On June 13, 2008, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was campaigning in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. She was speaking to a group of supporters and was speculating on just how rough things could get in the race for the White House against then-candidateBarack Obama and the Democrats. "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," she roared. Months later, on February 12, 2010 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Amy Bishop, a neurobiology professor, gunned down three biology professors at a faculty meeting and injured three other school employees. She committed this atrocity after being denied tenure. According to the Boston Herald, Bishop is a "far right political extremist who is obsessed with Governor Palin."
If these events had actually occurred this way, we wouldsurely have been told by many in the mainstream media that Mrs. Palin's language was taken literally by a deranged right-winger who viewed her denial of tenure as the "knife," and thus decided to take Mrs. Palin's advice and bring a "gun" to her own personal fight. There would have been countless shows on CNN and MSNBC and columns written by the left demanding that Mrs. Palin be held morally, if not legally responsible, for the murder of three people.
But it didn't happen this way—not quite. Instead, it was Illinois Senator Barack Obama who spoke in Philadelphia on that day in June. Mr. Obama made the remark about bringing a gun to the fight. Amy Bishop does indeed stand accused of murder but she was not a right-wing Palin follower. The Boston Herald in fact called her "a far-left political extremist who was obsessed with President Obama."
So why is it that not one member of the left denounced Mr. Obama's rhetoric and addressed how it might have been taken literally by a severely troubled individual who is obsessed with him?
Consider also the case of Joe Stack. He flew a small plane into a building targeting and hitting the Internal Revenue Services’ offices in Texas on February 18, 2010. At first, the media tried to paint him as a member of the Tea Party movement. Yet he turned out to be anti-George Bush, anti-big corporations, anti-religion and anti-capitalist. He ended the rambling manifesto that he left behind on the Internet with the following: "The communist creed: From each according to his ability to each according to his need. The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility to each according to his greed." So why is it that not one member of the left tried to find out if this murderer listened to MSNBC or left-wing talk radio?
There is also the case of Norman Leboon. He was arrested in late March for threatening to kill Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor and his family. In fact, despite all the recently-reported threats against members of Congress who voted for the health care bill, Leboon is the only person to be identified and taken into custody. And he had contributed twice to Mr. Obama's campaign.
Imagine the hell that would be breaking loose if Leboon had threatened a Democratic congressman and had been a John McCain contributor. We need only listen to the hysterics that have been taking place from the crazed left wing as they attack talk radio for being responsible for the threats that have been made against Democrats who voted for the health care bill.
Congressmen and women who voted against the bill have also received threats—yet this is hardly noted. Also, there is not one shred of evidence that any person threatening politicians listens to talk radio. But these facts do not matter, because we, on the right, who speak the truth about the health care bill will be held responsible by leftists and the mainstream media for driving some deranged individual to make threats. We, on the right with a microphone who speak the truth about the current Marxist president in the White House, are going to be held responsible if some unstable individual commits a crime against him or any other Democrat. It will not matter that the culprit never heard of me, Jeff Kuhner, Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. Regardless, we will be deemed guilty by the crazed left and they will come after us like Hugo Chavez has gone after his media critics in Venezuela.
Radical leftists will continue to attack conservative talk radio and attempt to silence us. They will not succeed because the truth always prevails.
-Steve Malzberg is a nationally syndicated talk show host on the WOR Radio Network and a frequent guest on many television cable shows. He can be reached through www.worradionet.com.
