To Kill A President

I had written the following blog two weeks ago, but hesitated in publishing it. It didn’t quite fit into what I had been posting here recently in this spot. But this morning, after hearing more hate filled talk about Barack Obama after he received the Nobel Peace Prize (if you didn’t hear it, check out the LA Times article on reaction from Rush Limbaugh and others), I decided it's time to post.

It’s been an interesting summer, returning to the US and traveling to some great spots and meeting fun people. And it’s not quite over yet. But as I get ready to return to my winter home in Puerto Vallarta, I prepare to the leave the United States with some real concerns.

I wonder … when did it become acceptable to basically call for the assassination of the President? Sure there has been dissension in the past … God knows most of the world (and many Americans) despised George W. Bush who single-handedly did more to ruin our economy, drag us into an unnecessary war, and turn world opinion against the US more than anyone else in our country’s history. But never did we hear the left call for the elimination of his life.

Yet now, on FOX TV, on conservation radio, and all over the Internet, it is not at all unusual to hear loud, boisterous, obnoxious rhetoric spewed as fact that Barrack Obama should be ousted, if not outright killed. A prime example is the coverage given to Arizona pastor Steven Anderson who asked his parishioners to pray hard and long that “God strikes Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy.” That’s what Fox (and probably other outlets) aired on several shows. Fox’s website included Anderson’s comments that he hopes Obama “dies and goes to hell.” This was followed by a now well publicized poll on AOL asking participants if they thought Mr. Obama should be assassinated. The Secret Service and FBI are investigating that case.

Grabbing onto issues such as health care and Afghanistan, the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs and others have raised the noise level in their outright disgust of Barrack Obama. They have ignited a fire, then thrown fuel on it, and have created an environment where facts are easily forgotten … where fear mongering garners more viewers and listeners. The result is a society, where for the first time in American history, the public call for the death of a President has seemingly become acceptable. Any attempt to silence such outrageous talk is met with cries that freedom of speech is being infringed upon, much like a deranged individual might claim should he shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater.

The hate talk has also given rise to some outrageous emails, many anonymously circulated but then further distributed by those who for one reason or another felt the previous eight years in Washington was superior to the last nine months. I receive these emails from two different individuals who blindly forward them onto anyone they think might listen. It does not matter that they are largely based on false information (and even contain attributions that are non-existent), and are crafted by right wing fanatics who are apparently seeking the overturn of government as we know it.

The most recent such email came from a former boss of mine. In it, he said to me “I can't understand Democrats supporting this President.” His message read, in part, as follows (I’ve left the spelling and grammatical errors intact):

“This is a perfect example why I refrain from watching the news on

ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or NSNBC. Fox was the only news to report this

(20 Aug 2009).

Today even though President Obama is against off shore drilling for

Oil for this country. He signed an executive order to loan 2

Billion of our taxpayers dollars to a Brazilian Oil Exploration Company (which is the

8^th largest company in the entire world) to drill for oil off the coast

Of Brazil. The oil that comes from this operation is for the sole purpose and

use of China and not the USA. Not a

word of this transaction was on any of the other news

networks. I wonder what President Obama is getting out of

this?”

After I received this, I did some simple research using Google. It appears the reason that the other news networks did not mention this is that it is not true. When I went to Foxnews.com, I found their article. It does not collaborate what the email claims. According to Fox: “In fact, the Export-Import bank receives no appropriations from Congress and thus does not rely on American taxpayer dollars and is also not "sending" $2 billion to the Brazilian company but offering lines of credit to U.S. firms so they can compete to land contracts as part of Petrobras' drilling operations.” That’s from Fox.

This email has gotten so much traction and is considered as “fact” by so many that the Annenberg Public Policy Institute conducted a fact check on it. Their independent analysis found the email and the “facts” contained in it are bogus (http://www.factcheck.org/2009/09/bogus-brazilian-oil-claims/). Yet, the right wing continues to disseminate it as gospel, further clouding the murky skies they have already created.

Largely to blame are the uncontrolled media, so called news outlets that often fly under the radar of the FCC which until two decades ago mandated that broadcasters actually do provide “fair and balanced” coverage. As the Fairness Doctrine has largely been eroded, equal time for opposing views has been wiped out. Add to that the flood of non-licensed broadcasters (basically anything you get on cable besides your local stations … ie, FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, etc), and our country has provided a very large platform for the lunatic fringe, with little chance for the average middle of the road American to have a voice.

While those who espouse the demise of the President (and our way of government) are probably little more than mouthpieces (it’s easy to sit in a cable TV studio or behind a radio station microphone and spew baseless hate filled talk to the masses), they run the risk of inciting the more feeble-minded, who as history has shown us, are capable of carrying out despicable acts. Legitimate dissension and debate are healthy and can lead to a better understanding of issues. But what is happening here and now has crossed that line. And those who support this kind of politics and rhetoric could all end up with blood on their hands should they continue.

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