Chickens Coming Home To Roost

This is sadly not surprising:

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

When news came out that Knoxville church shooter Jim Adkisson targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist congregation because of its liberal views, I wondered if he was a consumer of right wing hate media. Michael Savage is the king of these clowns, and I'm not surprised to learn Adkisson had his book. He probably listened to his show every day.

Calvin Rye at Progressive Nashville has an excellent post up about this. Rye writes:

To those who demonize liberals… It’s not that I blame you for these murders. It’s that I want you to recognize them as a warning sign. When someone that sick and violent finds your message that appealing, it should make you stop and think. Do you realize how hate-filled your rhetoric has become? Do you recognize the bile you’re spewing?

Hatred is a strong motivator. It’s very effective in politics. If you can fill the voters with fury at your opponent, they’ll show up at the ballot box in a stampede. You can choose hate and fury as political weapons, if that’s what you want. It’s a free country. And it works.

But remember what it is you’re inspiring. Not murder -- a sane person won’t go that far. But anger. You’re fanning the flames of outrage. You’re filling people with hatred. The kind that would appeal to a madman.

The damage you do to our nation is greater than losing an election.

I'd only add that the corporate media which profits handsomely from this hate speech shares a huge amount of responsibility. The people at Talk Radio Network, which allows Michael Savage to spread his anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-liberal hate speech to an audience of over 10 million nationwide, should take a long hard look at the monster they've created. The news show bookers who bring Ann Coulter on to hawk her books so she can hurl insults at 9/11 widows and call liberals "godless" -- you share part of the blame too. CNN, which allows Glenn Beck to compare Al Gore to Hitler and call Hurricane Katrina survivors scumbags--you've just been lucky. One of these days some wackadoodle is going to go off on a crowd of people because he heard Glenn Beck say something about turning Mexican immigrants into fuel. Everything's a joke until someone gets hurt.

Every one of these media-created monsters has their fans. In these crazy, pushed-to-breaking world we live in, it was only a matter of time before someone acted on the hate spew they hear on the radio every day. And in an office building somewhere, someone is making money off of it.

It should make us all sick.

Michael Savage Blames Dems For Roberts’ Seizure

And they call us crazy? Conservative nutcase Michael Savage (AKA Michael Alan Weiner) claims that a conspiracy by Democrats is responsible for Chief Justice John Roberts’ seizure on Monday:

On the July 30 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage reacted to news that Chief Justice John Roberts had suffered a seizure that day by raising the possibility that "his health was in some way tampered with by the Democrats." Savage said, "Something's wrong with this picture," after noting that Roberts' seizure occurred just three days after Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he would seek in general to reject any future Supreme Court nomination made by President Bush.
...
Savage asked, "Am I to believe there's no connection between Charles Schumer on Friday saying he would never appoint, or never, excuse me, approve another Bush appointment to the court, to any court? And then the chief justice suffers a so-called seizure two days later? You're telling me there's no possibility of a conspiracy by the Democrats to have caused this seizure in some manner?" He added: "Tell me it's not possible, and I'll tell you you're a liar."

Of course what Schumer actually said was, “... we should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances.” Let’s play along with Mikey here for a moment and say it is possible to cause a seizure in another person; maybe the Chief Justice was shown the London Olympics logo. Regardless, I’d say losing the Chief Justice to a serious health issue would qualify as an “extraordinary circumstance.” Using Savage’s “logic” (which I realize is an oxymoron), one could just as easily argue that the Republicans were responsible through some medical foul-play.

I mean does Michael Savage really expect us to believe that John Roberts has a vacation home in Port Clyde, Maine -- 120 miles from the Bush vacation compound in Kennebunkport, which is in the same state! The Republicans had motive and opportunity ... what else do we need?

See how easy that is?

It’s tempting to write off tin-foil “haters” like Michael Savage as just another right wing crackpot. But we live in an era where corporate media outlets like CNN are bending over backwards to mainstream the craziest of wingnuts. Don’t forget: Savage had a regular gig on MSNBC until his hate speech got the better of him.

A few months ago I watched a marvelous old movie called A Face In The Crowd. It starred Andy Griffith as “Lonesome” Rhodes, a populist media hero who's not exactly as he appears to be. It’s an excellent film that offers a few cautionary lessons for today’s media stars.