Thursday, August 20, 2009
Detonating the narrative: MSNBC and the gun-guy at the Obama rally
If you are in the tank, is it possible to get more in the tank? Apparently.
On Tuesday, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer fretted over health care reform protesters legally carrying guns: "A man at a pro-health care reform rally...wore a semiautomatic assault rifle on his shoulder and a pistol on his hip....there are questions about whether this has racial overtones....white people showing up with guns." Brewer failed to mention the man she described was black. (bold emphasis in original)
Yes, you heard it. The guy with the "assault rifle" at the Obama rally was black, a fact that just slightly undermines the Maddow-Rich narrative (if you had the spine to catch her show last night) that this is all about the resurgent right-wing militias.
Hot Air has more, including this useful stroll down memory lane.
MORE: Don't miss Ace (unless you are offended by rhetorical misogyny aimed at MSNBC talking heads), who not only names the guilty but provides useful contact information at NBC.
23 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Aug 20, 09:29:00 AM:
Those names are old. I didn't do a thorough review, but Tim Russert is still listed as Meet The Press contact and and Jeff Zucker is still being shown as Executive Producer of the Today Show. If anyone wants to write, check the NBC site for more up to date information on names.
By 
Unknown, at
Thu Aug 20, 10:22:00 AM:
Why would anyone take what is said on MSNBC. They have lost all claim of being a serious news organization.
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 10:34:00 AM:
The link to the stroll down memory lane states: But the story of this arrest got me to thinking: Why was no one ever arrested for threatening President Bush....
Good grief. People were handcuffed, carted off, and arrested for the clothes they wore during Bush rallys!. Kerry pins? Dissidents! Anti-war t-shirts? Book 'em! Jeez, more than 1,800 people in New York were arrested during the Republican National Convvention in 2004.
I'm not suggesting that there weren't crazies who would have liked to do Bush harm but if you're going to talk a walk down memory lane, make sure you walk on both sides of the street now and again.
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 10:48:00 AM:
This is despicable. These people are trying to spark a race war in this country.
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 11:03:00 AM:
The whole media is disgusting. From newspapers, newsmagazines to the TV. They are scumbags.
Yes, and remember them screaming about somebody showing up with Obama poster with a Hitler mustache? That was also done by a black man.
Anyone say, "Agent Provacateur"?
Because journalists are products of schools where there is NO such thing as "Truth". If you are not habitualized to virtue, one is habitualized to vice. Telling the Truth is a Virtue. Virtues are Habits.
Our whole society is disgusting. I was taught in sixth grade that the "media" are the protectors of the country. Wow, reality does not match what I was taught. The Media is our enslavers and corrupters.
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 12:41:00 PM:
LindsayWheeeler says: Yes, and remember them screaming about somebody showing up with Obama poster with a Hitler mustache? That was also done by a black man.
That's strange, Wheeler. From the video clip SHE doesn't look black at all.
And what if she was? Isn't that a tad racist on your part to think that "they" all think alike?
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 12:43:00 PM:
Oh, my god, read Joe Klein's op ed in this weeks Time mag. Love it!
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 12:44:00 PM:
Michael, MSNBC has about as much credibility as the people over at Fox. Liars all.
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 01:24:00 PM:
According to PhoenixNewTimes dot com, CNN invited the guy to the rally to stage the entire event. I won't claim to verify the PNT, but if true, it's significant.
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu Aug 20, 01:30:00 PM:
Uh, Anonymous. I don't know which of the theories about 'nazi marcher's' race and gender are correct, but that video clip you linked was not the same incident and therefore immaterial.
Mara: Read your articles again. No one was arrested 'for wearing a Kerry pin.' Rather, obvious Kerry supporters were culled from those allowed into the premises. (which is wholly normal at a controlled event and not terribly unlike the fake 'town hall' event Obama had only about a week ago; if Republican crowds had tried to crash the aforementioned Obama event I have no doubt they'd have been removed and we'd be hearing about 'brownshirt tactics' used by the horrible Republican thugs)
Additionally, the number of arrests at a given event (the NY example) is no more indicative of police state tactics than it is of unruly crowds or 'professional protesters' who deliberately get themselves arrested in large numbers as a political statement.
