Ann Coulter: Mud Libel

"Shouldn't we at least bring Bill Maher in for questioning?"
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Ann Coulter finds it remarkable that the very same Democrats and their media minions who had accused Gov. Palin for the extremely unhinged Jared Loughner's handiwork in Tuscon, went on to slam her for her "silence" and then became even more enraged when -- after a respectful period of mourning, prayer and waiting for the facts to be revealed -- she actually did speak out:

Last Tuesday, the night before Palin responded, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann mocked Palin's silence throughout his show:

-- "And why is the ever self-promoting Miss Palin so quiet?"

-- "And it's quiet, isn't it?"

-- "It's too quiet."

-- "The silence is deafening from the great Northwest."

It was deemed an admission of guilt that she hadn't spoken about the Tucson shooting or denied the accusations that she had inspired the shooter.

The next day, Palin posted a video response, and Keith immediately attacked her for "the worst timed political statement ever." It's almost as if liberals would attack Palin whatever she did.

Olbermann sneered about Palin's use of the phrase "blood libel," scoffing, "This, to Sarah Palin, is analogous to what is happening to her." No, not only happening to her, but to all right-wingers, tea partiers, Republican politicians, and conservative radio and TV hosts -- all of whom have been accused of complicity in murder.

On the day of the Arizona massacre, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva blamed the "Palin express." The father of Gabrielle Giffords, one of the victims, blamed "the whole Tea Party." The sheriff of Pima County, Clarence Dupnik, who had failed to lock Loughner up despite repeated arrests and other contacts, blamed "the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business." (Dumbnik also said: "We're not convinced that he acted alone.")

A comment on Gawker the day of the attack said: "Palin ... you now have more than just elk blood on your hands."

The next day, New York Daily News columnist Michael Daly wrote, with stunning originality: "Palin may have the blood of more than some poor caribou on her hands." (See -- he changed "elk" to "caribou.")

In an especially prissy "Special Comment" the night of the shooting, Olbermann said that if Sarah Palin "does not repudiate her own part in amplifying violence and violent imagery in politics, she must be dismissed from politics." Ditto for Rep. Allen West, ex-candidate Sharron Angle, Rep. Giffords' opponent Jesse Kelly and "the Tea Party leaders."

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- JP

CNN Poll: Most Americans don't blame Gov. Palin for AZ shootings

Not the outcome the network wanted?
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The results of a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday show that while leftist bloggers and many in the biased national media blame Sarah Palin for the shootings in Tuscon, a majority of Americans do not.

Politico's Andy Barr reported these findings, but pushed them down into the the sixth paragraph:

Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin was widely vindicated in the poll for posting a map on her PAC’s website last year showing cross-hairs on Gifford’s district, as well as the district of 19 other members. Some on the left pointed the finger at Palin following the shooting, but only 35 percent of those polled said Palin deserves any blame. Fifty-nine percent said she deserves little or no blame

Barr made the lede of his story instead about Americans' attitudes regarding gun control. Those attitudes have not changed after the shootings, an outcome which comes as no surprise to anyone but theDemocrat/Media Complex. A majority of Americans have always supported their Second Amendment rights as guaranteed by the constitution. Perhaps Politico was hoping a sea change or something.

Charleston Daily Mail blogger Don Surber commented:

I don’t think the network brass got what they wanted.

Asked how much Sarah Palin had to do with it, 15% said not much and 44% said she had nothing to do with it — even though the question was loaded (“A map on Sarah Palin’s website that marked 20 congressional districts, including the district by the congresswoman who was shot…”).

That’s 59% who do not blame her.

Among independents, 58% did not blame her.

That means this has not hurt her — to be crass about a national tragedy.

So where did those surveyed place the blame for the shootings? According to Joe Newby at Examiner.com:

Most of those polled - 70 percent - said the underlying cause was "resources available to deal with mental illness."

Shortly after the shooting, many on the left, including some in the media, pointed a finger at Sarah Palin and the use of crosshair graphics on an ad. As a result, Palin has seen an increase in death threats, while some have used Twitter to spread death wishes.

Once again Americans have been ill served by the nation's press. A national dialog on getting help from mental health professionals to those who need them would have been constructive, and Gov. Palin and her family certainly didn't need the death threats. Even liberal The New Republic admitted that the liberal media "botched" its job of reporting on the Arizona tragedy, but Ethel C. Fenig at American Thinker explains that TNR's analysis is itself "an example of how the media botched the real story of the Arizona shooting." In other words, the media botched the explanation of how they botched their reporting.

Update: At Hot Air, Allahpundit Allahputz yet again demonstrates his anti-Palin bias by focusing on the negative, despite the fact that, as Surber points out, the wording of the poll's question was biased. The real takeaway from the poll -- a CNN poll no less -- is that a clear majority of 59 percent of Americans don't hold Gov. Palin responsible for the shootings. Still, AyyPee considers it significant that 35 percent think her map at least partially contributed to the shootings. Despite the media's shrinking influence, after such a week-long intensive media propaganda campaign, you could probably get a poll to show that 35 percent believe just about anything, no matter how ridiculous.

- JP

Robert Stacy McCain: God-Haters and the Tucson Massacre

"Vain in Their Imaginations"
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No one in the lamestream media seems to be interested in what the Tuscon shooting suspect’s friend Zach Osler told ABC News - that Loughner was influenced by the documentary Zeitgeist, which claims that Christianity is "a myth", and promotes the 9/11 “Truther” conspiracy theory that somehow “international bankers” (is that code for Joooo-ish bankers?) were behind it all. Stacy McCain comments on the obvious significance of this revelation:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools...
– Romans 1:21-22 (KJV)

Vox Day quoted from that famous passage in describing the auto-beclownment of University of Minnesota biology professor Paul Z. Myers — a self-proclaimed “godless liberal” — who like a lot of other godless liberals was utterly wrong about the Tucson shooting:

“The scumbag who committed this crime has been caught; I’ll bet he’ll turn out to be a Teabagger who listens to a lot of AM talk radio.”

Professor Myers went on to call Sarah Palin “a vile creature” and accused her of ” inciting the deranged a______s who follow her.” When called out for his malicious libel, Professor Myers doubled down:

This is NOT the time to back down and suddenly find it embarrassing to point out that right-wing pundits make a living as professional goads to insanity...

Do not sit there cowering, trying to make excuses for teabaggers and violent morons. This is supposed to be the part where you stand up, look at the shouters on the other side, and tell them, “This is wrong, and this is the harm you bring to our country.”

In other words, no matter what vicious lies the “godless liberal” perpetrates, his comrades must defend his infamous falsehoods because... well, the Ends Justify The Means, and the road to a secular Utopia will necessarily be paved with the bones of the Enemies of Social Justice. This brutal logic, the demand that everyone must toe the line, that any tactic — even outright falsehood — is defensible so long as it advances the radical cause, is inherent to totalitarianism, which must silence dissent By Any Means Necessary.

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- JP