As I write this, an Arizona congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition after being shot in the head by a mad man outside a Tucson, Arizona grocery store Saturday..an attack that killed six people including a nine year old girl, \u00a0federal judge and a couple of elderly religious leaders.<\/p>\n
Briefing reporters, the local sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, strayed away from simply releasing basic facts of the case to offering some personal commentary. \u00a0Mr Dupnik blamed a climate of vitriol for helping create the circumstances in which the shooting took place. (I had to look up \u201cvitriol.\u201d I believe he means \u201ccaustic criticism.\u201d) \u00a0He said, “The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous,” The sheriff called on politicians and certain members of the media to tone down the rhetoric.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for MSNBC\u2019s Keith Olbermann to get on the airwaves, acting like Edward R. Murrow reincarnated in voice and mannerisms, pointing a finger at the likes of Sarah Palin, Bill O\u2019Reilly, Glenn Beck and the Tea Party crowd for fueling the fires of anti government lunatics like 22 year old Jared Loughner. He called on everyone to put their guns down, literally and figuratively. To be fair,\u00a0Olbermann apologized for any things he, himself,\u00a0might have said on his program that could have provoked any of his left leaning followers into committing some act of violence. The truth is, Olbermann is just as adept at manufacturing rage\u00a0 as any of those right wing \u201cnut jobs\u201d he accuses. He closed his lecture with Murrow\u2019s \u00a0famous signoff, \u201cGood night and good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good Grief!<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a fan of any of the political pundits on the airwaves..left or right. In fact, I can\u2019t understand why President Obama would give Bill O\u2019Reilly the time of day..much less granting a Super Bowl Sunday interview. How long do you think that will go before the smarmy O\u2019Reilly interrupts the president several times with his embarrassing and condescending interjections? But I digress.<\/p>\n
Sarah Palin\u2019s ad, targeting democrats who favor the Health Care bill using symbols that look like the crosshairs of a rifle scope, may have been stupid..but I doubt that\u2019s what pushed young Loughner over the edge. \u00a0It\u2019s more likely he\u2019s been a rejected loner all his life who is easily influenced by fellow crazies on the internet..violent video games..along with music and literature that promote hatred and vengeance. His cry for attention was to go after Representative Giffords and anyone around her with his recently purchased\u00a0Glock semi automatic pistol blazing. We\u2019ll know soon enough, I suppose, as this creature\u2019s background is exposed in the light over the days and weeks ahead.<\/p>\n
Odd that just a few days after my blog about former Keloland anchors who\u2019ve gone on to success in big markets, two of them have been thrust right in the thick of this tragedy and one of the biggest stories of their careers.\u00a0 Lou Raguse\u2019s station, KMSB Tucson, has provided excellent insightful coverage. Steve Irvin\u2019s station, KNXV in Phoenix, has also done a stellar job with Steve himself on the front lines in Tucson reporting live<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I write this, an Arizona congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition after being shot in the head by a mad man outside a Tucson, Arizona grocery store Saturday..an attack that killed six people including a nine year old girl, \u00a0federal judge and a couple of elderly religious leaders. Briefing reporters, the local sheriff,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lund-at-large","category-60","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11825,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions\/11825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}