The original point of the statement and link was that many, many people carried signs explicitly wishing for or encouraging harm to the then President, and little was made of it by the media or anyone else. On the other hand, run-of-the-mill dissidence and colorful imagery are being decried as somehow unacceptable today. There is a clear and obvious double standard being applied.
'Kill Bush, Bomb his F___in House' was fine (see link), but several months ago a man was arrested for carrying an anti-Obama sign in his car.
That's the point.
By Escort81, at
Thu Aug 20, 01:58:00 PM:
Let's take the time to read Zombie's long introduction at that link. Zombie is saying that no specific threats against any POTUS should go uninvestigated, and that simply because there were threats against W doesn't mean the threats against Obama should be tolerated.
In terms of the Arizona open carry thing, I'm not sure what point gets proven by bringing an AR-15 near a presidential event. So it's legal, great. Good gun owners are like good boaters -- they ought to be incredibly safety conscious. While you might take a weapon for self defense, in a dense crowd such as the one depicted on the video, it is conceivable that you could be disarmed from behind, possibly by someone with bad intent, and that the weapon could go off. I frankly don't want a weapon going off in proximity to any sitting POTUS or VPOTUS (understanding that in the Arizona case, there was some distance involved and the POTUS was inside a building and the crowd was outside). Heck, I didn't think it was a great idea that Cheney went on hunting trips, not so much because I was worried he would accidently shoot somebody with his shotgun -- which happened -- but because the accident could have happened in the other direction. Why run that risk? I don't want any senior executive branch people killed, accidently or otherwise, because I don't want the U.S. to be that kind of banana republic country.
Let's not make the job of the Secret Service any harder than it already is.
TigerHawk is correct that MSNBC may have reached a new low with this editing that makes the pictures conform to their race narrative.
For any reader of this blog, the last thing we should want to have happen is any physical harm to President Obama. Sure, vote him out of office in 2012 if you like the other candidate better, but for Barack Obama to become a martyr would not be good for the U.S., and it is just plain wrong (also, it would certainly set back centrist and conservative causes; and, do you really want a President Biden?).
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 02:21:00 PM:
Obama is[12%] black,the guy with the gun was 1/2 white, thus white. Because he had a GUN. Kinda like racism or discrimination is not possible if you happen to be white. Liberal intelligence.
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 03:46:00 PM:
The REAL story here is that the guy doing the interview(also wielding a handgun) is a self-described friend and defender of a militia called the “Viper Group”, 12 members of whom were sent to prison for a plot to blow up federal buildings. Look it up.
The african american man being interviewed talks of armed resistance to taxes and other crazy stuff. So, we have proven that the far right gun nut extremists have become more diverse, yet are just as crazy as ever.
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 04:12:00 PM:
The REAL story here is that the guy doing the interview(also wielding a handgun) is a self-described friend and defender of a militia called the “Viper Group”, 12 members of whom were sent to prison for a plot to blow up federal buildings
Liar. bring your proof or STFU Leftist pig.
By , at
Thu Aug 20, 05:09:00 PM:
MSNBC is using the same "fake but accurate" defense that CBS used to defame Bush 2 on his ROTC service.
Is there no decency at NBC? I thought O'Reilly was over the top in his attacks, but now I'm wondering.
By davod, at
Fri Aug 21, 09:05:00 AM:
PMSNBCs manipulation of the video clip so they could further their argument of "there are questions about whether this has racial overtones....white people showing up with guns." is race baiting.
Never make the mistake of judging PMSNBCs influence by the audience watching its programs. The internet gives PMSNBC, and any news organization, for that matter, a far greater reach.
Will there be an upswing of Black on White violence in areas where the New Black Panther Party resides?
Will the PMSBC clip be used as a defence at trial?
