With a little more outrage than the liberal news media, the liberal talk-radio hosts lunged at Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer for merely being pictured accusingly pointing a finger at President Obama. The same people who hated reading too much into a picture of Obama not having his hand over his heart know everything about this scenario.

Al Sharpton declared “This is only one case in point of a lot of disrespectful ugly behavior, some of it motivated by just blatant racism in regard to this President and those that support him.” Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer found Stephanie Miller accusing Brewer of “playing the fragile white woman scared of black man card" and cited the movie “The Help.” She also imagined how LBJ would have violently shoved Brewer’s finger where the sun doesn’t shine: (Audio below)

While the media have been busy painting Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) as a rude finger-wagger who dissed President Obama to "score some points with Obama haters," it's becoming more and more apparent that the liberal media unfairly took a snapshot out of context to further the media's storyline. They're simply not telling the truth.

Yesterday I noted the AP's raw video that shows Brewer warmly greeted the president's arrival in Arizona. Yesterday evening, Gov. Brewer released a copy of a handwritten letter she gave the president upon his arrival where, among other things, she reiterated an open invitation to have lunch to discuss their differences. Noted Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of the Arizona Republic:

The unhinged hysteria being displayed by the liberal media over a picture of President Obama and Arizona's Republican governor Jan Brewer supposedly in a heated exchange has become laughable.

On Thursday's The Last Word, newly promoted MSNBC anchor Melissa Harris-Perry told host Lawrence O'Donnell that this photo reminded her of "the still photograph that was captured in 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas, of the young woman Hazel screaming at a young Elizabeth Eckford on her way trying to get into Little Rock High School, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

While being grilled by co-host Ann Curry on Wednesday's NBC Today on Arizona's illegal immigration law causing racial discrimination, Governor Jan Brewer hit back and declared: "I believe truly that the media and others have tried to throw out that race card to shut down the debate. It's not about that. It's about illegal immigration." [Audio available here]

Earlier, Curry fretted: "Now what would justify such a law that required people, essentially, to carry papers, identification, something that proved that they're American citizens?" Brewer replied: "...it's under reasonable suspicion, it's no different than what law enforcement actually does today....So it's a simple issue, and the press, the liberal media tried to blow that completely totally out of perspective." [View video after the jump]

Two days in a row, New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney has suggested that Arizona’s heated conservative rhetoric may have created a toxic atmosphere for gunman Jared Loughner to function in.

Yesterday Nagourney commented on a speech by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer the day before addressing the shootings in Tucson, in an article with the leading headline “Governor Strives to Restore Arizona’s Reputation.” As if Arizona bore some blame for anything one of its six million residents may have done.

Her remarks, a downstate reprise of the official State of the State address she gave to lawmakers in Phoenix on Monday, illustrate the challenges Ms. Brewer faces. She is eagerly trying to defend a state whose reputation has been battered in recent years, particularly since the massacre here on Saturday.

But fairly or not, Arizona’s image has been forged in part because of Ms. Brewer herself, who has been identified with the tough law aimed at illegal immigrants, budget cuts that include denying aid to people who need life-saving transplants and laws permitting people to take concealed guns into bars and banning the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools.