On his show, Countdown, Olbermann played a montage with video clips of Fox News reporters discussing Tiller including a clip of O’Riley calling him “Tiller the Baby Killer.” According to Olbermann, it’s this kind of rhetoric that incited suspect Scott Roeder to carry out the murder. Never mind that one news source reported that Roeder has a criminal past and “has expressed anti-abortion opinions on sympathetic Web sites.” Never mind that there are about 2 million hits on Google discussing Tiller – including sites like chargetiller.com (which has since been taken down). No, according to Olbermann, he didn’t get the idea until he heard O’Riley talking about it! Let me ask you, Olbermann, could it simply be that the doctor had done 60,000 abortions that might have inflamed Roeder to take action?
It should go without saying that I condemn the murder of Dr. Tiller. Vigilantism is not how we exercise justice in the US. And a violent act like this certainly does nothing to help reduce the number of abortions but actually hurts the Pro-Life movement.
It’s obvious that Olbermann is using this tragic event to advance his war against Fox News. It’s shameful the way he’s acting. If he wants to equate reporting on controversial topics with inciting violence then I would say Olbermann has blood in his hands as well.
How many times have we heard people on the left accuse Bush of starting an “illegal war”? Ever heard Cheney called a “war criminal”? And certainly one hot topic in the news has been the flap over the interrogation techniques used shortly after 9/11. The left is quite to characterize them as torture and demand that the people in question be held accountable for their “crimes.”
Just last month, in a commentary directed to President Obama, Olbermann had this to say regarding the “torture”:
Indeed we must [resist the forces which divide us], Mr. President. And the forces of which you speak are the ones lingering — with pervasive stench — from the previous administration. Far more than a criminal stench, Sir. An immoral one. One we cannot let be re-created… This country has never "moved forward with confidence" without first cleansing itself of its mistaken past… [t]hat means prosecuting all those involved in the Bush administration's torture of prisoners.
There you go, Olbermann condemned “all those involved” in the torture of prisoners. Now someone has taken him up on it. The Drudge Report said today:
An Arkansas man was arrested Monday in connection with a shooting at a Little Rock military recruiting center that killed one soldier and wounded another. Police believe that Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, shot the men "with the specific purpose of targeting military personnel." [emphasis added]Didn’t the people on the right say that if we release information about the interrogation of terrorist suspects that it might put our troops into harms way? It looks like now it may have happened. Mr. Olbermann, when can we expect your apology for your incendiary words?
You folks at MSNBC need to cut it out already. This feeble attempt to lay blame on Fox News for merely reporting the activities of a serial abortionist is beyond the pale.
Hey, wait a minute! Maybe the big three networks were all in on the Kennedy assassination conspiracy and only reported the incident to inspire Ruby to kill Oswald! Excuse me while I call Oliver Stone.
My intention is not to take sides, but let's look at the facts.
ReplyDelete1. The current law in this country states that abortion is legal, despite any moral objection you might have.
2. Our laws state that torture is illegal, despite any moral objection you might have.
Apples and oranges with this comparison. I believe Mr. Olbermann is not calling for vengence, but accountability.
What Dr. Tiller was doing was not illegal, no matter what your personal feelings are. What the previous administration was doing may have been illegal, no matter what your personal feelings are.
You may disagree with someone's actions, but it is irresponsible for a news outlet like Fox to have such subjective reporting and label Dr. Tiller as "baby killer" or "serial abortionist" in your words. If you call yourself a commentator that's fine, but the repetitive one-sided reporting of O'Reilley's tirades is hardly "fair & balanced". His ideology only served as a call to action against one individual over and over. It's not surprising that that action turned homicidal.
The Fox News organization has the ability to reach a much larger audience than some fringe extremist websites. My hope is that Fox becomes a bit less slanted with its broadcast, but I doubt it will ever happen. I guess 700 Club news never caught on...
Ian B, thanks for visiting my blog. I appreciate your comments. Let me respond briefly.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the coverage on Fox News largely revolved around the legal entanglements of Dr. Tiller. He was recently tried and acquited of violating his state's law that late term abortions can only be performed when there is a health risk to the mother. He refused to provide any documentation on any of his abortions demonstrating he was performing them legally. And, BTW, O'Reilly did not coin the term, "Tiller the Baby Killer" though he did repeat it.
Secondly, the justice department under the Bush administration had reviewed the interrogation techniques in advance of them being done to insure they did not amount to murder. It is only after Obama was elected that he retroactively declared them "torture." It's a bad precendent. Hopefully for Obama the next president won't retroactively declare that taking over the auto industry was illegal.
So it's more than a simple matter of abortion being legal and torture illegal. Both Fox and MSNBC were reporting on items in the news. MSNBC wants to blame Fox for one crime but exempt itself from a similar crime.
Of course, I'm not holding either responsible. I'm just pointing out the hyprocisy of MSNBC.
Thanks again for visiting. God Bless!!
RKBentley