Eric Rudolph, just one of the many right-wing terrorists that Bill O’Reilly has apparently never heard of.
While defending Rep. Peter King’s (R.-N.Y.) congressional hearings on domestic Muslim extremism, Bill O’Reilly (3/9/11) scoffed at the notion that the biggest domestic terror threats in the U.S. come from the “radical right” and not from homegrown Muslims. After playing a clip of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok making that argument, O’Reilly responded:
Are you kidding me? The radical right? The last terror act assigned to them was the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995.
In reality, acts of political violence connected to the far right are a regular occurrence. To make his claim, O’Reilly even had to overlook at least two domestic terror acts apparently inspired by his Fox News colleague Glenn Beck.
In July 2010 Beck devotee Byron Williams shot two California Highway Patrol officers when they stopped him on his way, as he later told police, to kill people at the Oakland California offices of the progressive Tides Foundation and the ACLU. Byron cited Beck, who journalist John Hamilton pointed out had aired anti-Tides commentaries on 29 separate editions of his Fox News show, as an inspiration.
Furthermore, the ADL reported that Pittsburgh’s Richard Poplawski—who was arrested after a shootout with police that left three officers dead—was so inspired by Beck’s anti-government conspiracy theories he posted to a neo-Nazi website tape of Beck suggesting the government was building concentration camps for dissidents.
And how could O’Reilly forget Jim Adkisson, who shot and killed two people at a progressive Tennessee church in 2008? In his “manifesto,” Adkisson wrote that he “wanted to kill every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book.” (These days, Adkisson inspiration Bernard Goldberg is best known for his regular appearances on the O’Reilly Factor.)
But there’s more. What about anti-abortion terrorist Eric Rudolph, who killed two and injured scores in bombings carried out between 1996 and 1998, including attacks at women’s health clinics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics?
And far-right racist and antisemite James von Brunn, who took a rifle to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. in June 2009, shooting to death a security guard before he was stopped by police?
Perhaps O’Reilly doesn’t consider Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion activist who murdered women’s health provider Dr. George Tiller, a terrorist. After all, before his May 2009 murder, O’Reilly and his guests had demonized Tiller in 27 separate editions of his show, with the host dubbing Tiller a “killer” and accusing him of “Nazi stuff.”
On January 17, city workers in Spokane, Washington, found a sophisticated bomb set to go off along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Day march. Of course, there’s a chance O’Reilly hasn’t heard about this; the single mention O’Reilly’s network has made of the crime was in a 100-word rip-and-read (Special Report, 1/18/11) the day after the march.
Then there’s also the possibility that O’Reilly and his colleagues just don’t care about right-wing domestic terrorism–especially when the news might undermine Muslim-bashing congressional hearings they do care about. On Wednesday, the day before King’s congressional witch hunt began, federal officials arrested white supremacist Kevin William Harpham for attempting to use a “weapon of mass destruction” in the Spokane terror crime. To this point, the arrest has not been mentioned on Fox News.
Which begs the question:
Given the fawning coverage these hearings will receive on the network, what are the odds that some right-wing lunatic won’t be “inspired” to try his hand at “deradicalizing” a few Muslim Americans?
And the odds that such will be virtually ignored by said network, should that tragically come to pass?
People on the right equate being on the right with “being in the right,” and think that the most heinous crimes are acceptable except when they are committed by people on the left.
Leo Toribio
Pittsburgh, PA
I only watch Shep Smith on FOX (the best news show on corporate television, in my opinion), and not the right-wing dreck which surrounds him, so I can’t speak to what has or hasn’t been broadcast on FOX, but a quick check finds this story on their website from two days ago: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/09/ex-soldier-charged-connection-mlk-parade-bomb-plot/
have we already forgot the tucson tragedy?
O’Reilly is obviously a liar and or and idiot. What about the Arizona shootings, what about the guy with that tried to bomb the MLK parade last month? Media wastes it’s time even giving air time to these guys…..
