Brad Friedman Byon 11/6/2009, 12:46pm PT

Michael Moore tweeted within the past hour, in response to yesterday's shooting spree at Fort Hood:

After a shooting like this it's very important that no one jump to conclusions and take out any revenge against doctors or psychiatrists.

The wingnuts, of course, are out for blood following the shooting. Predictably, they're going after Muslims, under the presumption that the suspect, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was acting out of incitement from Islam.

If that turns out to be true --- and there's no actual evidence to support that at this time, as far as I know --- I'd agree that any person or persons who would incite such violence should be held accountable. Just as those who'd incite similar violence --- for example, in the cases of the murder of Kansas obstetrician Dr. George Tiller or the hanging of Clay County, KY census worker Bill Sparkman --- should be held similarly accountable.

Yet, I heard few such calls from the Right after those incidents. In the case of Tiller, his accused murderer Scott Roeder was regarded by the Right as either a hero or a lone, crazy guy (depending on how far to the Right they happened to be). I've heard no condemnation from the Right, or calls for accountability for the constant, repeated, almost daily characterization of Tiller, to millions and millions of Americans over the air waves by folks like Bill O'Reilly (the most watched man on cable news), as a "baby killer", "executing babies", "death merchant", etc., even though Tiller was a medical doctor performing lawful services.

I heard no wingnut condemnation of Bernie Goldberg --- and certainly not of Christianity as a whole --- even after it was revealed that his book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (And All Franken Is #37), was a major inspiration for Jim David Adkisson's shooting spree at a Knoxville, TN Unitarian Church in July of 2008 which killed two and injured seven others...

"This was a symbolic killing.," Adkisson wrote in his manifesto [PDF] just before his murderous rampage. "Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. ... I couldn't get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same."

He went on to add: "It saddens me to think back on all the bad things that Liberalism has done to this country. The worst problem America faces today is Liberalism. ... Liberals are evil, they embrace the tenets of Karl Marx, they're Marxist, socialist, communists. ... I'd like to encourage other like minded people to do what I've done. If life aint worth living anymore don't just Kill yourself, do something for your country before you go. Go Kill Liberals."

Addkison was also a professed fan of O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and the rest of that crowd, yet I don't recall any of them calling for either Fox "News" to be shut down, or for Christians to regarded as a terrorist group.

[Now is likely a good moment to remind you to sign on, if you haven't already, to VR's StopDomesticTerror.com campaign. FULL DISCLOSURE: The BRAD BLOG is a co-founder of VR.]

The entire episode of wingnut hypocrisy is the case of the Fort Hood shootings is, perhaps, most amusingly and sadly illustrated by this quick exchange from last night's Larry King Live on CNN between former POW Shoshana Johnson (captured along with Jessica Lynch) and wingnut attorney and JAG officer Tom Kenniff...





Wanna hold someone accountable? Fine. I'm all for it. But make sure you hold everyone equally accountable. And make sure it's for something they actually did, versus something you imagine they did, due to your own prejudices --- for example, hating Islam as much as you hate yourself.

ADDENDUM: In the wake of today's shooting spree in Orlando, Media Matter's Eric Boehlert tweets:

Funny, I don't hear ANY media chatter about what religion the alleged Orlando shooter is.

...and then...

Why won't Fox News confirm whether Orlando shooter is Christian?



