American Elephants

The conversation about the Tucson Tragedy continues, but as events become clearer it is also clear that the American people are not buying the media spin.  A headline from The Daily Mail in Britain captures it: “How America’s elite hijacked a massacre to take revenge on Sarah Palin.”

According to Professor William Jacobson of Cornell Law School, Matthew Yglesias of Think Progress was the first person to post the so-called Palin target map only 45 minutes after Rep. Giffords was taken to the hospital.  Markos Moulistas “mission accomplished, Sarah Palin” tweet was posted 34 minutes later.

David Harsanyi (splendid columnist at the Denver Post) points out that”there is another, seemingly innocuous “national conversation” we’re about to engage in that’s also based on canards meant to chill speech:”

It starts with incessant hand-wringing about an imagined lack of civility in society — flaring up, as luck would have it, whenever the most recent person you voted for happens to be elected. The conversation will soon turn into a growing and phony anxiety about looming political violence and unrest that happens to be solely, as it turns out, a byproduct of a certain nutty belief system.

And to prove a point, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee has announced: “I don’t think it is appropriate to use taxpayer resources” for state officials to appear on and thereby “support for-profit, ratings-driven programming.” a spokesman for the governor said he will institute a ban on talk radio appearances for all state employees.
(NPR will be excepted from the ban).