Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Right wing media endorses death wish

We noted on Thursday a particularly sick column by a Philadelphia newspaper columnist who hoped we would be attacked by terrorists again. But as Think Progress shows, the conservative traditional media glommed right on to the twisted idea.
A host of right-wing media outlets provided Bykofsky a national platform yesterday that largely served to give credence to the columnist’s ghoulish suggestion.

Drudge gave the article a top row, center column link(.)

---snip---

Radio host Mike Gallagher, who claims to have “over 3.75 million weekly listeners” across the country, hosted Bykofsky (on the very same day that he scored an interview with Rudy Giuliani)(.)

---snip---

Bykofsky’s biggest booster, however, was Fox News. Yesterday morning’s Fox and Friends did a segment on his column. Later in the afternoon, Bykofsky appeared on The Big Story, where host John Gibson agreed with and validated Bykofsky’s thesis. “I think it’s going to take a lot of dead people to wake America up,” said Gibson.
We really have to understand this mindset. There are people walking amongst us who wish we would be attacked again to show that their political view is validated. I really don't know how to describe this philosophy other than as some kind of misanthropic disease. Honest. I know it's an old canard to accuse one's political opponents of being "nuts," ala Michael Savage, but if someone truly wishes for a repeat of 9-11 they need to seek counseling. That is not a normal thing to be thinking, and it's evidence of how low the conservative traditional media have fallen.

As Atrios suggests, this is not only a twisted political pathology, it's also not true.
The conservative cult's mass death wish is obviously based on a faulty premise, that if there's a terrorist attack they and Dear Leader will somehow be vindicated. Of course the reverse is true. When it comes to "the war on terra," George Bush and the conservative movement have pretty much gotten everything they've wanted. Democrats and dirty fucking hippie bloggers, despite complaints, haven't managed to stop the Bush administration from doing what they think is important.

So if a massive terrorist attack happened, it wouldn't be a vindication of what they've been doing, it would be proof that they failed to do what George Bush claims is his most important job.
So I ask the question again, even if in futility: what kind of editor and what kinds of producers think it's appropriate to wish for the violent deaths of thousands of Americans? Somewhere there are guys in suits who put this stuff out there, then go home to their families after poisoning the body politic a little more each day. How they look themselves in the mirror is beyond me.

<< Home