Remembering Giffords shooting, and the reaction

Today is the anniversary of the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of several others, including a federal judge and a young girl, by Jared Loughner.

The victims appropriately will be remembered.

Further investigation revealed that Loughner lived in a non-political paranoid delusional world, and to the extent he ever expressed political leanings, they were not “right-wing.”  Loughner eventually would be declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, and remains in psychiatric custody.

Also remembered will be the reaction from the left-blogosphere and mainstream media, which immediately and falsely attempted to connect Sarah Palin to the shootings.  My post that day, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, included ongoing news updates and copies of Tweets by left-wing bloggers:

By the next day, it was a full blown media frenzy claiming Loughner was “right-wing” and again connecting Palin to the shooting, as detailed in my post, Two Sicknesses On Display in Arizona.

The media was in full attack mode on Palin, demanding that she speak out sooner than she did, and then when she did speak out about the shootings, and used the term “blood libel,” it set off even more vigorous attacks on her.

Some on the right, such as David Frum, also used the shooting as an excuse to go after Palin.  Here are my posts on the “blood libel” issue:

I summed up my feelings in the post We Just Witnessed The Media’s Test Run To Re-Elect Barack Obama, which was read on air in full by Rush Limbaugh. (video added)

The attempt to politicize the shooting in many ways overwhelmed the memory of the victims.  And that was another tragedy.

Tags: Media Bias, Nutroots, Sarah Palin

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