Olbermann's Arizona Special Comment: The Right Is Using More Violent Rhetoric Than Before Shooting (VIDEO)

Keith Olbermann gave a special comment about the Arizona shooting nine days after his last one, which took place on the same Saturday the shooting occurred. Olbermann began by reminding viewers of his apology for anything he had said which may have "even inadvertently encouraged violence." But he expressed his anger that, in his view, only one other person had apologized in the same way.

"To date, only one commentator or politician has expressed the slightest introspection," he said, before revealing the surprising person he was talking about: John McCain, who Olbermann quoted as saying that "our political discourse...should be more civil than it currently is, and we all, myself included, bear some responsibility for it not being so."

"That's it," Olbermann said. "It's me and John McCain...so what did everybody else say? They said it was everybody else's fault. And they often said it with more violence than before."

Olbermann then ran through a long list of blog postings and comments on radio shows and Internet videos from conservative writers and commentators to show what he had been talking about. After having finished the list of examples, Olbermann wrapped up the special comment by summing up what he thought America had learned in the nine days since the shooting:

"We learn that the right doesn't even recognize the irony of its claim of being unfairly blamed for the violence of others, when it has spent the last several years doing exactly that to Muslims -- particularly American Muslims. We also learn that the right can simultaneously insist no political party or inclination can be blamed for Tucson -- while it itself blames the Democratic party and the left, for Tucson.

We learn that the right does not understand that if you -- if we-- foment a political environment in which politics are to be settled by violence, or the threat of violence, or in a rhetorical tide of violent imagery, it no longer matters what those politics specifically are, or if the hearer even understands your politics or agrees with your politics -- he may hear only the permission to be violent.

And ultimately we learn...this template of what the right would do in an actual open-and-shut slam dunk case in which a partisan of the right attempted to kill one of the left. The right would blame that victim, blame him or her for not having brought enough security. Or for not having brought a gun."

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Comments

[ProfGiles]

02:54 PM on 01/22/2011

Don't think for a second we've seen the last of Keith - or his commentary­. Good night and good luck, Keith.

[BeccaInAZ]

09:14 PM on 01/21/2011

Keith is done. Tonight was last show. I hope that he comes back with a new show...

[lemealone]

07:53 PM on 01/21/2011

he actually thinks something he may say could incite violence, other than someone shooting their TV while his program was on?

[marbiol]

01:40 AM on 01/21/2011

WHY would ANYTHING this bigot utters be newsworthy?? If not for thisd website most americans would have no idea who it is!! please...let it die a peaceful death...lets get on to someone with some gravitas!!

[shangrolah]

08:23 AM on 01/20/2011

Jason Links rules the day. Who cares about Olberman?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/19/new-york-times-inside-the-bubble_n_811215.html

[Quitcherbichin]

10:13 PM on 01/19/2011

K O's lack of a sense of humor may have something to do with lackonokkie.

[not one of the sheep]

09:21 PM on 01/19/2011

Appreciate you consistency. Your points are......pointless and ridiculous as normal. Party on dude.

[audit]

08:47 PM on 01/19/2011

I would respect his apology if he had stopped talking after the apology. But to continue bashing the same people he was bashing the day before - makes me doubt his intentions. If you need to blame someone - try the know-it-all sheriff.

[politics nerd]

07:35 PM on 01/19/2011

If KO grew a sense of humor he might be a real force.

[NonConforming]

07:30 PM on 01/19/2011

So is Olmbermann 'concerned' with heated rhetoric belched by politicians - yet on his nightly show he routinely calls Palin - 'Worst person in the world'.

How many times has Olbermann referred to a real murdering dictator instead of a US politician on the right as the "worst" ?

The difference between R's and D's is R's are for 3% annual growth of govt but D's are for 5% annual growth. No real substantive difference - despite all their proselytizing.
It's up to us to choose which % results in a stronger economy.

[watamess]

07:19 PM on 01/19/2011

Wow 512 comments, thats 3x as many people who heard it live.

[bardgal]

06:10 PM on 01/19/2011

Thank you Mr Olbermann.

[adnull29]

04:42 PM on 01/19/2011

Keith is spot on again! We all need to calm down and be grown ups; that includes Republicans who normally act like petulant children. Just look at how Palin turned her "concern" for the Tucson victims into a pity party for herself. That's the diff between her & President Obama - he's an adult, and knows how to pull this country together and lead.

[Rick Diculous]

05:59 PM on 01/19/2011

Please, if you do believe we need to calm down and be grown ups don't immediately follow with a childish insult.

[Wisco-libertarian]

09:40 AM on 01/19/2011

Right, because I've never seen Olbermann use hateful or violent words. Isn't this the guy who called Bush a fascist?

[zigsocks]

11:15 AM on 01/19/2011

Did you not hear his apology? He has apologized twice now for any of his rhetoric, where are the apologies from the right??????

[tenilla]

12:59 PM on 01/19/2011

Of course they have not heard his apologies because they have never watched Countdown.

[Oceras]

03:25 AM on 01/20/2011

They live in insular compounds where they only pay attention to conservative media. Then they attack as though they know what they're talking about. Republicans should switch from GOP to IDP, the Intellectually Dishonest Party.

[Counterglow]

10:45 PM on 01/19/2011

Aside from Olbermann's apology (repeated twice and unmatched by right wing commentators), there's another point. The word "fascist" has a real, dictionary definition, and a case can be made that Bush did, in fact, embrace that political philosophy.

"Fascists seek to organize a country according to a particular nationalist strand of corporatist values and perspectives, with an emphasis on enforcing a collectivist form of political and economic organisation based on a tightly prescribed national identity..."

That certainly appears to match Bush's view of an ideal America pretty closely. If there's a difference, it's that Bush might have preferred a theocracy to an oligarchy.

[aquarius2001]

07:09 AM on 01/19/2011

You tell 'em Keith!