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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
I am not a lawyer, but I wonder if O'reilly could be indicted (and convicted) as a co-conspirator. There is a limit to free speech. As Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, nobody has the right to show movies in a crowded firehouse (or something like that) :-)
This man hates women unless he controls them.
That pretty much is standard operating procedure for a lot of anti abortionists. Women are great as long as they are under their control.
than just "sensationally irresponsible." I think there is a moral connection, a moral equivalency that ties O'Reilly to the crime.
Bill O'Reilly should be arrested for conspiracy to commit murder.
It's a big rush to be righteous and angry. Guys like OReilly are addicted to it.
Anti-abortionists are moral cowards; they hide behind their outrage about dead babies-that-never-were so they can avoid real problems, like real babies-that-were-born killed by their favorite policies.
Well, thanks for that, Gabriel Winant.
But there's always a "but," right?
"O'Reilly didn't tell anyone to do anything violent, but he did put Tiller in the public eye, and help make him the focus of a movement with a history of violence against exactly these kinds of targets (including Tiller himself, who had already been shot). In those circumstances, flinging around words like 'blood on their hands,' 'pardon,' 'country club' and 'judgment day' was sensationally irresponsible."
Wow, you're right. The power of a free press to inflame passions needs to be restrained, doesn't it?
I can see, from the heated hatred of the Salon faithful in the letters posted in this thread, that if anyhting were to happen to Bill O'Reilly in the next several days, Salon could be responsible. If John Yoo or Jay Bybee were to be attacked by a deranged leftist radical, we'd have Glenn Greenwald to blame, wouldn't we?
What we need is a press corps that won't put people like Tiller "in the public eye." Right?
Hit the overpaid SOB where it hurts, and damage his career while they're at it. Tiller's family should soak him for every penny.
has caused more problems than we can count. If it is against the law to yell "fire" in a public place just to cause a panic, it should be against the law to publicly advocate hate against anyone.
Everyone is, or should be, aware of the violence and destruction that the lunatic fringe is capable of. People like O'Reilly make a living by stirring up the emotions of weak-minded people.
Anyone calling Tiller a Nazi or baby killer must share the blame for his death.
I am surprised O'Reilly has not been sued for defamation for this. That's the minimum he should be held to. Just because he did not come right out for the assination of Dr. Tiller, he cannot escape his own significant contribution to his death.
He has blood on his OWN hands now. As well as all of those who have provided comfort and refuge to the Army of God and the rest of the wingnut American Taliban. They are the worst kind of fascists.
There once was a radio show host that spoke the devils words, condemning doctors and nurses that performed legal safe abortions. Some nut case came along and listened, and then did the dirty deed. The radio show talk host was prosecuted and spent time in jail (I forget his name, but it doesn't matter). Bill O'Reilly should be prosecuted too. Someone in the District Attorney's office should look into it.
I couldn't agree more, well done.
What, why do men think they have a say on this subject? We can try to understand -- but we can't.
Maybe we could stop some of this, if O'Wrongly really was made to pay for this.
Dave
It's because a potential child is also the father's child.
But nevertheless, it's the womans choice, IMHO.
Tiller was not breaking the law, yet he was forced to hire a bodyguard and to fortify his clinic against very real threats that were fed, in part, by the constant barrage from the right wing media.
If you call someone a "baby killer" you are accusing that person of a capital crime. That is not journalism. Rather, it is an explicit attempt to stir up emotion and if someone picks up a gun and kills the "baby killer" it's a pity, but we need to keep our audience ratings high.
O'Reily and others who use this kind of rhetoric are just as responsible as the person who pulled the trigger.
Your slick comments won't wash, pal. Comparing the incitement to violence against Tiller by O'Reilly with Greenwald's reasoned arguments against Yoo and Bybee is perverse. O'Reilly demonized a doctor acting in the best interests of his patients, knowing full well that the Fox News audience includes crazies who just might get o'riled up enough to kill Tiller. The liberal response to those like Yoo and Bybee, who, unlike Tiller, abetted criminality, has been remarkably moderate considering the magnitude of the crimes committed by these torture-enablers.
YOU are a apologists for a bunch of anti choice terrorists.
hey folks,
Let's not act like the reactionaries on the right (or the left) here, OK? How about some principle? Yes, whomever shot Tiller is a murderer, and should be treated as such (and no, that doesn't mean our criminal justice system is fair or does a good job). I'd have some sympathy for the 16 year old poor kid who kills someone in a carjacking, and realizing how this killer was socialized, it's hyporcitical not to extend the same sympathy to him (or her, but let's face it, it was a him). That doesn't in any way excuse the crime, it's just an acknowledgement that all crimes have causes and our sysetm sucks at prevention.
As for O'Reilly, he's a vile prick, but I'm not just ready to decide (or to let the state decide) who's ideas are vile and who's aren't, at least not legally. You beat the O'Reilly's of this world with reason, patience, and well articulated ideas better said and delivered. I know given the current state of media this seems nearly impossible, but consider this. When has any government with the power to censor not used that power against leftists, anarchists, women, minorities, or the otherwise disempowered in society?
I'll take my chances with free speaking O'Reilly's over Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot (or Bush) and their state mandated dogma any day. Such is the price of freedom, a price I'm more than willing to pay.
That said, by all means condemn O'Reilly, deconstruct what he said, use his vile words against him, and boycott the network and it's advertisers. But you should have been doing that already!
okieprof
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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