O'Reilly and Fox News Will Have More Right-Wing Violence to Answer For

If Fox News is going to continue to traffic in hateful, vigilante-style rhetoric, then folks at Fox News, as well as their apologists in the GOP Noise Machine, are going to have to come up with better talking points to spin away the consequences of the right-wing madness they're so eager to incite.

They need a better line of defense because the one they trotted out in the wake of the right-wing assassination of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was wholly unconvincing.

It was just as feeble as the defense Fox News' Glenn Beck tried to employ in May to distance himself from the accused right-wing cop killer in Pittsburgh who seemed to mimic Beck's language about how President Obama was coming to take away everyone's guns.

The Fox News crew is going to need better talking points because I fear the violence -- the bouts of right-wing domestic terrorism -- are likely to continue. As long as Fox News and the Noise Machine refuse to back off the incendiary language that they're actively mainstreaming, the political violence, visible just months into Obama's historic first term, may have only begun.

Read the full Media Matters column here.

Comments

[Bdub24]

Unfortunate to think, but likely to be all so true.

[newtonsapple]

Want to do something about this in a rational and civil manner?

A boycott of certain programs on Fox is one way--or send your complaints to the FCC. Let's get something done.

Here's their info:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

The completed complaint form (obtained from FCC website) may be faxed toll-free to: 1-866-418-0232. Be sure to include all required information to prevent delay in the processing of your complaint.

You may email your completed complaint form and supporting documents to [e-mail]

[cyntro]

Thanks so much. That is a wonderful idea. Every time I see someone exercising his first amendment right I will climb on my very high horse and tell the FCC about it. Do you not know how ludicrous you sound? To blame anyone but the criminal for the criminals actions is not going to advance any cause. You are not helping. Stand down. Let the debate flow freely. You've got your voice, I have mine, they have theirs. Let the freedom of free speech ring!

[Untitled]

This post freaks me out now because of the Holocaust killings today. It's almost prophetic.

[babyboomerorig]

When someone in some city in this country starts rioting and bringing in more and more radicals, will Fox be partly to blame for incitement?

I think so. They're dangerous and always have been.

[Melissa]

I will bet Murdoch is really scared! Their ratings are through the roof.

[ebanks84]

If that's the kind of entertainment you like, then more power to you. The rest of America will be moving on and evolving into a land of peace, happiness, and goodness for all. The FOX lovers, backers, and commentators will all be left behind to squabble and tear each other apart in hades.

[stopplaying]

What can be done? Murdoch has a market and he's using it fully. The hateful rhetoric Fox is spewing is Dangerous. For National Security please install the Fairness Doctrine or going after Rupert Murdoch's special waivers to control so much media, granted to him by George Bush needs to be revoked.

A boycott is one way...or complaints to the FCC perhaps? Let's get something done. Here's their info:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

The completed complaint form (obtained from FCC website) may be faxed toll-free to: 1-866-418-0232. Be sure to include all required information to prevent delay in the processing of your complaint.

You may email your completed complaint form and supporting documents to [e-mail]

[Cye]

I agree. I think there will be more violence if the far Right does not reign in their rhetoric and if the Republican party fails to wrest control of its public image back from people like Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity and Coulter.

Their hysterical - at times apocalyptical - doomsaying may be emotionally satisfying, given their current poltiical irrelevance, but it is utterly irresponsible.

These people were the first to slam anybody who dared criticise Bush or question his policies by calling them un-American or America-haters and accusing them of wishing Bush would fail. But let them now be judged by their own words. They proudly - and overtly - wish Obama to fail and use their media echo chamber to contribute to a climate of fear, hysteria and violent hatred amongst their hard-Right supporters towards Liberals and the Obama Administration - a hatred which they have the temerity to label "patriotism". The Republican Party's slide into conspiracy theory territory only makes the situation worst.

It is dangerouslsy irresponsible and needs to stop.

[newtonsapple]

Thank you, Cye. Well said.

[pissedmichael]

My vocabulary and grammar are not the greatest, but isn't 'Fox' and 'news reporting' something like an oxymoron? What really disgusts me is that they don't even claim to be reporting the news. I read that they claim to be an 'entertainment' channel and therefore can say anything without fear of libel suits. I've gotten to the point that I won't watch anything on the channel--just on principle.

[cobraxus]

this is what the rightwing media does:Wind Up The Crazies Then Send Them Out To Do Damage.

[ZIPCODE]

This is too pathetic! Just too pathetic!

[ebanks84]

And they know they're doing that also. That's what makes it so despicable!

[stopplaying]

What can be done? Murdoch has a market and he's using it fully. The hateful rhetoric Fox is spewing is Dangerous. For National Security please install the Fairness Doctrine or going after Rupert Murdoch's special waivers to control so much media, granted to him by George Bush needs to be revoked.

A boycott is one way...or complaints to the FCC perhaps? Let's get something done. Here's their info:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Complaints
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

The completed complaint form (obtained from FCC website) may be faxed toll-free to: 1-866-418-0232. Be sure to include all required information to prevent delay in the processing of your complaint.

You may email your completed complaint form and supporting documents to [e-mail]