This false equivalency is Bullsh*t - Sam Seder

[BrklynLiberal]

Sam Seder's Majority Report Email:
So, I've been trying to make sense of the gun massacre and attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords that took place in Arizona this weekend. The shooting left six dead, including a nine year old girl; wounded thirteen others, and Giffords remains in critical condition.

I don't know if it's ever possible to fully understand the motives of someone so depraved as to mow down people outside a supermarket with a semi-automatic weapon. One thing is clear, however: many people predicted (including Giffords herself) that the increasingly violent rhetoric from the right wing in this country could lead to such a tragedy. Sadly, horribly, they were correct.

Will we as a society learn anything from this tragedy? I'm afraid not. It's
one thing to hear Sarah Palin's people claim that her rifle-scope ad targeting Giffords was merely "surveyor icons" or to see the Republican Establishment denounce the AZ sheriff who decried the culture of hate in talk radio. Frankly - and maybe sadly - I've come to expect this from movement conservatives.


However, the most insidious voices in the wake of this attack may actually be those in the media - the media that failed to hold these violence-peddlers to account in real time.

Who am I talking about? NY Times columnist Matt Bai - who attempted to draw some type of false equivalence between Sarah Palin and the

progressive netroots, arguing that "both sides" are at fault.


That's bullshit.


On one hand we have the GOP elected officials and nominees using gun references about elections, suggesting that legislative debates should resolved with "Second Amendment remedies," and calling for "bullets not ballots." And on the other hand? A diarist on Daily Kos who complained that his congresswoman, Giffords, was "dead to me" after a questionable vote. Yes, you have that right- top GOP officials suggesting gun violence is apparently the same as a random, unknown commenter on a website using an expression of frustration that my grandmother would use.

So as long as the mainstream media remains desperate to claim that violence is a product of heated rhetoric from both sides, we can never hope to see the accountability that is needed...accountability to force the right-wing's leadership to denounce their and their followers fantasies of using weapons to resolve our political differences.


On Tuesday's show to discuss this further, Alex Pareene from Salon.com


Tune into the MAJORITY REPORT live M-F 11:30am est http://majority.fm/
or listen anytime via podcast on ITUNES or at Majority.fm

[fascisthunter]

1. The Media is acting like the Cowards in Highschool who Turn away from Bullying

same shit... well, we know for sure what side the media is on... "liberal media"... what a slick meme, but look at what it has done to the country as a whole.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Ironically, the widespreadusage of the term "liberalmedia" is an indication of the success of the RW

control of the media, their successful messaging and framing the debate.

[fascisthunter]

3. absolutely