Last night on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow presented a segment on the violent and recent history of anti-American militia groups. This was a lead up to her coverage of last week’s worrisome event of the standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management.
In essence, in 1993 the BLM purchased an area of land in Nevada to protect it for environmental reasons but allowed limited grazing on the land for a fee.
Anti-American-government fanatic Cliven Bundy refused to accept that the BLM now owned that land and has grazed his cattle on this federal land ever since without paying a penny in grazing fees and fines. The BLM finally took action after allowing Bundy’s lawbreaking to continue for 20 years and this “taker” who has wanted a free ride and handouts…aka a Republican, rallied his family to take up guns and point them at law enforcement to stop them from making him pay what he owes.
Again, to be clear, this law breaker who only wants free grazing for his cattle on land he doesn’t own, this selfish man who merely wants to take what doesn’t belong to him, has portrayed his thieving as a noble act of the citizen standing up against evil government. Because he wants something for nothing. Because he doesn’t want to pay for something he doesn’t own. That’s what passes for “patriotism” on the Right Wing.
When there is an extremist, radical lunatic who threatens to kill law enforcement officers in order to protect his right to steal from the public and their government, you know those bastions of American Exceptionalism and champions of law and order, Fox News is going to be parachuting in with aid and comfort for those wanting a violent attack against the American Government (as long as a black Democrat is President, at least).
Fox News whipped up the Tea Bagger and Right Wing Militia lunatics by claiming that this would be the next Ruby Ridge and Waco Davidian Compound attack, inferring that this was all about the people rising up to begin the necessary armed revolution against the government. This resulted in a shocking armed standoff between these armed extremists (who don’t believe in the federal government) and the BLM officers. Militia snipers were positioned up on a bridge with an army of extremists (and a human shield of women and children) pointing rifles at BLM officers. The BLM officers rightly backed off and diffused this manipulated NRA wet dream of a potential mass shooting and of course, these radicals who stood as enemies of our American government and our laws, declared victory.
It is hard to decide what is more horrible, that a major news network would rally for a mass shooting of law enforcement officers and citizens or that Right Wingers were literally giddy at the opportunity to “begin the revolution” by wanting to kill police in order to steal land and violate laws.
Okay, maybe it’s not so hard to decide. Crazy people are crazy so who would expect them to behave responsibly? Fox News however, saw the financial windfall that encouraging a deadly gun battle between government officers and citizens could yield and used their power in the media to magnify and intensify the confrontation.
One can’t escape the dichotomy of the Right Wingers and Fox News describing themselves as “pro-America”, “patriots” and “tough on crime” while espousing and supporting the breaking of laws and gun battles with police so land can be stolen.
The simplest answer is usually correct so the truth is laid bare on all of these frauds, they prove once again that they don’t really hold any genuine beliefs but their own selfish agendas and they hide like cowards behind the flag. You can’t be a patriot and support America if you hate our President and advocate or encourage the shooting of those who enforce our nation’s laws.
With the success that Fox has had with this manufactured standoff, one can only guess that this won’t be the last. Don’t forget how Fox whipped up the whole Tea Party anger and vitriol in 2009 that led to the hateful rallies and town hall screamfests by Right Wingers. Might it only be a matter of time until Fox News foments an actual violent and deadly attack against law enforcement or government officials?
It’s only due to the wisdom of the BLM and no doubt, memories of Waco that they backed down and Fox News didn’t get the mass shooting they were apparently pushing for. Otherwise, this could have been the first anti-U.S. Government gun battle that was programmed by a news network.
We may have grown accustomed at this point to all of the violent and hateful rhetoric that is spewed by Fox News and it is important to protect our First Amendment rights in this nation but courts have decided that free speech ends when it is used to directly endanger people. You can’t yell “Fire!” falsely in a movie theater because it can cause a stampede and people can be seriously injured, even killed.
How is this different? How is Fox News’ rhetoric which was intended to whip up the danger and conflict of this situation and (possibly hoped for on their part) instigate a firefight between police and citizens, less severe a violation of the First Amendment than yelling “Fire!” in a theater?
