Shame: Ignoring Death Threats to Wisconsin Politicians Is Media Bias

Three questions for you.

1.Do you think of Republicans and the Tea Party as dangerous, violent extremists?
2.Do you think the Wisconsin protests over GOP Governor Scott Walker's move to strip public sector employees of collective bargaining were peaceful?
3.Do you scoff at the right wing notion that mainstream media like the New York Times, the TV networks and NPR have a liberal media bias against the conservatives?
If you answered 'yes' to all three of those questions, then let me ask you one more...

Why isn't the mainstream media talking about the death threats against Republican politicians in Wisconsin?

Try to set aside whatever biases or preconceptions you might have for a moment and ask yourself why death threats against politicians aren't considered national news, especially in the wake of the all too fresh shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other bystanders. And there hasn't just been one death threat, but a number of them.

Here's an example and it's real. According to Wisconsin State Department of Justice, authorities have found a suspect who admitted to sending the following email:

I want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we've had enough. We feel that you and your republican dictators have to die. This is how it's going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it's a matter of public records. We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, this isn't enough. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message. So we have built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent. This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won't tell you all of them because that's just no fun. Since we know that you are not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it's necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families and themselves then We will "get rid of" (in which I mean kill) the 8 of you. Please understand that this does not include the heroic Senator that risked everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. The 8 includes the 7 senators and the dictator. We feel that it's worth our lives becasue we would be saving the lives of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. Goodbye *******!!!!
After the Giffords shooting, authorities have to take this sort of threat seriously. The media should too, even if the disturbed person who sent that email was motivated by exactly the kind of rhetoric that's been used by many liberals against GOP officials over and over again during the Madison protests. And there are more threats floating around the internet, in varying degrees of scary and credible.

If you read liberal blogs, you might have heard of some of these threats. Indirectly, anyway. Sarah Palin said the rhetoric should be toned down. The threats themselves were ignored and Palin was mocked.

On the other hand, if you read conservative blogs or listen to conservative media, you know all about these threats because people like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh and websites like Newsbusters and BigJournalism have not only been talking about the death threats for days now but they've been talking about the mainstream and liberal media ignoring the threats for days.

Ignoring the story of these threats is deeply, fundamentally wrong. It's bad, biased journalism that will lead to no possible good outcome and progressives should be leading the charge against it.

Just before writing this article, I did a Google search and it's stunning to find out that the right wing media really isn't exaggerating -- proven death threats against politicians are being ignored by the supposedly honest media. If you've never agreed with a single thing that Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly et al have said about anything, you can't in any good conscience say that they don't have a point here. Death threats are wrong and if a story like Wisconsin is national news for days, then so are death threats.

I'm in an odd position. In the last few months, I've had one foot in the left wing news stream and one foot in the right. My media duality began when conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart hired me to work with him on the Pigford 'black farmers' settlement story. I'm a pro-choice, pro-single payer, anti-war, pro-gay rights independent liberal with years of work in print and film backing those positions. Breitbart hired me to bring a different perspective to the non-partisan issue of corruption in Pigford.

Since then, I've written both here for the left-leaning Huffington Post and at Breitbart's right leaning BigGovernment.com. I've ended up reading a lot more conservative sites and dealing firsthand with a lot more conservatives than any time since I attended a high school dedicated to the principles of Ayn Rand about 30 years ago.

Unlike many on the left, I didn't view the Wisconsin battle as the end of days. I wasn't convinced that I had a dog in that hunt, in part because I think there's a strong case to be made those public employees shouldn't have the same collective bargaining rights as private sector workers -- a case made well by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said...

"All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress."
Roosevelt's statement makes sense to me; it does seem that public employees are different than private. I'm not at all anti-union. (I've publicly supported unionizing the visual effects industry, for example.) I'm open to a good rational argument against the case FDR made but in discussions on Twitter and elsewhere, all I got in response from people on the left was anger and insults. I saw little light and felt much heat.

That tone of extreme hostility I experienced brings me back to the death threats in Wisconsin. Frankly, the bile and invective in that threat reminded me of the tone I saw directed at me from many so-called liberals because I committed the heresy of taking a different position from them on the issue of collective bargaining for public sector employees... based on something FDR said.

Is this really what liberalism has come to in 2011?

Since working with Breitbart, my position on political issues hasn't changed but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm deeply disappointed by the virulent, lockstep attitude I see on the left. My experience in the last few months tells me what I would not have believed possible; on any number of issues (including Pigford, by the way) I've seen liberals act much nastier and with less factual honesty than the conservatives... and this includes on issues where I disagree with conservatives.

Burying the death threat story is a clear example of intellectual dishonesty and journalistic bias.

Don't take my word for it, though. Look into the story of death threats in Wisconsin yourself and see who has been covering the story and who hasn't. Try for a moment to see this story from the perspective of those who you may disagree with on policy and ask yourself how this looks to them. Can you blame them for feeling that way? Then take a few seconds and read those questions I asked you at the beginning of this article.

