When talking heads go too far

I have always had a beef with the conservative pundit class, the talking heads on the various cable channels and talk radio. The main one is they like to lie to their audience and play into any bias the audience member already has like hating women, foreigners, and liberals. They never seem to get that some people do get influenced by them and their rhetoric. They accuse the left of doing the same thing when they complain about liberal bias but feign outrage when told their toxic views can do the same to others. Words have meaning or else why say them? I don’t support domestic terrorism and I don’t think conservative talking heads should either.

On the June 1st edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, he pointed to the constant verbal attacks on Dr George Tiller, the doctor murdered on Sunday, by Fox News talking head Bill O’Reilly and how Mr. O’Reilly refuses to accept some of the blame for the egging on the person who pulled the trigger with his inflammatory speech.

Here is the segment:

Don’t get me wrong. I support free speech including views I disagree with but there is a line not to be crossed at least by reasonable people.

Not once during the 8 year nightmare that was the Bush administration did I hear any left side pundits suggest that Bush be taken out in some way other than through legal means like impeachment.

As exasperating as it was being led down the stupid road by the lead ignorant cuss that was our President at the time, no one wished ill will toward him beyond making fun of his speeches, mannerisms, etc….

What O’Reilly fails to do is acknowledge that Tiller’s murder was something illegal and stupid.

O’Reilly tried to blame the left and Randall Terry, of Operation Rescue, almost gleefully gloated about the murder:

Terry: The point that must be emphasized over, and over, and over again: pro-life leaders and the pro-life movement are not responsible for George Tiller’s death. George Tiller was a mass-murder and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed.

Q: So who is responsible …

Terry: The man who shot him is responsible …

Q: … because that makes it sound like you were saying that he [Tiller] is responsible.

Terry: The man who shot him is responsible.

Q: What did you mean by “he reaped what he sowed”?

Terry: He was a mass-murder. He sowed death. And then he reaped death in a horrifying way.

The event came to an utterly bizarre ending when Terry said that Tiller’s murder “can be a teaching moment for what child-killing is really all about” … and then seemed to ask those in attendance if they’d be willing to buy him lunch – he likes Guinness and chicken wings

Terry Declares That Tiller “Reaped What He Sowed,” Then Asks If Someone Will Buy Him Lunch

Conservatives like that almost never accept responsibility for their words or actions even when they demand others do the same.

That’s why I refuse to listen or watch their shows at all and ask my friends to do the same. I don’t support domestic terrorism and I don’t think conservative talking heads should either.