In January, the Muslim Public Affairs Council put a spotlight on domestic terrorism. Using publicly available numbers, MPAC reported that, since Sept. 11th, 2001, there had been nearly twice as many domestic terror plots and attacks in the U.S. by non-Muslims as by Muslims, and nearly all of them had been by right-wing groups or individuals:
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/king-muslims-plots-terrorists/
Even at that, the methodology of the report is far too conservative; while throwing in every possible plot or attack by Muslims, it drastically undercounts domestic non-Muslim plots and attacks by, among other things, leaving out of its numbers attacks that affect property, more than people (which often leaves, for example, anti-abortion terrorism severely undercounted). Still, it does manage to give at least a partial picture of the on-the-ground reality, which is very different from that suggested by O’Reilly.
Speaking of O’Reilly, Jim Adkisson, mentioned above, was a fan of his as well as of Goldberg. He was also a big fan of Sean Hannity and most especially, of Michael Savage.
Consider this: In his book “The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military,” Savage writes that liberals “are like termites. Case by case, these vermin are eating away at our nation’s foundation.”
And here’s Adkisson, parroting his master and taking the rhetoric to its logical conclusion:
“Liberals are a pest like termites. Millions of them. Each little bite contributes to the downfall of this great nation. The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is to kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather.”
Byron Williams drew his “information” from several nut-right sources like Alex Jones, the Jeremiah Project, and especially David Horowitz, not just Beck. Charlie Wilson, who, late last year, was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison for repeated threats of violence aimed at Sen. Patty Murray, was a hardcore Beck acolyte.
The same week we’re getting these bullshit hearings in D.C., Kevin William Harpham was arrested on Wednesday for the plot to bomb the MLK Memorial Day march, and, just yesterday, five members of an Alaskan right-wing militia group were arrested for plotting to kill a judge and members of the state police, and much of the corporate press couldn’t seem to care less about it.
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Left Hook!
http://lefthooktheblog.blogspot.com/
I wrote a reply to this, adding some further info, and it seems to have disappeared. Odd.
The right always believes its sh^* doesn’t stink. A group of atheists in my area were forced to cancel a meeting because their bible loving neighbors made threats against their lives. But nooooo, we have to pretend that this wacky breed of Christian doesn’t exist. Never say it out loud like some silly NPR guy did, just duck and cover!
To be fair, I want to point out that the guy in the AZ shootings hasn’t (at least in any of the information I’ve been able to find, and from looking at his videos) been connected to right-wing groups and ideologies in the way the other examples above have been. That is not to say that things like Palin’s target map don’t or couldn’t influence people to commit violence; just that in this instance, he seems to be more mentally ill than right wing, and equating him with the people mentioned above may dilute the definition of right-wing terrorist in an unhelpful way.
I think it’s all really quite simple.
If a criminal act is committed by a person it’s just that – a criminal act.
If a criminal act is committed by a Muslim it’s not a criminal act but an act of terrorism.
Just a matter of getting your words, definitions and priorities straight.
just yesterday four militia members were arrested in alaska for plotting violence against judges and state troopers.
Thanks, Carol, for that so-accurate comment. You know, I wouldn’t be so circumspect about saying “shit,” but that’s just me. I’ll probably lose my cool and calm collective soon enough here and call You Know Who a Lying Sack Of Shit very, very soon, but we’ll see. If I’ve offended anybody by removing myself from gentlemanly lyrical comportment here my apologies are offered now (perhaps in advance). This does not extend to the trolls–they deserve every salvo that they receive, and then some.
Since my original post seems to have disappeared into the ether, I’ll settle for offering a quibble with the original article. It presents terrorism by “Muslims” and by “the far right” as separate things, but, in fact, Muslim reactionaries are also of the far right. A more useful construction would be right-wing Muslim violence vs. right-wing non-Muslim violence. The latter isn’t just, as the post says, “a regular occurence”; it’s FAR more frequent in the U.S. than the former.
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Left Hook!
http://lefthooktheblog.blogspot.com/
Are we no longer allowed to include links in our replies? Two I’ve written here have disappeared into the ether, and that’s the only reason I can imagine for it.