Is our government so afraid of being called names by Fox and its supporters that they won’t draw any line between covering an armed confrontation and supporting it? How far will Fox News be allowed to go in terms of encouraging the threatening of the lives and safety of our law enforcement personnel? How is it not treasonous to give aid, comfort and encouragement to those seeking to violently attack representatives of our government?
What if Al Qaeda supported a similar armed confrontation against police by radicals who hated the U.S. government? Would they suddenly be seen as patriots like and by Fox News?
As a society, we have tolerated more than should be tolerated and so our society gets dragged down deeper into the muck of might makes right and justice goes to those who flex the most firepower or wealth. We are not shocked by a major news network glorifying armed conflict by radical citizens against our government.
There are worse things than having a battle of words over First Amendment principles…including having armed groups of extremists declare they’re enforcing their own laws. Our government should not shy away from confronting Fox News, militias or any party that supports violent action against our government. Civility in our politics may have been successfully destroyed by the Right Wing and Fox News but when things start devolving to news networks backing armed attacks on our government, it’s time for government to get a thick skin and put a strong foot down on what is protected speech and what crosses the line.
Lastly, here’s a clip from Rachel Maddow’s first segment on these anti-government militia groups Fox News now supports and their involvement in domestic terrorism and murder over recent years:
http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/ehanpl/the-ballad-of-cliven-bundy
http://www.hulu.com/watch/625136
Very funny.
Here are the two parts of that segment from Comedy Central (so they can be embedded):
AdLib – The right wing media continues to be on the wrong side of history, as does the GOP/TP itself. A significant majority are far more aware of the realities and truth behind these deceptions than any ratings gain reflected only by right wing media viewers. Yet it is a significant danger if even one extremist is motivated to engage in dangerous confrontations.
Finding a way to end this irresponsible, inaccurate and inflammatory right wing media is most certainly needed. Maddow opens the door for increased awareness to expose the hypocrisy and hatred within the GOP/TP extremism.
Until enough GOP/TP are voted out and returned to obscurity, the right wing media will persist in blathering about headlines that promote the GOP/TP agendas. With this particular incident though, they did cross the line and our justice system should definitely do more to stop their reckless inciting of violence.
Aquarius, I am anxious for that day (probably not until the next redrawing of districts in 2020) when the true minority status of Republicans is reflected in our Congress. Though regressive states, especially in the South, will maintain Republican domination until the growth of minority populations overwhelm the white right wingers, the nation as a whole will send the GOP into the wilderness for a long time, until they rediscover some sense of social responsibility and moderation.
In the meantime and even during that process, I’d expect Fox news and their ilk to become even worse and clamor even louder for attacks against our government.
Something does have to be done, a precedent needs to be set that makes clear to ideological media entities that they cannot yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, they can’t claim 1st Amendment rights for supporting militias attacking our law enforcement and government officials.
The one problem though could be the five neanderthals in the SCOTUS, I can see them siding with Fox’s right to support armed attacks against America since Obama is its current President. Flip it around in a fictional scenario though and make the case about a liberal media outlet supporting armed insurrection against a Republican President and those same Five Frauds would howl about sedition.
So, let’s hope Obama has a chance to replace one of those Fanatical Five this year or next then come down on Fox News like a ton of bricks!
Ad, I hope that President Obama does get to replace one or more of the SPC “Justices” ! That more than anything will change the extremests in their tracks. IMO
tremendous job Ad; as usual.
Thanks so much, Dbos!
Plain and simple Fox news has been fomenting violence against our USA government; sedition. The propaganda of the right has been whipping up anti government thinking using a minority president because he’s different and the wing nuts the uninformed and their owners have changed the tenor of our politics; dividing our country using the wealth of haters of our way of life . Make no mistake; we are in the throes of the most dangerous time in our history.
