FOX Pundit Wishes for Obama Assassination, Laughs

During a live interview, FOX Contributor Liz Trotta jokingly wished for the assassination of Sen. Barack Obama.

This latest incident from FOX News continues the trend in violent rhetoric about Sen. Obama from pundits, politicians, and entertainers.

Grinning While Joking About Killing A Candidate
The incident happen in an exchange with the FOX News anchor. When asked her opinion of the recent scandal surrounding some comments made by Sen. Hillary Clinton, which Trotta described by saying that, "some are reading [it] as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama." Hemmer quickly corrected Trotta, having noticed that she had said "Osama" when she meant "Obama." At this point, Trotta said, "Obama. Well...both if we could!" Trotta then laughed gleefully.

(The full interview can be viewed here)

What prompted Trotta to joke about the assassination of Sen. Obama was her apparent inability to differentiate between Sen. Obama and the terrorist leader responsible for the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001.

Since Sen. Obama first declared his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for president, right-wing pundits on FOX News and a variety of other broadcast outlets have regularly called the Sen. Obama by the name "Osama" in a systematic propaganda campaign to convince the American public that a sitting member of their government has secret ties to terrorists.

As if she were providing a punchline to that long-running propaganda campaign, Trotta made known that the conclusions the public should draw were (1) that Sen. Obama and Osama bin Laden are equivalent, and (2) they both deserve to be assassinated.

Americans Everywhere Are Tired Of This!
There is no question that broadcast pundits "can" make jokes about assassinating a Senator and a Presidential candidate. The United States Constitution protects freedom of expression to the extreme. But that is the wrong question to ask in this situation. The issue is not "can" pundits make jokes about assassinating Sen. Obama, but "should" they?

It is astounding that Americans should even be forced to have such a conversation, let alone on Memorial Day Weekend when we remember with respect the sacrifices of fallen soldiers. But here we are.

I have to wonder how many people there actually are in the U.S. who think it is funny to make jokes about the assassination of Sen. Obama? What percentage of the American population consists of people who think that the assassination of Sen. Obama--or anyone for that matter--makes for a good punchline? Is it 50 people? 75, maybe?

Perhaps I am overly optimistic, but I do not believe there are very many people in our country--or anywhere else for that matter--who laugh or find it remotely funny when broadcast pundits stoop to the level of making jokes about killing an elected leader. It does not feel funny. It feels like someone spitting in our faces.

I believe that the vast majority of Americans--people in every corner of the country and of all political stripes--all react with an equal level of disgust when we hear remarks of the sort that Liz Trotta made on FOX News.

When we hear such "jokes" about assassinating a member of the Senate--a member of our government--we do not laugh, but instead wonder. We wonder what has happened to broadcast media in our country. We wonder to ourselves, to our families, and to our friends: How have we arrived at this point? How has our broadcast media so utterly lost its moral compass?

That same optimism leads me to conclude that the vast, vast majority of Americans do not want this kind of vile, utterly disgusting, "assassination" humor to become a recurrent part of our national debate between now and the general election, nor at any other time.

We do not want it.

That's it.

Enough.

It ends right now.

What Americans want is a guarantee from the whole of the broadcast media industry that whenever we turn on our televisions and our radios we will never again be affronted with this brand of total, unadulterated disrespect in the form of a joke about assassinating our leaders.

And why do we demand this guarantee? It is not because we are sensitive. It is because the free press belongs to us--to the American people. It belongs to us and nobody has a right to debase it.

We do not care how many stations a single corporation owns, how many billions of dollars in revenue a media outlet produces--no corporation has the right to debase the free press in this country.

The reason for a free press--for our free press--is not to degrade our political institutions, undermine our elections, and threaten our politicians, but to strengthen and sustain our deliberative democracy.

If FOX News or any other broadcast media outlet cannot live up to that standard, then they should shut off their lights, sell their equipment, and choose another line of work.

Follow Jeffrey Feldman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JeffreyFeldman

Comments

[McLaren]

04:56 PM on 05/29/2008

"I have to wonder how many people there actually are in the U.S. who think it is funny to make jokes about the assassinat­ion of Sen. Obama?" [sic]

Probably the same who think it's OK to make movies, write plays and write books about the assassinat­ion of Pres. Bush. You cats wanna play rough, expect rough in return.

[rmetz74]

05:26 PM on 05/29/2008

Which movies, plays, and books are you talking about, exactly?

[midknightryder13]

05:49 PM on 05/29/2008

Also, please remember there is a difference between "making movies, writing plays and books" about the assassinat­ion of Pres. Bush and joking about it on a so-called news channel. I would be equally outraged if the joke had been made about Bush. You may not respect the man, but you MUST respect the office.

[massive]

04:36 PM on 05/29/2008

Fox News MUST fire this woman. Let's get a list of Fox advertiser­s and let them know that we mean business -- that we will never watch Fox (which most of us don't anyway), but more importantl­y, that we will never buy their products again.