I rescued a couple posts from you from the spamcatcher–hopefully it will recognize you as an actual human being from now on, but keep an eye on your posts and let us know if any more fail to turn up.
Making a mountain out of a mole hill people.Of course we have radically inspired people on the left, and the right doing a lot of bad stuff.We have people inspired by Jodie Foster to kill a president too.Lot of crazies out there. But lets not put the onus on anybody I can think of on the right- or left in this country.There is no one(in the public eye) on either side of the talking heads who is instigating/planning/applauding acts of violence. Exactly the opposite in fact. I have read a few weak examples on these blogs pointing to BECK. Spurious at best,a damnable lies in truth. With the stark diversity in this country we show everyday our acceptance….. in the LACK of violence
A Rush Limbaugh talking against abortion cant be held responsible for a nuts attack on a liberal headquarters.A Jon Stewart talking against pro life people cant be held responsible for an attack by a nut on a Republican bastion.A nut is a nut.His excuse is not the same as his motivation.
To say the problem lies on both sides of the fence is fails to acknowledge that the conservative right actually published a book detailing the top 100 democrats to take out. Show me a book on the left that does the same thing, and you may have a point.
@ classicliberal2 and Jim Naureckas
hey there, i’ve discovered if you put more than one hyperlink into a comment here, it automatically goes into moderation
Thomas what book would that be?Or is it like that lib movie on how to assassinate a president(George Bush)?I have been to the big big Tea party rallies.Calm clean and considerate people.I went to Obamas inaug……a filth pit.Liberal rallies….angry scream fests(take a look today at Wisconsin).I was trying to be nice.Most of the hate is most def on the left.Let me prove it.I hate Obamas policies.But he seems a good guy.I would love to hang out with him.Good family man.And I will bet you feel the same about Palin or Bush or Chainey right?Sorry if my sarcasm seeps in.I have no hate.You are brimming over with it.
Actually, Bush and Cheney are war criminals, and I wouldn’t hang out with them for any reason. They’re assholes, and sick and demented to boot. Palin’s a jackass and a self-aggrandizing numbskull. All of them are low and contemptible, though I’d add that at least Palin isn’t directly involved in mass-murder–yet. To be fair, the President’s hands are covered in blood too-his behavior concerning Bradley Manning and the souls in Gitmo is appalling, to say the least. Also, his shameful extension of Bush-era civil-liberty outrages is awful. In short, Mr. Obama has got his hands in the muck. This does not excuse the crimes of Bush-Cheney, however. Bush is simply a man of his peculiar station–a rich, uneducated, ignorant fool who’s never worked a day in his life, never will, and will never answer for his myriad crimes. Cheney? A war profiteer (like Daddy Bush!) and a man of immense cruelty, a sick and depraved person who’s contempt for democratic principles and the rule of law are almost comically gargantuan. I don’t hate any of these people, anymore than I hate Charles Manson or the average troll who flutters in here with their lies and bad ideas and belief that, somehow, some good will come out of a predicament in which criminal nincompoops and palavering, money-grubbing idiots (the current House Of Representatives) are allowed to run things (into the ground). Defending the Right from truth-tellers like FAIR may make one comfortable for a while, but it’s the mark of a desperate fool and a mountebank fraud.
P.S.: The dickhead’s name in question (Thomas’ accurate comment) is Bernard Goldberg. Got that?
Wow Tim you are full of hate. Full of vitriol. Full of contempt. Full of elitism. Full of cheap insult of the lowest sort. And well …. totally full of IT! Your hatred of all things American is easy to see coming.I have heard this bilge water for years. Same song and dance always. Only your hate targets change. But I am interested.Who do you like?Who is your dream team?Who is not worthy of your bolshevik bullets in a basement?WHO DO YOU RECOMMEND? That you will not answer. You are a complainer .No answers at all .And your anger grows as you are transcended.
Gee, I’ve never been transcended before. What’s it like?