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As should seem obvious, the bloggers of the Daily Kos have been at the forefront of talking up how the "American Taliban" are to blame in Tucson. The blogger "lutznancy" summed up Kosmonaut History in a Tuesday  post-mortem: "This started decades ago. And slowly but surely it has, like a slow-growing cancer, metastasized to point of sure death, the death of America, or to be more clear, America…

Time magazine's Mark Halperin scolded "media voices on the Right" on MSNBC Wednesday, for hoping President Obama fails in his Wednesday night speech in Tucson, Arizona. He railed against conservative media pundits for wishing such a thing during a national tragedy. "It should be about the victims, and...it shouldn't be about the media," said Halperin on "Morning Joe" Wednesday. "There are…

Media reload against a favorite enemy: the 2nd Amendment.

If discourse is to blame for violence, ask why everyone is so mad.

While journalists such as Brian Williams railed about "extortion" when CBS pulled a historically inaccurate 2003 miniseries about Ronald Reagan, there has been very little outcry over the news that the History Channel has withdrawn a (reportedly) hard-hitting drama about the Kennedys. The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday explained the behind the scenes role Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver…

In the aftermath of the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Giffords and others, it is predictable that some self-centered politicians and political commentators quickly assumed the killer must have been provoked by political comments. Following on that conclusion, they naturally argue (notwithstanding their exposure last week in the House to the reading of the Constitution, including the First…

On the late-night PBS talk show Charlie Rose on Monday night, the debate about who to blame for the Tucson shootings was a unanimously liberal media panel. NBC anchor Brian Williams and Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein tried to be careful, but recently departed Newsweek editor Jon Meacham wanted to push blame on “hot talk.” As Rose interviewed Williams (from a remote in Tucscon), Meacham…

Whatever you feel is needed to save face, Ed. Here's Schultz right out the gate on his radio show yesterday -- Folks, let me tell you something, I'm making this announcement right away. We are not changing "The Ed Show" on MSNBC. As long as they open their mouths over there on the right, we will continue to have the segment called Psycho Talk. Because that's exactly what it is. And as…

Wikileaks likes to say it's concerned with truth. Its media cheerleaders like to take that claim at face value. So we have to ask, why is Wikileaks lying about the Tucson massacre? And it is lying. In a press release today, the organization claimed that Saturday's shooting was the result of "incitement" akin to threats against Julian Assange and other Wikileaks staffers from American…

Comedian Bill Maher had a tough evening on the "Tonight Show" Tuesday. As he spewed his typical vitriol at conservatives and Republicans, he continued to get negative feedback from the audience (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik knows exactly what he’s doing. He has become a media darling because he is telling them exactly what they want to hear. Facts be damned, he’ll keep enforcing their template until this foolishness takes hold. Hey Sheriff, tone down the rhetoric, will ya?

Introducing a segment on Tuesday's CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric acknowledged the latest CBS News poll showing that 57% of Americans do not believe heated political rhetoric had anything to do with the Tucson shooting. Even so, she added: "Just the same, nearly half say the discourse has become less civil than it was ten years ago." The poll numbers that appeared on screen showed…

Jared Loughner was in no way a conservative or inspired by alleged conservative talk show "hate," yet the media have been quick to blame conservative talk radio and Sarah Palin for his assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), all in an effort to delegitimize and demonize the conservative movement. This stands in stark contrast to how the media have been silent on the real…

MSNBC's Chris Jansing featured the liberal Jonathan Capehart on Wednesday to attack a newly released Sarah Palin video as "anti-Semitic." The Washington Post editorial page writer berated Palin for complaining about the media's attempts to link conservative speech to last week's shooting in Arizona. In the video, the former Alaska governor rejected this as a "blood libel." Capehart smeared…