Steeping The Spin

The modern American Right are certainly doing what they claim liberals/progressives do exclusively - not letting a crisis go to waste, and certainly making sure that they are seen as the helpless victims.

Naturally, I'm speaking of the aftermath of the Tuscon shooting and how people like Fox"Nation" and their fellow compatriots are not only attempting to rearrange the narratives surrounding the actions but are ultimately smearing the victims in the process.

The story du jour over the last 48 hours is an alleged "death threat" leveled at Tuscon Tea Bagger Figurehead Trent Humphries during a live ABC Townhall event that aired over the weekend. The threat came from none other than one of the victims of the shooting - Eric Fuller

Here's the relevant video from Mediaite:



It's a rather muffled, and you'll have to jack up the audio a tad just to hear it, but something is certainly there that sounds like "you're dead". And if that is the case, it's wrong - period.

And while the Right are going all in trying to show that this is a shining example of the "unhinged Left" in action, there are lots of variables in play that have likely put Fuller into this position and also placed him into involuntary psychiatric care.

But there's something that the modern American Right aren't talking about in relation to Humphries - the fact that he blames Gabby Giffords for getting shot:

t’s political gamesmanship. The real case is that she [Giffords] had no security whatsoever at this event. So if she lived under a constant fear of being targeted, if she lived under this constant fear of this rhetoric and hatred that was seething, why would she attend an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever?” he said. “For all the stuff they accuse her [Palin] of, that gun poster has not done a tenth of the damage to the political discourse as what we’re hearing right now.

Regardless of whom you side with, threats of a physical nature against someone you disagree with only serve to fuel the opposition. The Right is taking full opportunity in every conceivable aspect of what happened in Tuscon before, during, and after the shooting simple to score cheap political points and increase the volume on their "victim status". If they want to be honest about this particular story, it should be about the two men involved and all the facts, not about whether or not the Tea Party is being picked on or whether or not ABC is filled with "liberal bias".