Dbos, it is a dangerous time and only getting more dangerous if such sedition is permitted to fester. I can understand why Obama might not want the RW to have a reason to play martyr and rally and energize in an election year but after the election, it will be high time for our government to lay down the law on Fox News and the Clivens out there.
Protest is healthy but armed insurrections are treason.
Cliven Bundy Syndrome: Why Christian Conservatives Think They’re Above the Law
“The situation with Cliven Bundy of Nevada should be a no-brainer for people from both the left and the right. Bundy has been stealing from the taxpayers for years, illegally grazing his cattle on federal lands while refusing to pay for the privilege. Both liberals and conservatives pay taxes, so such blatant theft should outrage everyone equally. Indeed, conservative media claims to take theft from taxpayers very seriously, with Fox News spending so much time on the minuscule problem of food stamp cheats that the number of minutes spent on it has likely long ago exceeded the number of pennies lost to this non-problem.
Bundy has stolen far more than any hypothetical food stamp cheat ever did, but when the government tried to show up and take what was theirs, he met them with armed resistance, pushing him from the “ordinary fraud” category to the “violent criminal” column.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/18/cliven_bundy_syndrome_why_christian_conservatives_think_theyre_above_the_law_partner/
KT, if you or I robbed a bank and when the police came to get us, do you think they would back off if we were armed and had children near us?
These people are traitors and criminals.
KT – Thanks for this Salon article, they make the point very concisely. Republicans are only against taxpayers being taken advantage of by thieves only when the thief can’t be portrayed as poor or a minority. When non-whites take what doesn’t belong to them, they are “crooks”, when white people take what doesn’t belong to them, they are “patriots”.
Repubs have really thrown in the towel on hiding their racism and holding any principles above their hatreds.
Well, what can anyone expect from someone named Bundy???
Yep, right wing anti-government extremists ready to kill others in pursuit of their paranoid delusions? Why does the name Bundy come to mind???
Ad, the people who support this weirdo are NOT patriots!
To be against your own government is okay if you decide to leave. I guess.
America is not perfect, but it beats the other choices for me.
Nirek, the pity is that these misguided fools are acting just like the Ukranian Russians, stirring up trouble so Putin can invade. I guess they’re waiting for Canada to cross the border any day now, anything to get rid of that meddlesome non-white in the White House!
PPO, I think you are correct. They hate the fact that our President is a black man. They hate so much that they do things that hurt America just to hurt the President. Sad isn’t it?
ppo, we have seen the RW Republicans cheering Putin for his “strong leadership”. Repubs are not-so-closeted fascists who can’t help bu love watching dictators in action. Professional jealousy?
Nirek, it’s very American IMO to oppose the U.S. Government on any policies one disagrees with but to urge on armed battles against the government is traitorous.
Ad, I agree unless you expose government secrets and then go to a not so friendly country. Or hide behind women and children with your guns trained on the government people trying to do their jobs.
Nirek, opposing policies of any government including ours, out of principles that are based on what’s best for a society is a citizens duty. Using guns to fight police enforcing court decisions and claiming it’s in the name of freedom is a dishonest and anti-democratic act.
And IMO, Snowden’s exposing the NSA was not wrong but doing so then running under the protective wing of a virtual tyranny is as unprincipled as one can get.
Protest is what founded this country and should always be protected but assuming the role of an enemy of this country in the name of doing what’s right for the country is simply the twisted logic of those trying to deny their betrayal of American principles.
If ever there was a time to publicly reprimand the enabling Fox circus, that time would be now. Time for Murdoch to move back to Australia and take his garbage sniffing hyenas with him.
I agree wholeheartedy, Kalima, but the only Australian land he should step on is Christmas Island, to be processed as an asylum-seeker from the poorest countries on Earth. He renounced his Aussie citizenship, so that as an American citizen he could buy his American holdings. We don’t want that moulting stoat anyway!
Kalima, I think the DoJ should let the courts decide on this, do news networks have the right to promote insurrection against the U.S. under the 1st Amendment? I don’t think so but a warning shot needs to be fired. News networks are supposed to report news and yes, offer opinions but for an entire news network to support armed attacks against our government, that’s not journalism, that is sedition.