I repeat: Fox must fire this woman. She has wished for -- on-air -- the assassinat­ion of a presidenti­al candidate. Used to be that the FBI would knock on your door for something like that. At Fox, you get a promotion.

But no more. Let Fox and its advertiser­s know that you won't stand for it.

[DrShrinker]

02:33 PM on 05/29/2008

I personally know a teenager who was arrested for making "terrorist threats" because he made some off-hand comment about blowing up his school. His statement (which, by the way, was NOT broadcast coast-to-c­oast on a cable network) was just as stupid as Trotta's, but his consequenc­es were a HELL of a lot more severe. Why would that be?

[urfree2speak]

01:21 PM on 05/29/2008

The general conclusion­s that I get as a voter and American is that...The­re seems to be an orchestrat­ed attempt to harass , frighten, and set up Obama for murder . This is my on personal opinion, I see this as a continuing narrative that recently emerged form conservati­ve pundits (openly advocating killing Sen,Obama in public on the Airwaves while laughing) before you have reference to Bobby Kennedy, now.... you have attempts to LURE this man to the Middle East.....s­ounds a little like Dallas , Texas and Dealey Plaza..... call me paranoid ...crazy whatever..­.but .....its a little wierd .....

[jaldenh]

01:04 PM on 05/29/2008

Am I naive? Aside from Keith Oberman's Worse person in the world reference two nights ago, why don't we hear about this in the mainstream media? Are there too many gaffes to keep up with? Is Liz Trotta too insignific­ant? Is this tolerable free speech? Is our country too healthy to worry about the deteriorat­ion of public discourse. What am I missing?

[riley85]

11:46 AM on 05/29/2008

Some Obama supporters are like obsessive overprotec­tive parents hovering over a wimpy child unable to stand on his own two feet.

They may think it is great that there is a protective bubble around Obama, but it really doesn't make him any tougher. It helps reinforce what many in America (perhaps the world) already believe--t­hat Obama is weak, thin-skinn­ed, propped up by the DNC, and simply not tough enough to be president.

Any criticism of Obama is met with the typical cries of "racism", or threats to be fired, and now investigat­ions by the FBI. It's as if Obama is so special he is the only politician where even the mention of assassinat­ion is not allowed.

Maybe Obama supporters and his media would be better off in a dictatorsh­ip where he can never be criticized­, and his critics will be killed or imprisoned­. Maybe that is where America is headed.

The lines are becoming blurred...­are many Americans against Obama because of his weaknesses and his policies, are we against the unfairness of a biased media, or the overprotec­tive fanatics that
are so protective of Obama that they have lost all objectivit­y. Either way Obama loses our vote.

[UrbanRevolution]

01:05 PM on 05/29/2008

Maybe HuffPo will post this response

to RILEY85

NO ONE has the right to joke about assassinat­ion of an American leader - NO ONE. this is not the same as billary stating that she doesn't think that he's a muslim, or any of the other twisted allegation­s that she has made. This is serious!

If you don't realize this, then either you are not as intelligen­t as your post suggests or you too are a racist along with Trotter

How many of our civil rights leaders have to be assassinat­ed before this is no longer funny? Or is it because you do not see the benefits of the civil rights laws that were passed so you could not care less?

[splendidbeast]

01:12 PM on 05/29/2008

Just wait until Sen. Obama gets the nod, and then it is on! We will Barack the vote baby!

[VJCMAJD]

11:20 AM on 05/29/2008

Published on Saturday, February 12, 2005 by FAIR
The Fairness Doctrine
How We Lost it, and Why We Need it Back

by Steve Rendall

http://tin­yurl.com/9­ddq3

Reporters, pundits, authors and anchors all need to learn to express themselves without purporting to speak for the American People, since no one is really all that omniscient­, and the "American People" are neither of one mind, nor static in their thought processes. Unfortunat­ely, there is little doubt that the mass media is concentrat­ed in the hands of the few with scant access afforded the average Jane or Joe.

[philosopherkingtomas]

10:51 AM on 05/29/2008

File a complaint with SECRET SERVICE and see how funny she is. For such an old experience­d, worn out reporter, you would expect more for her! All the rest of the Fox News girls are HOT !

[diogeron]

12:15 PM on 05/29/2008

Faux News is to journalism as O.J. is to conflict resolution­. They aren't a news network. They're a propaganda vehicle for the GOP. Why should this surprise anyone? Yesterday, I heard their White House correspond­ent say that Joe Wilson's column in the NYT was "scathing, if inaccurate­..." Say what? There was nothing at all "inaccurat­e" about Wilson's editorial saying that the Bush administra­tion lied about Iraq trying to acquire yellowcake uranium from Niger. Everyone (except Faux News, apparently­) knows that it was, indeed, a lie, as Wilson wrote since he was the guy that was sent there to find out. This happens, day in and day out, on Faux News, so why would anyone be surprised about one of their commentato­rs saying something like this?

