As we highlighted earlier in the week, Shepard Smith called out Fox News viewers after the murder of security guard Stephen Johns. Instead of taking time to think about what Smith said and admitting that the DHS report was perhaps correct, the reaction by the right wing has been predictably furious (from Media Matters):
During his June 11 radio program, Rush Limbaugh said of Smith’s remarks: “For liberals to now claim that the atmosphere is somehow more violently anti-Obama is simply preposterous.” Limbaugh also said Smith was “whining and moaning and complaining about emails.” After stating that he, too, got “vile, sick emails,” Limbaugh said, “Shep, you got nothing on anybody out there.”
Many on the right, including Glenn Beck, won’t accept that Von Brunn was a right winger (from digby’s Hullaballoo):
Two very important things are happening here: First, the go-go-go mentality of our enemies. Our country is vulnerable; our enemies know it as much as we do and groups like Al Qaeda are even planning to work with white supremacists (which police say this guy might be), coming through our southern border.
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Second, there’s going to be a witch-hunt for two groups: the Jews and conservatives. Two years ago, I spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu and I told him to look out, because Israel is being set up. Iran’s goal of nuclear weapons is putting Israel in the crosshairs.
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Meanwhile, there have been Department of Homeland Security reports about right-wing extremists. And left-wing bloggers and others have blamed conservative talk radio hosts like me for stirring the pot, even though we’re just pointing out that it’s boiling.
I still have a hard time believing this guy is on TV. That’s a whole lotta paranoid and crazy there. Or, as digby said:
It doesn’t have to make sense, folks. It just has to hit a certain emotional truth. And his audience’s “truth” is that al Qaeda is in cahoots with lone nuts to kill Jews and blame it on conservatives — and they are sneaking in from Mexico with “illegals” to do it. This makes perfect sense to them.
One more example (below the fold, warning – adult content):
Andrew Breitbart, who runs a blog called Big Hollywood, called Gawker and left an enraged voicemail after they published a story calling Von Brunn a right-wing extremist.
John Cook, this is Andrew Breitbart. I’m basically fuming and I’m reading your shit at Gawker right now, saying that this guy’s a rightwing extremist. And it’s such a fucking slander on people like me. This guy went after, this guy was after neocons like me who are conservative. He had the address of The Weekly Standard there. Conservatives believe in individual liberty, they don’t believe in group’s rights. This guy’s a multiculturalist, just like the black studies and the lesbian studies majors on college campuses. This guy was a 9/11 truther. This guy’s hardly a rightwinger. This guy’s political philosophy is more akin to the drivel that you hear on a college campus that delineates us by group, not by individuality. It’s the exact opposite of my political philosophy. It’s deeply offensive that you would use this for political gain. I could care less how you describe me in regards to Drudge or anything, but for you to put on me this fuck-face crime against humanity is so fucking beyond the pale.
(Transcript from Daily Kos.)
Ummmm….yeah (backing away slowly). You know the old saying – there is none so blind as one who can not see. I’m very afraid we’re going to see more violence from extremists and they’ve got a big media platform right now. It seems like every incident is just another excuse for them to get more crazy and paranoid.