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Shep Smith: Republican rhetoric leads to death threats http://www.wnd.com/images/breaking.gif
Fox News anchor accuses those crying 'socialism' of inspiring violence --WND
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MEDIA MATTERS
Shep Smith: Republican rhetoric leads to death threats
Fox News anchor accuses those crying 'socialism' of inspiring violence
Posted: March 27, 2010
12:15 am Eastern
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
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Fox News' Shepard Smith
Reporting on alleged death threats and vandalism against members of Congress following the health-care vote, Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith took a shot at "Obamacare" opponents, linking their charges of encroaching "socialism" to inciting violence.
"We keep talking about these isolated incidents, and I wonder when it is that an isolated incident becomes a string of things?" Smith asked Carl Cameron, Fox News Channel chief political correspondent. "We have a congressman spat upon, we have a congressman with racial slurs, homophobic slurs against Barney Frank, it goes on and on, and now these death threats.
"And you wonder when some in there, on both sides of the aisle, are going to look in the mirror and go, 'My overinflated rhetoric is causing some people who digest it – and don't think of it as they do as just political rhetoric – they think it's real, that this might be Armageddon or something, and then they go out and act.'"
Smith was likely alluding to an interview earlier this week with GOP National Committee Chairman Michael Steele in which he scoffed at Republicans specifically for likening the health-care package to "a loss of freedom" and "Armageddon."
Despite Cameron's caution against linking extreme "fringy types" to political parties or movements, however, Smith persisted by implying "inflated rhetoric" about Marxism and socialism is "tied together" with violent acts, fringe or not.
The entire exchange can be seen below:
In the segment, Cameron cautioned Smith that, "We in the media have to be particularly careful to provide some level of perspective and proportion."
Just as violent protesters at World Trade Organization meetings aren't representative of Democrats, Cameron argued, neither should the most recent threats be directly linked to opponents of government health-care.
"To associate [those making threats] with a party or particular organization that might be up here – in this case the tea party movement – is really dangerous," Cameron argued.
After Cameron signed off, however, Smith continued the commentary.
"One thing we do know is when leaders on either side of the aisle go with this over-inflated rhetoric and they tell us it's the end of the world, it's Armageddon, the Marxists have taken over Washington, it's the end of the world as we know it, we're moving into socialism," Smith said, "when they say things like that that maybe some of them don't really believe, and then the fringes believe it and then they go out and do stupid things, well, I mean, it's all kind of tied together isn't it?"
As WND reported, Smith has made the link between conservative thought and violence before.
During analysis of the June 2009 shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where a white supremacist gunman opened fire with a rifle, Smith launched into a diatribe about the "crazies" that, for example, demand Obama provide proof of his constitutional eligibility to serve as president.
During his interview with Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Smith said:
"There are these crazies out there who want to pretend [Obama's] not a citizen of the United States, who want to pretend that his religion is something they see as in some way troublesome to them and all of us. And there is a group perpetuating this thought, and there is a culture to which you can attach yourself very easily through the Internet. ... We know it's absolutely – there is no truth whatsoever – zero – to any of those ideas, yet they live within the computer and they fester in people's minds."
Beirich agreed completely with Smith's remarks, as she responded:
"You're hitting the nail on the head about these kinds of crazed conspiracies whether they're about the president, or we're hearing things like FEMA setting up camps to round up Americans and put them in. I'm getting bad sort of deja-vu from the 1990s when anti-government militias were on the rise, when Tim McVeigh committed that [bombing] in Oklahoma City and I really am hoping that we're not going through a repeat of that."
Smith made numerous references to a Department of Homeland Security report warning of potential violence from "right-wing extremists," and said he's been personally disturbed by an increase in e-mail to him from people "who are way out there on a limb ... out there in a scary place."
He read what he called a representative message that asked, "How dare you tell us to get over the birth certificate ... ?"
Two hours after Smith's TV remarks about "crazies," his network colleague Glenn Beck said of the shooting in Washington, "This is not the work of right-wing conservatives."
"This guy is a lone gunman nut job," Beck said. "I'm not stirring the pot. I am pointing out that the pot is boiling and there is trouble in America. ... Common sense tells you that there are very hateful people on the right and on the left."
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Mr. Smith repeated things, without any fact finding mission to verify if the alleged incidents and spitting were true. He is just repeating a liberal spin for now.
please excuse if this was posted
[quote]
Andrew Breitbart Offers $10,000 to United Negro College Fund
By La Shawn Barber • March 26, 2010 02:10 PM
Nothing shuts down the debate like relaying third-hand stories about some conservative calling somebody a ni**er. Accuse now, ask questions later.
We live in a world where a “minority studentâ€
I had the misfortune of having my television tuned to Fox the other day when his show came on. I about blew my top when he "reported" on these "terrorist threats" from the Republicans and tea partiers. He is a idiot and jumped to a conclusion before knowing the facts. I sent him a nice email explaining that his conclusions are not FACT and he is a joker. I never really liked him anyway... :evil: :evil: :evil:
Have you all noticed that the BUSH cronies are slowly slipping back onto the scene?
Huckabee - Remember how he sucker punched the republican party last election and that is how we got stuck with McCain on the Repub ticket?
Notice how all the FOX shows have Huckabee, Rove, and other BUSH cronies on? Now Condelezza Rice is coming back out, Gringrich is out with his know it all attitude when he was a dishonest hack in his hayday. and Dick Armey (which heads up a large so called tea party group, artificial in my opinion, not grass roots like other original tea party groups). All these people are for AMNESTY. (not the grass roots tea parties)
And now we hear BECK calling for an ellis island to get more foreigners in here legally. With Americans strapped for jobs, what sense does that make? Beck is starting to show an agenda, suck people in on the healthcare debate, then lull them into some kind of Amnesty?
Ya'know I'm so sick of seeing the same criminals every other few years, I'm sure by 2012 they'll have BUSH on FOX, he might even have his own talk show by then. Fox claims to be fair and balanced but we need Honest and right, not liberal republicans on everyother night and surely not the same hacks that just got thrown out of office because we know the track record they have which is lie. lie, decieve and wreck, and we can't afford anymore of that.
And did you notice that RICK SANTORUM said on Gretta Van Sustrian last night that with illegals added onto the rolls of healthcare, which wasn't added in the HC Bill, the cost is going to go up because they will continue using emergency rooms and having a baby every year, and then add on the fact that since the HC will be law, more illegals will be coming in and that is going to be another added cost to the program. WHY DIDN"T RICK SAY THIS MONTHS AND WEEKS AGO WHEN AMERICANS WERE SCREAMING ABOUT IT?
It just goes to show everything is a show in DC. They are all playing the game and it seems the rule is to always have the extreme polar opposites while at the same time avoiding the real issues of the day.
In my opinion most of America's illes could be solved if we just secured the border and fine the employers hiring illegals, then they couldn't get jobs and would go back home the same way they got here. The only thing that couldn't be solved is the massive debt they have left behind that we will have to pay but it is a trade off I welcome.