DC Trawler

There’s more evidence that the liberal media influenced Eric Fuller than there is that Palin influenced Jared Loughner

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Which is to say, there actually is some evidence.

On the left-wing Democracy Now radio show Friday, Fuller, a survivor of the Tucson shooting, said the following:

It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target. Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled—senseless hatred leading to murder, lunatic fringe anarchism, subscribed to by John Boehner, mainstream rebels with vengeance for all, even nine-year-old girls.

This is indistinguishable from the sort of irresponsible, fact-free ranting we’ve heard this week from people like Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore, Markos “Kos” Moulitsas, Jane Fonda, Paul Krugman, and countless others. Standard lefty boilerplate. When I heard about it on Friday I rolled my eyes, but I said, “Hey, the guy’s been through a lot, give him a break. Sure, the professional left will lift him up on their shoulders and parade him around the room. Let ’em.”

The very next day, Fuller attended a town hall meeting called “After the Tragedy: An American Conversation Continued,” conducted by Christiane Amanpour. It did not go well. The unfortunately named ABC affiliate in Tucson, KGUN, reports:

When Tucson Tea Party founder Trent Humphries rose to suggest that any conversation about gun control should be put off until after the funerals for all the victims, witnesses say Fuller became agitated. Two told KGUN9 News that finally, Fuller took a picture of Humphries, and said, “You’re dead.”

When State Rep. Terri Proud (R-Tucson) rose to explain and clarify current and proposed gun legislation in the state, several people groaned or booed her. One of those booing, according to several witnesses, was Fuller. Witnesses sitting near Fuller told KGUN9 News that Fuller was making them feel very uncomfortable.

The event wrapped up a short time later. Deputies then escorted Fuller from the room. As he was being led off, Fuller shouted loudly to the room at large. Several witnesses said that what they thought they heard him shout was, “You’re all whores!”

Fuller, age 63, is a political operative who specializes in gathering petitions for ballot initiatives.

Apparently, Eric Fuller wanted the news to be able to write an honest headline with both “Tea Party” and “death threat” in it.

After a solid week of diligent effort, our friends in the liberal media finally got what they wanted: a mentally unbalanced man, clearly influenced by uncivil rhetoric regarding the Tea Party, lashed out at a political opponent. Unfortunately for them, it was their rhetoric. The target of the death threat was someone they unfairly maligned. Will our moral, ethical, and intellectual superiors in the media accept responsibility?

Just kidding. This MSM kangaroo court hasn’t worked out the way they’d hoped, so it’s time to bury the story. You were useful for a day or so, Eric Fuller, but now you’ve imperiled the narrative. You’re no longer of any value to them, so you’ll find that you do bear responsibility for your own actions after all. You’re on your own.

P.S. Iowahawk says: “I’d like to see Eric Fuller’s phone records. It’d be instructive to see how fast his calls from MSNBC dropped off.”

P.P.S. Amanpour (@camanpour on Twitter) is not going to show the footage of Fuller making a death threat in front of a crowd at a national TV taping. It isn’t newsworthy, because he isn’t a teabagger.

P.P.P.S. Newsbusters: “ABC World News reports threat at its Tucson town hall, omits it was made to a Tea Partier.” Of course not. That’s not a designated victim group.

P.P.P.P.S. The wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round:

See if you can follow the logic: According to Olby & Co., Jared Loughner isn’t responsible for his own actions. Sarah Palin and the teabaggers are, despite a complete lack of evidence that there’s any connection. Whereas Eric Fuller is responsible for his own actions, despite parroting the same crap that the professional left has been spouting for a solid week.

P.P.P.P.P.S. According to Mediaite, This Week “aired” the death threat because you could sort of hear it in the background as Humphries was speaking, even though Amanpour didn’t mention it until the end of the program and you have to boost the audio to hear it. And she didn’t mention that it was a threat against the very people who were supposedly responsible for the shooting in the first place, before that story fell apart. If you didn’t know what Fuller was yelling or why he was yelling it, ABC didn’t help you out. It was just background noise. Once again, the media makes the audience do the work of figuring out these inconvenient stories on our own.

Jim Treacher