RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events The Hutaree militia and the rising risk of far-right violence

CNN's Erickson lashes out, doubles down on "shotgun" remark
April 05, 2010 4:55 pm ET by Eric Hananoki

In response to criticism, CNN's Erick Erickson is claiming that liberals are "misconstruing" his remark about pulling out a shotgun if the government tries to arrest him for not filling out the American Community Survey. Erickson also lashed out at "people" who "linger on every word I say" by stating: "You people are nuts. Absolute nuts. Where do you get off misconstruing that I'm agitating for killing Census workers when you people are out there advocating for the killing of the unborn on a regular basis. You have no shame."

On April 1, Erickson said of the American Community Survey: "This is crazy. What gives the Commerce Department the right to ask me how often I flush my toilet? Or about going to work? I'm not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I dare them to. Pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying."

That same day, Media Matters posted a seven-minute audio clip of Erickson's remarks, in context, along with transcript. The headline on Media Matters' post was, "CNN's Erickson: I'll '[p]ull out my wife's shotgun' if they try to arrest me for not filling out the American Community Survey."

On his radio show today, Erickson accused Media Matters of running "a story on their website saying I'm advocating shooting Census workers":

ERICKSON: I saw a report now -- it was an email and I've deleted the email, that now the word this year that everyone is using is narrative. The word narrative has been around for a long time but people are now paying attention to it in ways they didn't in the past. The media constructs the narrative of events. They do not set out to create it, but again, as I've discussed before, the world view -- the narrative is that conservatives are angry and are turning violent. And they have people in the New York Times and the Washington Post and even the Wall Street Journal and across the board throughout the traditional media building the narrative that conservatives are angry.

The target stuff gets used by both parties though but not the crosshairs.

I'm sure they've used the word but not in a graphic like Palin did.

mediamatters.org

What a nut and CNN hired him to be an agenda setter?

I'm sure they've used the word but not in a graphic like Palin did.

It's been pretty clear that you've got your head up your ass for quite some time, MEM.

I posted the right wing nut from CNN stuff because it falls into the subject matter of this thread btw. "rising risk of far-right violence"

attacking her for things that you accept in Democrats and making imaginary distinctions where none exist, does come off as pretty hateful.

I hate Palin because I was told to in my weekly obamanaut newsletter.

So I didn't actually lie as you originally accused me of doing.

Has anyone else noticed that alleged suggestions of violence by Republicans or Tea Party members is big, big front-page news for a week or more.

But...actual violence by Democrats goes virtually unreported?

The dem brick got reported more because it was part of a much larger reaction of violence after the healthcare vote.

The Rove/code pink incident was national news G-man. A tree fell, people heard.

Karl Rove Doesn't Like Publicity Over Code Pink Incident – What ...‎
News Hounds (blog) - 9 hours ago

After the Code Pink “Citizens Arrest" of Karl Rove, at a Rove book signing, Rove said this on Fox News: “Well, you know, what was interesting was I thought ...


MiamiHerald.com Rove Book Signing Gets Surprise Ending‎
CBS News - Mar 30, 2010

Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans on Monday walked toward Rove with handcuffs, saying she was making a citizen's arrest. "Look what you did, you outted a CIA ...
California: Rove Leaves Stage After Heckling‎ - New York Times
Karl Rove blasts Democrats and promotes his new book in the East Bay‎ - San Jose Mercury News
Lafayette ready for Rove - is Rove ready for Lafayette?‎ - San Francisco Chronicle (blog)
Dallas Morning News (blog) - FOXNews
all 500 news articles »

So after trying to say it wasn't reported...

From the above link:

• Former Bush adviser Karl Rove was targeted last week by handcuff-toting Code Pink members who tried to carry out a citizen's arrest during a book signing in Beverly Hills. As the attempt failed, one protester shouted to Rove that "the only comfort I take is that ... you're going to rot in hell."
  
  Thousands of extreme critics weren't content to wait until Bush administration figures reached perdition — many made open death threats, though they got little press coverage.

And somewhere here at RKMBs I wrote about a group of lefties in Ithaca who threw actual human blood on a soldier and a recruiting center as part of an antiwar protest.

So, basically, there was violence from the antiwar left during the Bush years but it didn't get the coverage that one or two incidents from the tea partiers are getting now.

We also have examples of liberal environmental groups, freaked out by Al Gore's promise of global warming, engaging in acts of violence and eco-terror. However, as doc pointed out, very few of the Palin and talk radio bashers saw fit to try and blame Gore for the torching of SUVs and the spiking of trees.

And, of course, there are the union thugs who attack people openly in order to quell opposition to this or that union-friendly (typically democrat) politician.

At some point, it comes down to a "tree falling in the forest" kind of thing. If the media plays up violence on side (the right) and downplays it on the other (the left) it will seem as if one side was worse than the other. In fact, it would be very difficult, if the media downplayed left-wing violence, to even find the examples to show that the left did it.

Finally, I would remiss if I didn't point out that representatives of one side being violent is not excused by past bad acts from the other sides. A crime is a crime, if it occurred.

The issue I'm addressing is whether the media (and some people such as yourself) aren't being much quicker to publicize and generalize the bad apples on one side after doing their/your level best to cover-up (for lack of a better term) the bad apples on the other side.

Oh, and I guess this confirms that you are admitting defeat on the Palin/target/DNC/crosshairs argument, insofar as you're still trying to talk about other stuff now.

You found less stories about left wing violence because there's less of it.

Has anyone else noticed that alleged suggestions of violence by Republicans or Tea Party members is big, big front-page news for a week or more.

But...

• Brick Thrown Through Howell, MI GOP Window
  
  NOT NEWS: Brick Thrown Thorugh Marion, OH GOP Window

... actual violence by Democrats goes virtually unreported?

So we agree to not agree and I'll just keep posting additional violence from the right. You can keep talking about Rove and code pink and the few occassional other trees that fall.

Broken windows
Jake Sherman and Marin Cogan wrote today how intense the backlash has been in some quarters to the health care bill's passage, and the Kansas City Star reports on another broken window:

Authorities in Wichita and some other cities across the country are investigating vandalism against Democratic offices, apparently in response to health care reform.

And on Monday, a former Alabama militia leader took credit for instigating the actions.

Mike Vanderboegh of Pinson, Ala., former leader of the Alabama Constitutional Militia, put out a call on Friday for modern “Sons of Liberty” to break the windows of Democratic Party offices nationwide in opposition to health care reform. Since then, vandals have struck several offices, including the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita.

“There’s glass everywhere,” said Lyndsay Stauble, executive director of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party. “A brick took out the whole floor-to-ceiling window and put a gouge in my desk.”

Stauble said the brick, hurled through the window between Friday night and Saturday morning, had “some anti-Obama rhetoric” written on it.

Physical damage aside, this isn't great P.R.

The evidence, M E M, is that there's an abundance of liberal violence that goes unreported.

That there was far more inflammatory liberal rhetoric, harassment by liberals, and violence by liberals --in the specific examples of anti-Bush Iraq war demonstrations, and environmental terrorism-- that you like to pretend doesn't exist.

But it does.

So news reports about right wing violence is now "making shit up"?