Glenn Beck's hate speech, therefore, should be no exception to SCOTUS’ exception.
DemWit today is joining a team of bloggers, organized by friend “Octopus” at The Swash Zone and invites readers and bloggers to participate in this and future efforts to tell Beck’s advertisers “enough is enough!” Octopus’ first entry, dated 2/14/11:
After the shooting rampage in Tucson that left six people dead and thirteen injured, including Congresswoman Giffords, Fox News President Roger Ailes appealed for civility: “I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don’t have to do it with bombast.”
Weeks after Tucson, nothing has changed. If anything, Fox News has turned up the volume on partisan hate speech. Fevered hysteria and conspiratorial fear mongering on national television are not harmless.
How quickly we forget the lessons of history. The bogeymen of 1930s anti-Semitism that morphed into the bogeymen of 1950s McCarthyism has morphed again into the mainstreaming of Glenn Beck Militia Theater. The message is clear: Glenn Beck wants to extort your silence, and anyone who refuses to capitulate will be targeted and stalked:
Glenn Beck, Self-Appointed "Progressive Hunter"
The poisoned atmosphere unleashed by Glenn Beck and Fox News means any citizen - Democrat, Centrist, or Republican - can be slandered in public and targeted for persecution. Beck pitches his messages at unhinged misfits who are most likely to act on impulse, and events have shown that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts. There is no plausible deniability that can remove this blood from Beck’s hands:
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum:
Former Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner:
National correspondent for The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg:
It is time to pull the plug on Glenn Beck and serve notice to Fox News that partisan hate speech has no place in a free society. The strongest message you can send is to vote your pocketbook. Write letters to Fox News advertisers; tell them you will no longer patronize their products and services; and keep boycotting sponsors of Fox News until these outrageous partisan witch-hunts have stopped. Removing Glenn Beck from the airwaves will save lives.
Resources:
Visit the Drop Fox Website Here
Visit the Stop Beck Website Here
Endorsements:
Captain Fogg, Sheria, BJ, Octopus, Squatlo, Sue, Nance, TnLib, TomCat, Truth 101, Maleeper, Green Eagle, Kay.
Resources:
Visit the Drop Fox Website Here
Visit the Stop Beck Website Here
Endorsements:
Captain Fogg, Sheria, BJ, Octopus, Squatlo, Sue, Nance, TnLib, TomCat, Truth 101, Maleeper, Green Eagle, Kay.
4 comments:
DemWit readers:
One of the victims of the Tucson shooting left the following comment on Octopus’ identical post at The Swash Zone. She was the one who brough the 9-year-old victim Christina to the event and was herself shot three times and suffered a fractured hip. She wrote:
“This was hard for me to hear. Scary in an up-close and personal perforated way. Ratings aside, what possible reason could there be for fomenting such anger? Since I have nothing but time these days, I'm pledging here and now to write to every sponsor of this nonsense and make myself clearly understood- THIS is not the America that Christina Taylor Green saw, and it is NOT the America in which I choose to live.
“Free speech is one thing; inciting violence is another.... as I am here to attest.”
Frankly, I'm amazed that Glenn Beck has gotten away with as much as he has on the air.
Tiny thinks it is way past time to clean up the entire network of the FOX channel. Do they have a daily contest there to see who can tell the biggest fabricated tale? Tiny never watches that channel, but hears too much from it when she tries to watch news on other channels. But, thankful that others are pointing out their propaganda.
Bj,
A million thanks for your help in spreading this message. These petition drives are more work than one anticipates from the onset. It seems different folks have different versions of Blogger, the newer ones being more adept at handling HTML code than older versions. Here is one tip: When you copy/paste, make sure you click the EDIT IN HTML tab first. After you paste the article, click the COMPOSE tab to see how it looks and make minor adjustments as necessary.
Nevertheless, the gratifying part is that dozens of bloggers have joined the cause.
Next letters: Roger Ailes and all Fox News advertisers. These will have a slightly different slant ... one that points out the impact and accountability issues they face when people are hurt due to these broadcasts. The legal concepts are "malice," and "reckless and willful disregard." In other words, Fox News and sponsors may face contingent liabilities (in addition to a consumer boycott) unless they clean up their act.
Post a Comment