Bill O’Reilly had nothing to do with the fact that Dr. Tiller was murdered. Really. That’s what the right wing blogs are saying. Because after all, he was a “baby killer.”
The problem, of course, is that Tiller was in fact a baby killer. Though that certainly doesn’t justify his murder, there’s no denying that Tiller was a controversial figure. And, frankly, O’Reilly’s rhetoric aimed at Tiller (not to mention that of Tiller’s other critics among the pro-life crowd) wasn’t any worse than some of the Bush=Hitler nonsense we’ve been hearing from the left over the past eight years.
I remember when Markos Zuniga, proprietor of the biggest liberal blog on the planet Daily Kos, said “screw them” in response to some American security contractors being murdered in Iraq and drug through the streets. That’s much worse than anything O’Reilly said about Tiller, and yet Kos is still a member in good standing of the mainstream liberal community. And what if George W. Bush were to be assassinated tomorrow. Could we blame the folks at MoveOn.org and Michael Moore for whipping up so much hatred for him?
That wouldn’t be fair. And neither is blaming O’Reilly for Tiller.
This is the same nonsense we saw after Oklahoma City when the Clintons were trying to pin McVeigh on conservative talk radio. It’s not about truth or any sense of responsibility. It’s about leveraging a tragedy to silence dissent and advance a political agenda.
It’s sickening.
Well it is sickening. Here’s O’Reilly on Tiller, btw.
Some of the things O’Reilly has said of Tiller, according to Salon:
* He “destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000.”
* He’s guilty of “Nazi stuff,”
* a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida
* “This is the kind of stuff that happened in Mao’s China, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union”
* “operating a death mill”
* “has blood on his hands”
* “executing babies about to be born”
And now, for comparison’s sake, here are the alleged rants of Scott Roeder, the man charged with Dr. Tiller’s murder:
In recent years, someone using the name Scott Roeder has posted anti-Tiller comments on various Internet sites. One post, dated Sept. 3, 2007 and placed on a site sponsored by Operation Rescue called chargetiller.com, said that Tiller needed to be “stopped.”
“It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the ‘lawlessness’ which is spoken of in the Bible,” it said. “Tiller is the concentration camp ‘Mengele’ of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgment upon our nation.”
On May 19, 2007, a Scott Roeder commented on an invitation by Operation Rescue to join an event being held May 17-20 in Wichita, “the ‘Nation’s Abortion Capital,’ to pray for an end to George R. Tiller’s late-term abortion business and for all pre-born babies everywhere to once again come under the protection of law.”
The post said: “Bless everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp. Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members while there? Doesn’t seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller.”
Yeah, no connection whatsoever. O’Reilly actually sounds worse. But I’m sure tonight he will play the “victim card” and bitch and moan about how the godless liberal media is out to get him.
Oh, and for the record, despite all the so-called liberal hate, I know of not one single “conservative” who was murdered or assassinated for their political beliefs by “liberal nutjobs” over the eight years of George W. Bush’s term in office. However, the list of liberals or presumed liberals or just people unfortunate enough to be in a government building who have been murdered by right wing ideologues is rather extensive.
And I know of no one on the left with the comparable celebrity or audience of conservative talk show hosts, TV personalities and pundits who have consistently “joked” (and sometimes not joked) about the hoped for murder of their political opposites like OReilly, Hannity, Coulter, Savage and Limbaugh, etc. have done. Remember O’Reilly begging Al Qaeda to bomb San Francisco? Or Coulter suggesting liberal Supreme Court Justice Stevens be poisoned? Or Limbaugh suggesting we shouldn’t kill of all the liberals because we will need some for our Museum exhibits? Or what about Glenn Beck publicly musing about if he should or could kill Michael Moore by choking him with his bare hands?
The most high profile “liberals” in the media are probably Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore. Anyone ever hear of them joking about killing Republicans or conservatives? Naw, I didn’t think so. So wingnuts, do us all a favor and cut the crap with the bogus comparisons of the hate speech that froths from the anuses of popular right wing media figures on a daily basis and so called “liberal haters.” We may consider Bush and Cheney to be war criminals but no one on the left is advocating for their assassination. We just want them to face charges in a court of law for their crimes. Your fellow travelers, however, prefer to take the law into their own hands.
In March 1993, three months into the administration of our first pro-choice president, Bill Clinton, abortion provider Dr. David Gunn was murdered in Pensacola, Florida. That was the beginning of what would become a five-fold increase in violence against abortion providers throughout the Clinton years.
Today’s assassination of Dr. George Tiller comes 5 months into the term of our second pro-choice president. For anyone who would like to believe that this is a statistical anomaly, a coincidence that doesn’t portend anything, again, you are wrong.
During the entire Bush administration, from 2000-2008 there were no murders.
During the Clinton era, between 1994-2000 there were 6 abortion providers and clinic staff murdered, and 17 attempted murders of abortion providers. There were 12 bombings or arsons during the Clinton years.
During the Bush administration, not only were there no murders, there were no attempted murders. There was one clinic bombing during the Bush years.
And let’s not forget the Oklahoma City bombing, the murderous violence by Eric Rudolph, the assassination plots against Obama, the wingnut dirty bomb maker from Maine, James Adkisson, the admitted liberal hate crime murderer, and all the other crazed right wing plots that fortunately for us were foiled over the last decade:
In the 10 years since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people, roughly 60 right-wing terrorist plots have been uncovered in the United States, according to an upcoming report by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. The plots, all foiled by law enforcement, reportedly included violent plans by antigovernment militia groups, racist skinhead organizations, and Ku Klux Klan members to use various types of chemical bombs and other weapons.
Plots like these, for example:
Oct. 25, 2004: FBI agents in Tennessee arrested Demetrius “Van” Crocker after he allegedly tried to purchase ingredients for deadly sarin nerve gas and C-4 plastic explosives from an undercover agent. Crocker, who was involved with white supremacist groups, was charged with trying to get explosives to destroy a building and faces more than 20 years in prison.
… April 10, 2003: The FBI raided the home of William Krar, of Noonday, Texas, and discovered an arsenal of more than 500,000 rounds of ammunition, 65 pipe bombs and remote control briefcase bombs, and almost 2 pounds of sodium cyanide, enough to make a bomb that could kill everyone in a large building. Krar, reportedly associated with white supremacist groups, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for possession of a chemical weapon.
And if you claim that the relentless hate speech from right wing talk show hosts who sling the slurs of “traitors” and “fascists” and “communists” and “Muslim Lovers” and “baby killers” ad nauseam at liberals and progressives has had no effect on the high level of violence perpetrated by right wing terrorists over the past 30 years, well, you’re either delusional or a deliberate liar. Myself, I opt for the latter explanation. Because the truth has a “well known liberal bias” and you guys always seem to prefer fighting it with bigger and bigger lies. Just like O’Reilly did in his slanderous campaign against Dr. Tiller, a man far better and more compassionate than most of you will ever be.
