Right-wing Fatwas

[smoogatz]

Bill O'Reilly and Dr. Tiller.

Glenn Beck and the Tides Foundation.

Sarah Palin and Gabrielle Giffords.

Where will it end? How many more will there be? How are these incitements different from those of the Imams who called for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, or the Dutch cartoonists and editors who published anti-Islamic cartoons? If you, as a person with a large public following, assert that an individual deserves to die, or ought to be "taken out," or should be placed "in the crosshairs," etc., and then someone takes you up on it, you are as surely culpable as the Imams who exhort their followers to commit violence against Jews and westerners.

[WiffenPoof]

1. Do You Think...

this event will have any effect on the Fair Use Act...in bringing it back?

-PLA

[smoogatz]

4. You mean the Fairness Doctrine, I think.

No, I don't think it'll change anything much, because the right's agenda in using this kind of violent rhetoric is to intimidate. The wingnuts will shed a few crocodile tears. They'll declare that both sides do it, and the media will be largely satisfied with that response. I keep thinking of the anthrax attacks after 9/11 targeting Democrats, and how terrifying they must have been for the staffers and others working in those offices. Next thing you know we've got the Patriot Act. This stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum, I don't think. Republicans have always used intimidation of one kind or another as a political weapon--they couldn't win without it. So, no, I don't think anything's going to change.

[lonestarnot]

2. no diff.

:kick: & R

[Kingofalldems]

3. The Fairness Doctrine would help

Bring it back.

[smoogatz]

5. .

:kick: