How The Right Turned The Heath Care Town Halls Into Media Circuses And Teabagger Sessions
The leaders of the angry mob are reveling in this and have learned their lessons well. They are the victims of Hoyer and Pelosi and Obama-Hitler and the dupes with the tri-corner hats insist no insurance companies are paying them to walk around telling and screaming. No doubt. They say they're just ordinary Americans and they resent being called "tools" and "angry mobs." They love being victims though; that's their natural comfort zone. Harry Reid's frustration-laden comments about evil-mongers plays right into their hands. Are, as he claimed, "lies, innuendo and rumor," being used to drown out rational debate? Well, of course; that's the whole fucking idea. But the dupes in the tri-corner hats don't know that. They don't know they're being used by the insurance CEOs-- who they will tell you they actually hate! Brian Baird's (D-WA) town hall meeting was disrupted by a gang of teabaggers whose goal was simple: disruption. He gave them a bonus when he said they were “lynch mob mentality” and exhibiting quasi "Brownshirt tactics." Now they can whine about how they're being victimized by elites. And, of course, this is manna from Heaven for the mass media-- and not just for the GOP's own Fox News but also for relatively legitimate media like CNBC, which was caught yesterday trying to drum up a riot with some of the teabagger groups for their TV cameras. And now they can whine that the fascist secret police are arresting them for exercizing their constitutional rights.Conservative media ignore their own long history of invoking Nazis to smear progressives
Numerous media conservatives have misrepresented House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's comments that protesters are "carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care" to express outrage that she would call the protesters "Nazis" -- even though she didn't. However, their outrage rings hollow -- the conservative media frequently invoke Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to smear the Obama administration, Democratic officials, and progressive policies, and such rhetoric has escalated in the past few days, largely due to Rush Limbaugh.
Conservative media falsely claim Pelosi asserted or suggested that health care reform opponents are "Nazis"
Following Limbaugh's lead, numerous media figures have advanced this false claim. After host Rush Limbaugh said August 6 that Pelosi is "basically saying that we are Nazis. She is saying that the people who oppose this are Nazis, and I'm going to tell you what," MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, Fox News' Gregg Jarrett, and The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan and James Taranto falsely claimed or suggested that Pelosi called health reform opponents "Nazis."
In fact, Pelosi said protesters were "carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care." Speaking to reporters, Pelosi was asked if she thought there was "legitimate grassroots opposition" at recent town hall events. She responded: "I think they're astroturf; you be the judge. They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care."
Some in the media also accused Pelosi of lying for saying protesters were "carrying swastikas" -- but they were. Numerous conservative outlets and figures, including The Washington Times, Andrew Breitbart, and The Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore asserted or suggested that Pelosi was lying. But swastikas have appeared at town hall meetings. Indeed, as Media Matters for America senior fellow Eric Boehlert and Fox News contributor Alan Colmes have noted, multiple protesters at health care reform protests have held signs featuring swastikas.
Limbaugh has ratcheted up Nazi rhetoric to new levels in recent days
In the past week, Limbaugh has made comparisons of the Obama administration and Democrats to Hitler and the Nazis with alarming frequency. Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks responded to one such comparison by stating: "What he's saying is insane."
Here are some recent examples of Limbaugh's obsession with Nazi comparisons:
* August 6: Limbaugh: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate"
* August 6: Limbaugh: "[T]he Obama health care logo is damn close to a Nazi swastika logo"
* August 6: Limbaugh discusses "the similarities between the Democrat Party of today and the Nazi Party in Germany"
* August 6: Limbaugh claims Obama "sending out his brownshirts"
* August 7: Limbaugh again says Obama health care logo "looks damn like the Nazi logo," lashes out at reporters mentioning comment
* August 7: Limbaugh falsely suggests that Obama believed "eight years ago," the American court system was "Nazi-like"
* August 7: Limbaugh again refers to "similarities" between Dem Party leaders, "Nazi Party of Germany"; adds Pelosi "started it"
* August 10: Limbaugh explaining his Nazi reference: "Socialism is socialism," "Hitler, Lenin, Stalin were all men of the left"
