April 25, 2010

Dangerous violence caused by MSNBC?

Wizbang has an intriguing post on a white supremacist who was stabbed to death by his neighbor. Michael Laprarie draws a reasonable conclusion on why this might have happened.  Unfortunately the conclusion is buried near the bottom of the article.  The following excerpt really belongs at the top as the opening paragraph.
Obviously, someone has been stirring up hatred and resentment against middle-aged white people, a/k/a "Teabaggers," accusing them of racism, sedition, and generally posing an existential threat to all decent, freedom-loving Americans. A member of the minority community was provoked by all the anti-white rhetoric that has been swirling around the air waves and decided to take matters into his own hands. Naturally the blame for Barrett's death lies squarely on those who have been openly hostile toward middle-aged whites.
Conservatives are rightly dubious and/or skittish about defending a white supremacist.  But that's not the issue here.  The issue is a murder related to a political disagreement.  No doubt the victim's views were both socially and politically indefensible.  But murder is not a reasonable response.  And here we have a liberal, potentially incited by repeated media portrayals of the Tea Parties as dumb racists, in fact responding with the very angry, violent actions the Tea Party has specifically not engaged in.

While it's possible this incident has nothing to do with that backdrop, it seems only responsible the mainstream media should either adjust their actions towards the Tea Party accordingly, or else admit the problem just may well be a two way street.  As Mr. Laprarie notes, don't hold your breath waiting for that particular sea change to enter the news cycle.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Disagreement is always welcome. Please remain civil. Vulgar or disrespectful comments towards anyone will be removed.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Share This