[fredfep]

10:29 AM on 05/29/2008

I am unsure if the country has gone forward or backward in my lifetime (50-someth­ing). In some ways it is a trade-off. We have advanced in many ways (in terms of progressiv­e attributes of our society), as well as gone haywire in other areas (the braggacio of bigotry, the power of double-tal­king right-wing­ers who display a certain schitzophr­enia in raling against the very progressiv­e-liberal state we live in without which they would never be allowed to spout their unthought out illiteracy upon us all)

And these comment sections, where 100s of comments from all over the dial, a huge dialectic debate with no moderator, no rules, no advancemen­t towards understand­ing or coalescenc­e, no one listening to the other, no education,­....I am unsure if this is progress of any kind

Meanwhile the media seems still able to control the process, even if at times now it is in the opposite way that they would want to lead it/us/them (take New hampshire primary)

FOX has always been a disgrace, unregulate­d, uncensured­, they only get more ourageous, openly sexist, openly racist, and now inciting assassinat­ion. Imagine if Keith Olbermann joked about Cheney being knocked off..would he even be on the air anymore, even the next day?

[Palspal]

09:26 AM on 05/29/2008

Remember when Jesse Helms reminded Bill Clinton he was at risk for assassinat­ion if he visited North Carolina. Democrats and liberals just don't get it - the Rightwing is playing a different game.

[bookeramez]

12:08 PM on 05/29/2008

I heard this why Obama didn't campaign in W. Virginia and Kentucky. The risk for assasinati­on was just too high. Whether it is true or not I don't know, but it does seem feasible.

[1PALady]

04:47 PM on 05/29/2008

Heard the same thing, and people just kept lambasting him for not campaignin­g there. I'm sure the Secret Service knew more than we did and they are trying to keep him safe.

[gman1]

01:35 AM on 05/29/2008

That's how Bigots joke when they are alone.I guess her true darkness was displayed for the whole world to see when she made a gross comment then laughed it off as if it were funny?She has no place in tv whether it be fox or any other place of work uttering political assasinati­on of possibly the first black president! She should be fired and investigat­ed.Simply because she is too ignorant to get "Baracks" name right,Then call him by his first name if the last is to hard to remember Idiot! And that weak apology was even more sickening to me.That did'nt get the same play as wright though that statement was un- american and controvers­ial! Let's see if any news talking heads say that about her and hillary's wishes.It'­s sad the double standards we have in this society. But now when all else fails cry sexiscm! even though Barack did'nt do that either. Hillary did (working white class)What about (working Black or hispanic or indian or asian class?) I guess we don't count! We don't work I guess? anyways that was rude uncalled for and demeaning and tasteless,­and could be perceived as code speech.How condescend­ing for her or anyone who thinks or speaks of these awful things!

[Antigone]

10:50 AM on 05/29/2008

Mel Gibson was on 24-7 for comments in a drunken stupor to only one police officier..­.Why no outrage for Liz's

[OnceProudAmerican]

10:54 PM on 05/28/2008

Liz Trotta is nothing more than a politcal Whore, she has sold out to the Highest bidder.
She is also seling out our country by peddling hate and racism. These are two things that we don't need anymore of.
People like her should be silent, instead of opening their mouth and showing their ignorance!
A wise man speaks because he has somthing to say, A fool speaks because he has to say somthing.

[MikeL1]

09:02 PM on 05/28/2008

It's ok 4 Sen. Clinton 2 make horrible statements like she has done throughout her campaign. Why all of a sudden Liz Trotta's dumb joke is a crime against humanity? Would it be ok if she was a far-left Hillary supporter?

[marco34la]

10:06 PM on 05/28/2008

Clinton hasn't made any horrible statements in her campaign -- other than to suggest that Obama has no experience and might not have the best judgment. The only campaign that's vile and guilty of ad hominen attacks is Obama's. This site is full of Obama supporters who simply excoriate
Clinton on a daily basis. That's not a clean campaign by having and letting you do his dirty work for him. No one on this site believes or wants hope for the future or change... you're all hypocrits.­..who are just rooting for someone like you're watching UFC or ballgame or
American Idol.

[ObamAtomic]

11:07 PM on 05/28/2008

LOL! They are saying *Kool Aid* is laced!
American Idol!

[zuffaloo]

12:06 PM on 05/29/2008

"No one on this site believes or wants hope for the future or change"

Any time you make sweeping generaliza­tions like that, you prove yourself to be not only incorrect, but illogical and senseless. You ensure that no one will take your words seriously.

[DCtrain]

06:08 PM on 05/28/2008

do remember when Don Imus made a racial remark?
Why is this pundit getting preferenti­al treatment. She should be fired
and investigat­ed.

Her comments may have had a place in the 1800's, well, there was no place for them then either,
but there is absolutely no place for her comments now in the 21st century. She's dragging society
down with her comment.

[research]

06:06 PM on 05/28/2008

This sort of ruins the argument the Hillary statement was not outrageous­ly inflammato­ry, doesn't it?