Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Crazy Crap / Hannan / Media Pittsburgh Cop Killer Posted Beck Rant
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 12:30 PM
On Monday, Pith's Jeff Woods posed a question: Do right-wing radio and TV hosts like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh bear any responsibility for the actions of people like Richard Poplawski, the Pittsburgh man who killed three police officers on Saturday?
As we all know, Woods is a limp-wristed liberal who's never kissed a girl in his life. So any claims he makes about manly things like guns or booze or booze and guns are to be sneered at. But maybe, in this instance, we should hear him out:
Woods remains a dirty hippie. And no matter how many times he turned into Fox News, Poplawski was still the only one who pulled the trigger.An astonishing thing seems to have happened to the case of Richard Poplawski
and the three dead Pittsburgh policemen: It's been turned into a story
about dog pee -- and not about the fact that Poplawski was fueled by a
toxic mix of white-supremacist/conspiracy-theorist paranoia and
mainstream-media fearmongering, including from the likes of Glenn Beck and Fox News.Maybe the media are collectively embarrassed by the way this case
The classic instance of this: A few weeks ago, Poplawski posted a
demonstrates how they play an important role in whipping up the
far-right crazies out there -- and they should be.
Because not only did Richard Poplawski avidly participate in
white-supremacist online forums and right-wing conspiracy-theory sites,
he also avidly consumed mainstream conservative media, particularly Fox.
clip of Beck talking about FEMA concentration camps on the neo-Nazi Stormfront forum site (emphasis ours).
But now we have concrete evidence, rather than an abstract hunch, of a link between the right-wing echo chamber and a man who killed three cops. So once again we'll ask: Does Beck, someone whose star has risen thanks to his willingness to feed into the sick fears of nutjobs like Poplawski, bear any responsibility when a viewer takes one of his THEY'RE OUT TO GET YOU!!! tirades to heart?
Comments (17)
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"On Monday, Pith's Jeff Woods posed a question: Do right-wing radio and TV hosts like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh bear any responsibility for the actions of people like Richard Poplawski, the Pittsburgh man who killed three police officers on Saturday?"
And today, just like on Monday, there is no such thing as a collective responsibilty for anything on this earth.
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he bears no more or less responsibility than the media at large bear for every post-columbine school shooting, for making harris and klebold household names.
The difference, alum, is that when the media made harris and klebold household names, they didn't glorify them. On the other hand, the kooked-out right-wingers on talk radio, Fox and the web exalt people like Timothy McVey (the bomber of the Oklahoma City federal building and its day care center) and all but encourage fragile-minded right-wing lunatics in the public to do the same thing.
Gilbert and Alum, you guys continue to miss the point. Beck and Limbaugh do not bear legal responsibility for this, nor did Caleb Hannan say they did. They do bear some moral responsibility for this in that they continue to say irresponsible things to an audience, like it or not, that includes some very unstable people. These people think the government is out to get them and the words of these talk show hosts only prods them on. Like it or not, the media influences. It is guys like you who have been crying about the "liberal media" distorting this and that for years. And Hollywood "corrupting" our youth. I've taken the "Limbaugh challenge" more often that I should and I find him offensive on so many levels. Not because he is a conservative but because he is mean, sarcastic, and intellectually dishonest. I remember years ago tuning him in during the Clinton impeachment and some guy calls in and says he has "inside information" from a friend of a friend who supposedly worked in some Washington agency, that Clinton was close to suicide. Limbaugh said something to the effect of "Whoa, you heard it here first, folks." He didn't try to reprimand the guy or say that was off limits or anything like that. And that is morally reprehensible and you guys, alum and Gilbert, should distance yourself from it.
Honestly, I don't know why you're even sticking up for these guys in the first place.
In the end, it is still the individual's ultimate responsibility, but people like Rush, Beck, and countless others need to tone it down.
Gilbert, the answer may be no for you regarding the collective responsibility of Nazi's, but that argument has not come close to flying when used by low-level Nazi's throughout the 20th century. "I was just following orders" has been a huge failure as a defense with all but the lowest party operatives. And most of these are people who would have had normal lives if not for Hitler.
And George brings up a great example. Germany after the First World War was a disaster and many people were looking for someone to blame. Hitler came along and was able to frame the Jews as people who had leached German culture for hundreds of years. Indeed, anti-semitism had been rampant for a long time and all it took was a charismatic leader to give voice to a collective frustration. I'm not comparing Beck with Hitler, but the principle is still the same. People can decide to go against their better angels when just the right voice whispers in their ear.
This is just like in the 80s when conservatives blamed Judas Priest for kids killing themselves and blamed AC/DC when Richard Ramirez killed people. Which means it's bullshit.
@chris1974 - i dont listen to limbaugh and i dont care for beck. but you are not the arbiter of moral and/or responsible content, any more than the government should be, any more than the church should be.
it's never censorship if you're the one being offended, is it?
Beck is in no way responsible and there's nothing you or anyone else on this earth could say now or ever in the history of time that could prove otherwise!
Obama is a commie!
I never said I was the arbiter of anything. And I don't think the government should be involved in this kind of thing either. Beck and Limbaugh have First Amendment rights. My point is they need to show responsibility with the platform that they have. They know they have listeners who are bat crazy. So what do they do with it, they just say more and more insane, irresponsible things. Did you know if I had a large enough platform I could go around telling everyone who would listen to go and try to overthrow the government? And you know what would probably happen? I would get arrested. The reason is that words have meaning and coming from the type of person who is charismatic enough, can help prod people to do things they wouldn't otherwise. And it's not illegal for Beck to go around spouting conspiracy theories. But he needs to ask if what he's doing is giving just enough impetus for crazies to carry out things they might not otherwise.
"Beck is in no way responsible and there's nothing you or anyone else on this earth could say now or ever in the history of time that could prove otherwise!
Obama is a commie!"
Well then, case closed I guess. You should be a lawyer. ;)
Ha, no one is demanding censorship, that's dumb. Self-awareness is all that's being asked for.
It's like swearing in front of kids. No one's saying you can't do it, we're just bringing up the fact that it's not a great idea and you should own up to your mistake when little Billy starts a-cussin'. Or shooting, or whatever.
I can't help remembering many years ago a right wing radio show host was saying "When they come for you, shoot them in the head, they've got on vests, and you won't stop them, otherwise." Well, this guy did just what he was encouraged to do, he shot two police officers in the head. Wonder where he got the idea?
About as much responsibility as The Beatles do for the Tate/Bianca murders. They never should have put out the White Album.
commentator - G. Gordon Liddy (sp?) said that in response to Waco in 1993. (A good example of liberals killing those they don't like, I suppose.) Poplawski would have been 5 or 6 years old. Damn, those right wing killers start young.
The black on black murder rate is quite high. Much higher than white on black. I'd be willing to bet if you polled those black killers, they'd express support for liberal idealogies. Thus, it must be the liberal idealogy that's leading them to kill.
" Which means it's bullshit."
Hypocritcal bullshit at that.
Protesters hanging Bush in effigy, people making movies about assasinating Bush, environmental wackos advocating burning down houses, spiking trees, etc., animal rights wackos advocating destroying medical research labs - none of these elicts a peep from the libs oh but Beck and Limbaugh are just terrible.
