The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers Frank Rich

[elleng]

WHEN a Fox News anchor, reacting to his own network’s surging e-mail traffic, warns urgently on-camera of a rise in hate-filled, “amped up” Americans who are “taking the extra step and getting the gun out,” maybe we should listen. He has better sources in that underground than most.

The anchor was Shepard Smith, speaking after Wednesday’s mayhem at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Unlike the bloviators at his network and elsewhere on cable, Smith is famous for his highly caffeinated news-reading, not any political agenda. But very occasionally — notably during Hurricane Katrina — he hits the Howard Beale mad-as-hell wall. Joining those at Fox who routinely disregard the network’s “We report, you decide” mantra, he both reported and decided, loudly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14rich.html?ref=opinion

[Merryweather]

1. This is really scary

:scared:

I am genuinely worried that it's only a matter of time before some nutjob decides to go after the President himself. I've never seen so much hate and anger from the far-right before.

[MarjorieG]

2. Rather than compete on ideas, I honestly believe they'd rather the horrifying next step with this

rhetoric. Easier to come in with their fear and have another GOP takeover.

[Wapsie B]

4. I think they're pushing the angry righties as far as they can go

before they erupt. Having a black man in the White House is more than these people can take. And outlets like Faux are just ramping up that anger.

[kristopher]

3. Highly recommend the article

It does a great job of making the case against the recent RW noise machine as the source of RW violence.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Great article with many excellent links.

Recommended.

[SeattleGirl]

6. Just read this on HuffPost

Very good article, but very scary.

[Demeter]

7. It's Amazing How Shrub Feared the Public--the Left-Leaning Part

When it is always and everywhere the Right who plots and kills--

If the Left goes to violence, it is as revolutionaries, not assassins.