{"id":147,"date":"2011-01-11T09:50:35","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T09:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/01\/blame-game.html"},"modified":"2011-01-11T09:50:35","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T09:50:35","slug":"blame-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2011\/01\/blame-game.html","title":{"rendered":"Jon Stewart, Russell Simmons and Howard Kurtz are three positive voices amidst an unfortunate media blame game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The blame game continues as political pundits continue to try and make Saturday’s tragic shooting of Rep. Gabrelle Giffords and several others (six of whom died<\/a>) about demonizing and blaming political opponents.<\/p>\n

Some on the left have exploited the event as a convenient club to pound Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives. As I wrote yesterday<\/a>, in my view, none of them (nor any of their counterparts on the left) can be realistically blamed for the horrific actions of a guy who seemed more influenced by a belief in the occult<\/a> than either Fox News or MSNBC. <\/p>\n

And, while it’s true that both sides of the political spectrum would be wise to dial back personal  attacks that sometimes seem to call into question the very humanity of their political opponents, some on the left would have has believe that overheated punditry comes exclusively from the right. Blogger Michelle Malkin has pretty much demolished that claim by compiling an extensive catalogue of the left’s own history of political demonization, overheated rhetoric and highly-questionable imagery<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Malkin’s piece provides useful balance to the demonstrably false belief by many liberals that all media excess resides at Fox News and conservative talk radio.<\/p>\n

But some notable commentators have managed to avoid partisan finger pointing.<\/p>\n

Hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons tweeted<\/a> “Some on the far right are very angry,true. Words can be misconstrued. I’m sure
\nSarah Palin didn’t wish this. Don’t be the ANGRY LEFT.”<\/i> <\/p>\n

Writing for The Daily Beast<\/a><\/i>, Howard Kurtz refuted attempts by some to somehow link Sarah Palin’s use of “crosshairs” imagery in a political posting to Saturday’s act of irrational violence this way: “This isn’t about a nearly year-old Sarah Palin map; it’s about a lone nutjob
\nwho doesn’t value human life. It would be nice if we briefly put aside partisan
\ndifferences and came together with sympathy and support for Gabby Giffords and
\nthe other victims, rather than opening rhetorical fire ourselves.”<\/i><\/p>\n

But, as his often been the case recently, it was perhaps comedian Jon Stewart who best cut through the fog during his opening comments on Monday’s edition of The Daily Show<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

After admitting he had no idea what actually motivated the gunman, Stewart said “I wouldn’t blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine. And, by the way, that is coming from somebody that truly hates our political environment. It is toxic. It is unproductive. But to say that that is what has caused this or that the peole in that are responsible for this, I just don’t think I just don’t think you can do it. Boy would that be nice to be able to draw a straight line of causation from this horror to something to something tangible because than we could convince ourselves that if we just stop this <\/i>(other thing) the horrors will end. You know, to have the feeling — however fleeting — that this type of event can be prevented forever. But it’s hard not to feel like it can’t. You know, you cannot outsmart crazy<\/b>. You don’t know what a troubled mind will get caught on. Crazy always seems to find a way. It always has — which is not to say that resistance is futile.”<\/i><\/p>\n

He then went on to walk back the darkness of that statement, reminding us that crazy people do not control the rest of us and that it remains “a
\nworthwhile goal not to conflate our political opponents with our enemies if for
\nno other reason than to draw a better distinction between the manifestos of
\nparanoid mad men and what passes for acceptable political and pundit speak.”<\/i> <\/p>\n

He added “To see good people like this hurt, it is so grievous and it causes me such sadness but, again, I refuse to give into that feeling of despair. There is light in this situation. I urge everyone, read up about those who were hurt and\/or killed<\/a> in this shooting. You will be comforted by just how much anonymous goodness there really is in the world. You read about these people and you realize that that people that you don’t even know, that you have never met, are living lives of real dignity and goodness. And you hear about crazy but its rarer than you think. And I think you’ll find yourself even more impressed with Congresswoman Giffords and amazed at how much living some of the deceased packed into lives that were cut way too short. And if there is real solace in this, I think it’s that for all the hyperbole and the vitriol that has become a part of our political process…we haven’t lost the capacity to be horrified. And let us hope we never do. Let us hope we never become numb to what real horror, what the real blood of patriots looks like when it’s spilled.”<\/i> <\/p>\n

Amen.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The blame game continues as political pundits continue to try and make Saturday’s tragic shooting of Rep. Gabrelle Giffords and several others (six of whom died) about demonizing and blaming political opponents. 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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}