O'Sannity, Can You See?

Is anyone surprised that Tennessee gunman Jim Adkisson's favorite authors include Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity?

Does anyone wonder how that trio of self-righteous gasbags will explain this away? Or if they even can see that they might have some explaining to do?

This would be the perfect time to get pious about the effects of popular culture on morality. You know the drill: write, sing or talk about sex and teenagers will start fornicating in the school parking lot; speak out against racial inequality and blacks will forget that they've never had it so good; promote non-conformity of any kind and society will collapse like a house of cards.

But to flat-out blame Adkisson's actions on the venom those three guardians of American values spew out daily to an audience of millions would be dishonest. To claim that their relentless scapegoating of gays, immigrants, the disabled, and liberals of all stripes forced Adkisson to open fire inside a (secularly progressive?) Unitarian church would be hypocritical.

In other words, we would be lowering ourselves to their level.

So let's just wait and see how O'Reilly, Savage and Hannity deal with the Tennessee killings. Now that the spotlight is on them, I think they've got some soul-searching to do. They have made careers of falsely accusing those whose lifestyles or politics they oppose and causing their own brand of societal mayhem.

Admitting mistakes is gender neutral, but if you're male it's the manly thing. Will any of the O'Sannity trio step up and do what a man should do? Stranger things have happened, but I'm not holding my breath.

Comments

[krocklin]

Arguably the most pernicious phenomena on the American political scene has been media consolidaton, the expunging of the Fairness Doctrine and the resulting rise of Rightwing hate-talk radio.
Rational people who tune into this Goebbels-like Rovian ranting would hardly be likely to tune in again and therefore are largely unaware of the depths of the vitriole of these shows and the widespread influence it has on many listeners.
The hostility, lack of civility and rational discourse that characterizes the egomaniacal, demagogic hatemongers who perpetrate their predictable fraudulent lineup of non-issues on gullible listeners would offend anyone who is informed, principled and capable of logical reasoning.
But the target audience of these shock jocks is not made of up people who can think for themselves or are rational in regard to the issues. They therefore escape the scrutiny of others in the media and get away with it.
The Laura Ingrams and Glenn Becks of the world are anxious to exploit their insincere notions in the name of fake patriotism driven by showmanship.
They are a disgrace to the nation.

[hartkid]

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for these guys to find their souls much less search them.

[seatea1967]

It was ridiculous to blame the Columbine shootings on Marilyn Manson just because the shooters listened to his music.

It was ridiculous to blame Ozzy Osbourne for the suicide of John McCollum because McCollum listened to Ozzy's song "Suicide Solution".

It was ridiculous to blame Judas Priest for the attempted suicides of James Vance and Ray Belknap because of supposed "subliminal messages" in their music.

You explicitly say it would be "dishonest" and "hypocritical" to blame Hannity and the others for the actions of a madman, but the rest of the article goes on to do just that (albeit through implication).

Is it ok to do so because they're not liberals?

[hartkid]

I think one of us missed the point. I took from the piece that the author was arguing that in order to be consistent, these three idiots should blame themselves for the Unitarian Church shooting since it is their habit to blame the SP types for violent attacks whenever the attacker is found in possession of the SP types' work. Case in point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKNpet1XbxQ

"There is no denying that O'Reilly is a strange and some say disturbing force in the mainstream media world."

Hate breeds hate. Thanks, Bill. You make the world a better place.

[IndependentTogether]

So, in other words, we should let them decide if their words have had any negative impact? With all due respect, that's nonsense. Rappers, video games, and movies take it on the chin constantly... and rightly so, in some cases. In that light, it's not hypocritical to hold "the trio" responsible for their words.

[SpoxLogic]

They won't say anything. And none of their "peers" in the MSM will say anything, either.
I'm just wondering when Congres is gonna call for a hearing on the conncection between tthe Right Wing vitriole and violence. They did it with music, video games, etc...they need to have one on this as well.