So the Repubs sanctify someone like Putin while complaining about the U.S. Government doing it’s job to stop a citizen from further abusing the law.
Oh silly me, they love him because he steals elections and gets away with it.
In Russia, the opposition is beaten up and thrown into jail. Journalists who write anything against him are assassinated. Web sites who criticise him are banned, and in a stand off like this the Bundy bunch would all be dead.
The list of countries where these people would either be dead or imprisoned by now is long, and yet the enablers see neither the hypocrisy nor the irony of supporting them.
Fox needs to be called out on their traitorous ambitions, the laws should apply to everyone.
If these arseholes hate America so much, they should find a country that has no laws and no taxes to pay, and move there. Oh and good luck with that one.
Kalima, Repubs are fascists at heart and they have an easy time betraying the principles of America to embrace the tyranny of Russia…especially because Russia is now seen as an enemy of America…and as I mentioned (and revised) last night Repubs think, “The enemy of my country’s black President is my friend.”
They are so narrowly focused on hating Obama and anything he is connected to…even the country he leads…that they would give aid and comfort to our nation’s greatest enemies just to oppose our President.
They are mentally ill, no way around it.
Way to go Ad. As Rachel said, this is, besides being hilarious and sad, is also disturbing. What disturbs me most is how a major network like FOX can actually allow themselves to fan the flames of this sort of nut baggery in the name of American patriotism. Are they fucking just as crazy as Bundy and his fellow rubber room candidates?
Bundy is obviously a brain addled man, lost in a world that never really existed in this country. The real, historical patriots fought a foreign government, not their own. The Civil war, a battle between our very own states was a huge mistake and one of the bloodiest wars ever fought, and the rebels lost. All that bloodshed and destruction yielded them nothing.
Yes, these people are hilarious as living, breathing wanna-be revolutionaries, but they are also potentially dangerous. Do they honestly believe they can win a war against the most powerful military in the world? Shooting our modern tanks with small arms would be like trying to kill a grizzly bear with a bb gun. These people are truly insane and the sad part is that their insanity is well fed and even encouraged by a major network in this country.
I am all for free speech, but when such speech has the potential to get people killed, on both sides, something needs to be done about it. I just don’t know what, exactly.
Did you know that a pack of Foxes is called a “skulk.”? Pretty fitting.
I say a bit more about this in my comment.
KT, I don’t think Roger Ailes and his clan at Fox are crazy but they are mercenary in their mission to tear down any government where the reigns of power aren’t in their hands. They also know their viewership very well and rooting on hatred and violence against the government headed by a black Democrat means a spike in viewership and ad revenue. So they are willing to support the killing of the golden goose as long as it means they get a lot of gold in the process.
Your point is very well taken. True American Revolutionaries didn’t fight against the government of the American People, they fought against the tyranny of those who opposed democracy. Here, these lunatics are fighting against our democracy for a lawless, undemocratically ruled nation, where those who threaten and aim guns at others can do or take whatever they want. These assholes are anti-democratic, they even state that they don’t believe in the authority of our American government.
Of course, if these deluded idiots ever really engaged the government in armed conflict, they would ultimately be wiped off the face of the Earth by drones, assault helicopters, tanks, etc. They live in a fantasy and think that if they can finally get an armed insurgency AGAINST THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT started, that the majority of Americans will just say, “FInally!” too and join with them.
Right, most Americans want racist, paranoid, conspiracy theory loons as their leaders, dispensing justice at the the point of a gun. Sounds like they have more in common with tyrants like Putin than any Americans, let alone the Founders.
I’m making my case, I believe that Fox News has crossed the line that protects free speech and that they are offering aid and comfort to anti-American forces that want to kill government officials and law enforcement officers. IMO, Fox and Ailes should be criminally investigated and steps should be taken to withdraw their broadcast license.
This is serious stuff and may be treasonous. Must we wait for Fox to successfully spur on the murders of government officials before they are stopped?
