Bill O’Reilly Exploits Fort Hood Tragedy To Attack Dr. George Tiller Again And Defend Himself

Fox News right-wing host Bill O’Reilly refuses to let the murdered Dr. George Tiller, who provided abortions, rest in peace. It’s not bad enough that O’Reilly frequently attacked Dr. Tiller who was murdered in vicious and cold-blooded fashion (at the hands of a cowardly anti-abortion bigot). Now, Bill O’Reilly is callously exploiting the tragic murders at Fort Hood (Texas) to again attack Dr. George Tiller (who was a family man in addition to being a doctor) and portray himself as a victim who is being attacked.

Indeed, Bill O’Reilly continues to attack a murdered man while at the same time he sets himself up as the victim.

As Media Matters for America points out, it seems O’Reilly has ignored the right wing exploiting this tragedy to again launch bigoted attacks on Muslims and others they see as “extremists” in their narrow-minded view of the world. Instead of being balanced and fair, he has used this tragedy to again showcase his far-right bias and use his platform to attack people he sees as liberals.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich Is No Joke … Ask This Right-Wing Doctor

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is the truth and you better have your house in order when you step to him spouting off talking points.

Dr. David Gratzer, a Senior Fellow with the Manhattan Institute, got into it with Rep. Kucinich during a discussion about Single-Payer health care before the House Education Subcommittee.

Dr. Gratzer was spouting what Rep. Kucinich believed were little more than right-wing talking points while (among other things) talking down the Canadian health care system.

SIDE NOTE: There is a guy in back of the doctor who seems to be cracking up as Rep. Kucinich continues to in essence verbally drum Dr. Gratzer (who eventually begins to pout) into the ground.

He had no answer.

Peter Johnson Jr., Fox Legal Anaylst, Makes Idiotic Comments

The lengths to which Fox News will go to demonize President Obama (in any way possible) never ceases to amaze me. Fox had Peter Johnson Jr., who was described as a Fox News Legal Analyst, on the air to trash President Obama by mischaracterizing a comment he made about doctors and patients exploring their health care options in regard to surgery vs. pain killers. Johnson ran with it and tried to portray President Obama as wanting the government (this is the tired Fox News anti-Obama narrative) to control whether old people live or die. The president was talking about procedures that will not or may not help a patient (a procedure that might be unnecessary). He was talking about arming doctors with knowledge that will help them make a more informed decision about health care. This is not about government control (but, that does not fit the Fox News strategy of painting President Obama as a socialist, a social engineer, as a person who wants the government to control everything, etc.).

Here is a quote from Johnson while appearing on the right-wing show Fox and Friends:

“Is that what this plan is about? To save money by killing old people?”

Johnson takes the president’s words and spin them to have the worst-possible meaning he could manage. Such comments are irresponsible and reprehensible. It’s amazing a legitimate news network (if you consider Fox a legitimate news network) would allow someone to come on, distort words and use fear against old people.

Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906250008

How Will Bill O’Reilly Address The Savage Murder Of Dr. George Tiller?

In checking out some of the stories being published regarding the murder of Dr. George Tiller, I found this blog entry from David Neiwert on the Web site Crooks and Liars:

Three years ago, O’Reilly and his ambush-crew specialist, Jesse Watters, went hard after Tiller, accusing him of wantonly murdering babies because he performs late-term abortions:

Bill summarized in a heartfelt Talking Points Memo on Friday, November 10th: “If we as a society allow an undefined mental health exception in late-term abortions, then babies can be killed for almost any reason… This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao’s China and Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union… If we allow this, America will no longer be a noble nation… If we allow Dr. George Tiller and his acolytes to continue, we can no longer pass judgment on any behavior by anybody.”

This is the kind of hate speech, as I said in an earlier blog, that leads inspires unstable people to commit murder and other acts of violence. Even if a hate speaker does not pull the trigger … there is a level of responsibility (even if not necessarily a legal responsibility) for those people who incite others to commit acts of violence.

It will be interesting to see how Bill O’Reilly responds to this massacre of Dr. George Tiller. There is no excuse for murder.

Crooks and Liars:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/bill-oreilly-has-dr-george-tillers-b

Does True Hate Speech Lead To Violence?

Certainly, there are reasonable disagreements about regarding what constitutes hate speech in America. Media Matters has compiled the following:

Anonymous: Over the past few years, Bill O’Reilly has made the following comments about Dr. Tiller:

- He “destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000.”

- He’s guilty of “Nazi stuff,”

- a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida

- “This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao’s China, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union”

- “operating a death mill”

- “has blood on his hands”

- “executing babies about to be born

Tucker, I’m not saying Billo wanted some kook to kill him, but isn’t this playing with fire? Is there some quote by (Keith) Olbermann or any other liberal commentator that even comes close? Who has the craziest of the liberal left murdered lately?

TUCKER CARLSON: Every one of those descriptions of Tiller is objectively true. I sincerely think it’s appalling that he was murdered. But Tiller was a monster, no doubt.

Referring to Dr. Tiller as “a monster” may ease the conscience of people like Tucker Carlson, but there is no justification for murder. Surely, real pro-life people would agree. This is the kind of hate speech that leads some people to commit horrifying crimes.

Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200906010013

Is Fox As Concerned With Murdered Doctor As It Is With Black Panthers?

Dr. George Tiller, a doctor who performs abortions, was murdered in a Kansas church on Sunday where he was serving as an usher.

Here is an excerpt from a story on the Fox News Web site:

Fox News has been going nuts about an isolated case that involves three members of the New Black Panther Party allegedly intimidating voters at a polling place. Based on the racial angle, it’s obvious to me why Fox News would focus on such a story.

WICHITA, Kan. — Dr. George Tiller, who remained one of the nation’s few providers of late-term abortions despite decades of protests and attacks, was shot and killed Sunday in a church where he was serving as an usher.

The gunman fled, but a 51-year-old suspect was arrested some 170 miles away in suburban Kansas City three hours after the shooting, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said.

Here is an excerpt from the story posted on the Fox News Web site:

Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned.

The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force — one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the final days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said he pointed at people and menacingly tapped it. Prosecutors also say he “supports racially motivated violence against non-blacks and Jews.”

I wonder if Fox Nation and Fox News will be as outraged about a doctor being murdered at church for doing a job as it is about three thugs at a polling place. We’ll see how the outrage over this murder matches other outrage over far less significant issues.

I don’t condone either, but if there is outrage about these three Black Panthers then even the far right should be going nuts about a doctor murdered in church forhelping women exercise their constitutional rights.

There is no justification for this cold-blooded murder.

Fox News (Dr. Tiller’s murder):
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523581,00.html

Fox News (Black Panthers):
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/05/29/charges-black-panthers-dropped-obama/