[freedomtowernight_edited.jpg] 26th Parallel: Talk Radio Fanning Flames of Hatred?????

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Talk Radio Fanning Flames of Hatred?????

Myriam Marquez relates the sad case of the killing of 2 Chilean students by an out of control lunatic in the Florida Panhandle in her column today. The incident which occurred a few days ago, is tragic enough, and Marquez accurately points fingers in all the right places. Except in the last sentence.
The horror of his actions serve as a warning about brewing hatred in small pockets of our country. Hatred that's fanned by the Internet and anti-immigrant rhetoric spewed on talk radio and some cable TV shows -- twisted into vendettas against the innocent.
Marquez is usually quite reasonable, even when I don't agree with her, but this closing sentence is a cop-out. She blames talk radio and "some" cable TV shows, without naming a single show or host that could have egged on this deranged individual. Perhaps she knows that you can't defend the indefensible, so why bother naming names?

Whenever someone tries to blame the horrific actions of one individual on a certain segment of society, whether it's talk radio, music (remember suicides being blamed on Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest in the 80s), movies, etc., it's a sign that they have little interest in just calling it for what it is. At worst, it signals some predisposed bias toward said media that finds a convenient outlet in this type of story.

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1 Comments:

Blogger La Ventanita said...

There is also a difference between anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-illegal-immigrant rhetoric. They are two very different things, with very distinct origins and endings.

I don't listen much to conservative radio but do watch some TV shows - Beck, O'Reilly, Dobbs (don't know if those are the shows she's talking about) and the rhetoric in those shows is of the latter (anti illegal immigrant), not the former. And even then, they attack the illegality of the immigrant, not the fact that he or she is an immigrant.

In any case Robert, because this deranged individual, happened to be a Republican volunteer, I'm sure this will get spinned into the classic anti GOP rhetoric - you know the one were we are ALL racists and they are not.

4:39 PM, March 01, 2009  

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