And then ask why progressives shouldn't expect more from our media -- and ourselves -- than we expect from our political adversaries.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-stranahan/shame-ignoring-death-thre_b_835805.html?ref=fb&src=sp

1.no
2. no I have no reason to believe the PROTESTS were not peaceful if we are talking about ORGANIZED events.

yes. I have every reason to believe there have been nutjobs expressing 'threats' on this and almost EVERY highly publicized political issue in modern times

3. Yes, I think mainstream media, by which I refer to media owned by corporations, to be slanted. No, I dont consider NPR mainstream nor slanted having listened to them for years for myself and found them to be a source that gives at least two sides of every issue a voice without a lot of spin or interjection or paraphrasing of what those responses are.

so sorry that this reporter didnt realize that mainstream is mainstream REGARDLESS of their apparent political lean and that their 'news' is edited to gain the most viewership from THEIR (and their sponsors) base audience. The stories the base will be interested in will be the ones they cover and usually in the most PASSIONATE and PERSONAL of ways...although the most respected mainstream broadcasters amongst other professionals are usually those who cover the stories without alot of their own personal interjection, opinion, or slant.


this reporter could have saved alot of heartache and work by simply looking up 'conservative media bias' and 'liberal media bias', to find examples of how 'both sides' play the game.

Did you even read the article?
I find it interesting that after the attempted assassination of Gabriel Giffords the left leaning media was all o er pointing fingers and saying there is no place for the rhetoric and tone of language like this.
Yet here we have several death threats towards political officials and it gets nothing from the left leaning media.
Yet again I'm not surprised that you believe the protests were all peaceful considering where you get your news from.
Later today I will post some of the peaceful protesters.

After the last election process, Leftist Media showed me their true colors.

All MSM is biased.

They will run the stories that will get the most attention and they will swing it to sell folks their twisted versions.

They won't just post news. No sensationalization, low ratings.

I don't agree. They will run stories that get the most attention ONLY if it helps/doesn't hurt their bias; which I think was the point of article on which this thread is based. NPR is by far the worst at "cherry picking" their stories.

call me crazy but I do think people actually being SHOT AT and killed is possibly a wee bit more stunning and newsworthy than some nutcase sending an EMAIL



and what I said was 'I have no reason to believe the PROTESTS were not peaceful if we are talking about ORGANIZED events'


NO REASON to believe ORGANIZED events were not peaceful
I am open to information that might give me reason to believe otherwise, if it truly is about ORGANIZED events

something we agree on, ALL MSM Is biased in what it chooses to report on (not necessarily in how its reporters choose to report it though). MSM is sponsored by people (you know, those pesky commercials) and those people pay lots of money for certain demographics that are most likely to purchase their products

so its the nature of the beast

Maybe I am wrong on this, but I had learned that newspapers like to sensationalize things to sell issues. We have lost a lot of newspapers and stuff over the years because of money. I just hink this is all in the matter of how this is percieved. Perception is really the rule rather than the exception here.

Wisconsin protests... Several signs behind the reporters that portrayed the Gov with a 'bullseye' between his eyes and words to the effect of 'voting by bullets'... Other signs that had phrases which I can not place in this forum... without being 'censored'.

The signs were not 'hand written' but 'production' grade...

and scattered through out the crowds.

If a tea party 'protest' had produced that sign it would have made headlines.

Whew, just bullseyes? Well the tea party and Palin and others say the bulleyes on a person means nothing. wipes sweat off brow emoticon here

So who is worried about that? The original bullseye people? Can't be.

I was for sure this was a thread on Fox Entertainment Network that passes itself off as news.

It is the worst.

Have you ever fact checked the news services? All of them?

Not by going to a 'we check facts' website but by ACTUALLY checking the facts yourself?

If you do that you will find that fox has a much better fact-to-bs ratio than any of the other news services (including the 'news' put out by NPR).

With out a doubt.

But it takes more than a lazy quick check at the nearest website that 'checks' facts (most of which have a bias of their own).

It takes actuall effort to get to the truth.

Well then the checker has to be blind or something.

Cause yea, I checked the validity of Fox news more often than I care to remember.

Fox is so biased it is barely news in factual form.

Fox is crap. And a lot of folks are sucking in their crap. I feel sorry for those who suck in all that crap. They walk around spewing the same crap and making themselves look like they are full of ****.

I noticed you cited left wings who made little mention of the topic(admittedly i haven't heard of it at all) But you also noted more conservative media, and well known to boot, that have made the events public.

The problem may not be the media...it functions not on politics but rather capitalism, in that respect only news that will make money is news....

Perhaps, its that the public doesn't really care.