By davod, at
Fri Aug 21, 09:16:00 AM:
Governnment in bed with the some in the private sector (Hidden deals) and unions, co-opting the churches, demonizing political opponents, and the media. Support for international critics of the USA. Attacking friends of the USA.
Hmm!
By , at
Fri Aug 21, 09:41:00 AM:
Here's what we know about the American left. They are racists. They are violent. They are traitors. They are working to destroy the American economy. They want to undermine the Constitution, by ending the central concept of a limited federal government and establish a centrally planned tyranny.
By davod, at
Fri Aug 21, 09:44:00 AM:
Sorry for the multiple posts.
"The african american man being interviewed talks of armed resistance to taxes and other crazy stuff. So, we have proven that the far right gun nut extremists have become more diverse, yet are just as crazy as ever."
Why is a gun nut extremist consideed Right Wing?
The woman carrying the Obama/Hitler poster is described as a member of the Larouche group.
The Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch includes this about Larouche:
"Some of LaRouche's opponents on the political conservative right have characterized him as a fascist and a communist, while some of his opponents on the political liberal and socialist left have characterized him as a fascist, Bonapartist, and a right-wing populist.
LaRouche currently characterizes himself as an Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democrat."
By , at
Fri Aug 21, 02:56:00 PM:
Too bad, anon, that the articles and blogs that you refer to in your rant are super right wing sites. That totally blows any credibility. Of course these sites are going to say that junk, they would not exist if there were no conspiracies and hate to foster and encourage.
Blah, blah, blah. Let's see something real, not the bloviating of some right wing wingnut with an ax (or a gun) to grind.
So tired of it, yawn.
By , at
Sun Aug 23, 04:55:00 PM:
Vicki- you would have more credibility if you actually, you know, read the links before bloviating. So here's the question- do you disagree with the points, or are you just afraid to admit the truth of them?
By , at
Tue Aug 25, 12:25:00 PM:
More from the liberal crazies inhabiting the White House, this time from John Holdren, Science Czar, whose intellectual hero achieved his academic fame for saying things like this:
"The feeble-minded, the morons, the dull and backward, and the lower-than-average persons in our society are outbreeding the superior ones at the present time. ... Is there anything that can be done to prevent the long-range degeneration of human stock? Unfortunately, at the present time there is little, other than to prevent breeding in persons who present glaring deficiencies clearly dangerous to society and which are known to be of a hereditary nature. Thus we could sterilize or in other ways discourage the mating of the feeble-minded. We could go further and systematically attempt to prune from society, by prohibiting them from breeding, persons suffering from serious inheritable forms of physical defects, such as congenital deafness, dumbness, blindness, or absence of limbs. ... A broad eugenics program would have to be formulated which would aid in the establishment of policies that would encourage able and healthy persons to have several offspring and discourage the unfit from breeding at excessive rates."
— Harrison Brown, in The Challenge of Man's Future "
By , at
Tue Aug 25, 05:04:00 PM:
And then, Vicki, there's this guy, recently given the "Best Person in the World" designation by none other than progressive icon Keith Olbermann.
""The human species is an example of a malignant ecotumor, an uncontrolled proliferation of a single species that threatens the existence of other species in their habitats," he wrote in a paper published in Population and Environment in 1990. He concluded that, "The idea that the human population is a planetary cancer is a profoundly disturbing conclusion, but the observations of the scientific community over the last 20 years have provided massive support this hypothesis and little, if anything, to refute it."
His opinion didn't change over the course of 18 years. "From the point of view of a physician, the expanding, invasive, colonizing urban form with highly irregular borders resembles a malignant lesion," wrote Hern in a 2008 paper published in the International Journal of Anthropology. "Malignant neoplasms have at least four major characteristic: rapid, uncontrolled growth; invasion and destruction of adjacent normal tissues (eco systems); metastasis (distant colonization); and de-differentiation."
In the recent profile, Esquire writer John H. Richardson asked Hern if his belief that humans are a "malignant ecotumor" "invites the hate." Hern claimed, "I'm not inviting people to do anything. I'd like them to think."
