagree with makes you a terrorist?

If Glenn Beck ends up dead, is that Keith Olbermann's fault? If members of the Tea Party Express are shot, is that the fault of the far-left blogs that constantly bash them? Who was to blame for the death of Lincoln - southern Democrats? Who is to blame for the WTC towers coming down - anti-capitalists?

The ONLY person at fault when something criminal happens is the person (or people) who supports and carries out the crime. NO WHERE has Glenn supported violence against ANY GROUP or ANY PERSON that he has bashed. He's constantly saying to NOT become violent. If you disagree with Glenn, disagree intelligently instead of resorting to dishonest attacks like this.

eace

Unfortunately, playing glenn beck as a victim to whatever mythos of liberal hate that brands him a terrorist is not sufficient. Types of shows like Glenn Beck's are not on television in most other countries, they are seen as seditionist. Glenn beck contributes nothing intellectual to this planet except providing hate and ammunition to fire at liberals and telling the right that their nation is under some sort of fundamentalist attack by their fellow (And less so) americans. The reason people would blame beck is because he basically makes charts of enemies for those who hold the same fundamentalist ideals as him. And when one fox news nut tries to stop the apocalypse or kill the antichrist or stop the communists from taking over... it speaks deeply of the psychological effect of their programming. I have always thought that glenn beck was politically insane and he encourages it in his audience.

Harshaw · Jul 31, 2010

pbrauer said:
I suppose you think BillO's constant rants about Dr. Tiller had nothing to do with Scott Roeder's deed? Legally BillO is not responsible, but in my opinion morally he is.

I suppose there are those with such seething hatred of views which don't comport to their own that they'll believe all kinds of things. I also suppose people often assume in others what they see in themselves, so if they themselves look to one or a tiny few media sources for what to think, they assume everyone else does, too.

What I think is that people are responsible for their own actions. Blaming O'Reilly is just as stupid as blaming Olbermann's nightly tirades for plots to kill Bush.

MKULTRABOY · Jul 31, 2010

SE102 said:
Unfortunately, playing glenn beck as a victim to whatever mythos of liberal hate that brands him a terrorist is not sufficient. Types of shows like Glenn Beck's are not on television in most other countries, they are seen as seditionist. Glenn beck contributes nothing intellectual to this planet except providing hate and ammunition to fire at liberals and telling the right that their nation is under some sort of fundamentalist attack by their fellow (And less so) americans. The reason people would blame beck is because he basically makes charts of enemies for those who hold the same fundamentalist ideals as him. And when one fox news nut tries to stop the apocalypse or kill the antichrist or stop the communists from taking over... it speaks deeply of the psychological effect of their programming. I have always thought that glenn beck was politically insane and he encourages it in his audience.

maybe not seditionist thats a term i shouldnt use. But generally not tolerated.

Harshaw · Jul 31, 2010

SE102 said:
maybe not seditionist thats a term i shouldnt use. But generally not tolerated.

Who's to blame for:

Texas Man Sentenced for Possessing Molotov Cocktails During Republican National Convention | Reuters

Austin news, sports, weather, Longhorns, business | Statesman.com

Norman Leboon ARRESTED, Threatened To Kill Rep. Eric Cantor (VIDEO)

Pittsburgh gasps fumes at G-20: a teary-eye witness report | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

New Orleans police seeking information about attack on Jindal aide | NOLA.com

CNN.com - Man accused of trying to run down Rep. Katherine Harris - Oct 27, 2004

Your Star · Jul 31, 2010

Harshaw said:
Who's to blame for:

Texas Man Sentenced for Possessing Molotov Cocktails During Republican National Convention | Reuters

Austin news, sports, weather, Longhorns, business | Statesman.com

Norman Leboon ARRESTED, Threatened To Kill Rep. Eric Cantor (VIDEO)

Pittsburgh gasps fumes at G-20: a teary-eye witness report | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

New Orleans police seeking information about attack on Jindal aide | NOLA.com

CNN.com - Man accused of trying to run down Rep. Katherine Harris - Oct 27, 2004

The people who committed those acts. No one else.

pbrauer · Jul 31, 2010

Harshaw said:
I suppose there are those with such seething hatred of views which don't comport to their own that they'll believe all kinds of things. I also suppose people often assume in others what they see in themselves, so if they themselves look to one or a tiny few media sources for what to think, they assume everyone else does, too.

What I think is that people are responsible for their own actions. Blaming O'Reilly is just as stupid as blaming Olbermann's nightly tirades for plots to kill Bush.

Glenn Beck Rant on Tides leads to Violence

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