Yes, I think we should expect more from media but so many people live under the idea that the local news channel really tells the whole story. Nobody tells the whole story..you have to look for it if you want it ...problem is people say they want the whole story but they don't...if they did there would be more of a demand for it

which brings us back to economics..supply and demand, despite recent attempts to turn this into a nation of socialists this country is founded and functions on the ideas of capitalism. The american public puts too much faith in things without substance...and the last thing those in power want is for us to know the whole story

it did produce sugh signs that made headlines,,,

and where is this 'truth' found?

What socialists?

Congresscare? to do what Medicare and Medicaid do already just covering more people? Which they didn't get done because of the compromising president who wouldn't let them push through what was needed.

Because we all know that the stimulus and bailing out the banks was Bush's baby. Even bailing out the auto started under Bush.

So what recent socialistic activity could be referred to?

Too many people believe Faux News

Like I stated earlier. And was also the point of the OP. Where is the MSM calling for civility?

From: XXXX
Sent: Wed 3/9/2011 9:18 PM
To: Sen.Kapanke; Sen.Darling; Sen.Cowles; Sen.Ellis; Sen.Fitzgerald; Sen.Galloway; Sen.Grothman; Sen.Harsdorf; Sen.Hopper; Sen.Kedzie; Sen.Lasee; Sen.Lazich; Sen.Leibham; Sen.Moulton; Sen.Olsen
Subject: Atten: Death threat!!!! Bomb!!!!

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer. So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records. We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn’t leave it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message to you since you are so “high” on Koch and have decided that you are now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent. This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won’t tell you all of them because that’s just no fun. Since we know that you are not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it’s necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families and themselves then We Will “get rid of” (in which I mean kill) you. Please understand that this does not include the heroic Rep. Senator that risked everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. We feel that it’s worth our lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!


March 17, 2011
"We will hang up wanted posters of you everywhere you like to go."

"We will picket on public property as close to your house as we can every day. We will harrass the ever loving **** out of you all the time. Campus is OCCUPIED. State street is OCCUPIED. The Square is OCCUPIED. Vilas, Schenk's Corners, Atwood, Willy Street – Occupied, Occupied, Occupied, Occupied. Did you really think it was all about the Capitol? **** the Capitol, we are the CITY... We have the numbers and we don't back down from anyone. We all know each other. We all know each other. We know each other from Service Industry Night at the Orpheum, because we're regulars at the same coffee shops, restaurants and bars, we know each other from the co-ops, we know each other because we've had a million jobs each (and we all worked at CapTel at least once), because we live in every shitty townie house in ever-changing groups of 2 – 7 people, because we are young and horny and screw each other incessantly, because we're all on facebook, and because we aren't anti-social, life-denying, world-sterilizing pieces of human garbage like the two of you. WE WILL **** YOU UP. We will throw our baseballs in your lawn, you cranky old pieces of ****, and then we will come get them back. What are you gonna do? Shoot us? Get Wausau Tea Patriots to form an ad hoc militia on your front lawn? That would be ****ing HILAROUS to us. You could get to know the ******** on your side in real ****ing life instead of sponging off the civil society we provide for you every single day you draw breath."

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/262428/death-threats-dozens-deroy-murdock

But isn't the OP just as biased as it accuses 'progressives' as being? If you REALLY wanted to be Fair and Balanced (TM) you would, if at all possible, go over to some place like World Net Daily and find an article that self-chastises Conservative media for pushing just as much FUD and Yellow Journalism.

The other day on MSNBC's news site, they reported on the tragic deaths of 7 children on a Mennonite farm near here. The headline read something like " 7 Children Perish in House Fire While Mother Milks Cows and Father Naps". IMO, this was opportunistic sensationalism at it's absolute worst, and the comments section was steady howl of protests from all sides over this major faux pas. The facts in the article make it clear how utterly misleading the headline really was. There was NO negligence or abuse, just a sad, sad tragedy that probably couldn't have been averted.

I stopped watching TV news many years ago because of the poor quality of journalism and bias on all ends of the spectrum. Before it broke up, the USSR had Pravda (The Truth) as its state run newspaper. See, *I* think we have 2 Pravda's going in this country, a sort of CoTalitarianism if you will, where the reader really has to filter their newsfeed thru a pretty big BS remover.

So if you're going to complain about the bias of The Glass Teat, remember-- there are plenty of boobs to go around. Both sides, now.


-Kerry O.

This article is from the huffington post. Doesn't get much more progressive than that. That's why I found this interesting.

I don't see what all the hyperventilating is about. Somebody made a sign and stuck it in the ground in his back yard and took a picture of it. Then we heard about it in, naturally, the National review, of all places. A rather unfortunate choice of source authority.

Somebody wrote a hateful email and we are told that the Justice department found the culprit. I won't jump to any conclusions until they tell us whether the author was a lefty or a right-wing provocateur. Scott Walker himself told us all that he had considered using these people.