Time and again I find myself saying: “Surely Fox can go no lower than…..”
AND then they do.
Foxes in a “pack” are called a skulk. The other definition for skulk is to “keep out of sight, typically with a sinister or cowardly motive.”
Foxes move about in the darkness, go after very small, feed on rodents and other small largely defenseless prey. They pounce from ambush.
MURDOCH AND AILES APTLY NAMED THEIR NETWORK DID THEY NOT?
Murph, and AdLib:
I know I asked this question once before, but isn’t this sedition?
“se·di·tion
[si-dish-uhn]
noun
1.
incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government.
2.
any action, especially in speech or writing, promoting such discontent or rebellion.
3.
Archaic. rebellious disorder.”
Foxso-callednews rally around an elderly, drunk, white man killing a black, unarmed teenager for playing his music too loudly. They also rallied around an hispanic man killing a black teenager for “walking while black”. They constantly said how the white men had their days in courts, and the justice system had spoken.
Now, we have a man who has had many days in court, and has lost every time, being portrayed as a “hero”. This man is everything conservatives say they hate–a moocher, someone who is “sucking on the government teat”, someone who is “dependent on the government” (or at least the government’s land), someone who doesn’t recognize the government of the United States of America, and therefore, doesn’t recognize the Constitution of the United States of America–yet he is a “victim”.
Just think if this man happened to be a Muslim, a Sikh, or an African-American. Would foxso-called news be taking his side? We all know the answer to that question.
What is wrong with these people?
glenn, all excellent points and I am in complete agreement with you. With this incident, I think Fox crossed the line of Free Speech to sedition and they should be harshly sanctioned by the government…or they will continue on as a media version of Cliven Bundy.
I completely appreciate how distasteful and undesirable a confrontation with Fox News would be over this, how the RW would be energized and rally around Fox so they could once again call themselves victims and Patriots. An election year probably isn’t the best time to come down on them but a legal investigation by the DoJ could begin and come to fruition next year.
This is wrong, we can’t sustain a democracy when a massive media company is manipulating private militias to wage war against our government. It is sedition and allowing it to continue is letting the fuse burn shorter on an eventual threat to the lives of Americans in the government and opposed to it. Not to mention attempts to sabotage our democracy and undermine the rules of a civilized society, regressing into having some sections of the U.S. like Taliban enclaves where the clans with the biggest private armies decide what the laws will be in their province.
This is serious stuff and a warning of what violence can happen in the near future.
The irony here is that incidents like Ruby Ridge and Waco were ones in which these “patriots,” lost, tragically. They were the ones that suffered the most.
Tim McVeigh lost his life after being convicted of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma. Sure he killed a terrible number of people, but he didn’t change anything, except to alert authorities to the greater chances of these things happening, causing even more clampdown by the feds.
All said and done, these people are insane, including Ailes and his minions. To promote this sort of insanity, even for profit, is itself insane.
KT – What seems more important to these lunatics and those who profit off hate like Fox News, is how invoking Ruby Ridge and Waco activates and whips up the crazies.
The RW is in the Aggrieved business, they NEED to feel like victims to justify their hatreds, bigotry and campaigns for oppression of others.
Reality is irrelevant to them so the fact you bring up, that their rallying cries are calling back to huge failures of their types, is lost on them. They get gratification out of seeing past lunatics of their ilk as martyrs.
As for Fox, they expose themselves as the fascists they are, supporting armed attacks against the U.S. government because they oppose the black President who’s in the White House.
Don’t remember Fox calling for terrorist attacks on law enforcement when Bush was President.
Murph, very funny observation! Quite a coincidence, I was thinking about the name Fox today too! I noted that of course Fox existed before it was owned by Murdoch but life is ironic and sometimes sneaky people and companies are called Fox and “skulk”. Other times Republican candidates pay a price for running a firm called “Bain”. The leader of impotent Republicans in the House is called “Boehner”.
Anyone who claims God doesn’t have a sense of humor isn’t paying attention.