The PoliBlog Metacritique of Blog Coverage of UAH Slayings . . . Coverage . . . Covered

16Feb/106

The PoliBlog Metacritique of Blog Coverage of UAH Slayings . . . Coverage . . . Covered

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I thought there was insufficient evidence to state whether any putative ideological orientation on the part of the shooter had anything to do with the shootings. I still think that's true. Over at PoliBlog, though, Steven L. Taylor wants to take matters a little further:

This is, by the way, the very definition of what I asserted over the weekend: the using of a triple homicide to score cheap political points. How can it be seen as anything else? They claim that the MSM is known for unfairly harping on the right-wing nature of some criminals, and so to make that point they think it proper to jump on the UAH tragedy as a vehicle for their position. This is true of their actions, by the way, even if (like Reynolds) they only allude to the potential that her politics are leftish, without actually making an accusation that the murders were politically driven.

To put the matter as succinctly as possible: this is using multiple murders as a vehicle for making a partisan/ideological critique of the mainstream media, and it isn’t a critique about how they are covering the homicides in question, but rather a point about how they have covered other crimes.

This strikes me as unseemly and inappropriate and trivializes a heinous crime.

I agree that attempting to attach a political dimension to this crime does trivialize it, and does violence, as Mr. Taylor writes elsewhere, to the facts as they are presented to us. However, the way they are presented in the media does matter, and matters quite a bit. I think that it is fair to say, as William Jacobson in effect does, that had the shooter been portrayed by a family member as a particularly avid supporter of George Bush the Younger (or fierce opponent of Barack Obama), the fact that all of the slain, to this point at least, were minorities would be one of the most remarked aspects of the case in the media. To point the bias out is an indictment of the media rather than of liberalism per se, whatever shape it may have taken (or not) in Amy Bishop Anderson's case.

Turning the trivialization around, one can say that it's also conversely true that there's a tendency to criminalize political orientation. It's a practice that too many people engage in, no matter where in the political spectrum they are situated. Its societal corrosiveness is similar to that of racism, or the imputation of racism where it is not. Would the heinousness of this sickening slaughter have been magnified at all had Bishop hurled epithets as she discharged her pistol? I don't think so, but I know people who would. We make fetishes of our signs, and it blinds us to reason.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Topsecretk9
February 16th, 2010 - 22:32

The same day the report that Bishop was reported to be Obama obsessed yada yada a headline and story on TPM remained:

Man Charged With Stockpiling Weapons Was Tea Partier, Palin Fan

“The Massachusetts man charged this week with stockpiling weapons after saying he feared an imminent “Armageddon” appears to have been active in the Tea Party movement, and saw Sarah Palin, who he said is on a “righteous ‘Mission from God,’” as the only figure capable of averting the destruction of society.

As we reported yesterday, Gregory Girard, a Manchester technology consultant, was found with a stash of military grade weapons, explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters, camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles, say police. They believe Girard, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was “preparing for domestic and political turmoil,” and feared martial law would soon be imposed.

Girard’s wife said her husband had recently told her: “Don’t talk to people, shoot them instead,” and “it’s fine to shoot people in the head because traitors deserve it.”

But it appears that Girard had lately found a community with which to share some of his growing fears. A “Greg Girard,” listing his location as Manchester, Mass., has a personal page on the “Patriots of America” online network, a popular site affiliated with the Tea Party movement. The phone number listed on the page is the same as the number listed on the website of Girard’s consulting firm, which appears to have been run out of his home….”

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/man_charged_for_stockpiling_weapons_was_tea_partie.php
——

Read the whole story. It’s all Talking Points Memo political conjecture on person clearly mentally disturbed…

I tweeted Josh Marshall this to illustrate to him how lame it was:

Woman Charged With Murder Was Democrat, Obama Fan

and look:

“The Massachusetts woman charged this week with murdering 3 colleagues appears to been an active Socialist according to an online student critique, and saw Obama, who sources said she was obsessed with the point of being off putting.”

—-

I’m sure Taylor sees nothing wrong with the Talking Point Memo politically opportunism.

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- Gregory Girard
  February 16th, 2011 - 06:49
  
  A person “clearly disturbe”….
  
  Though it never occured to you that the statements I allegedly said, that appeared nationally in the media, never came out of my mouth.
  
  And it never occured to you that there never were any illegal weapons or explosives of any kind, but that they were false allegations for a purpose.
  
  Two words: Divorce Planning
  
  Can you say those words? Good. Now just keep saying them, and while you do, consider that I was released from jail with a perfectly clean criminal record and no indication of psychiatric illness.
  
  I was set-up by my twisted psychiatrist wife and her feminist liberal man-hating book club friends so I would be jail and have no divorce attorney while she took everything and ran.
  
  Clearly disturbed? No, victime of many different crimes and now the plaintiff in a major lawsuit against wife. Criminal charges will also follow after the civil matter. You didn’t know anything.
  
  Greg
  
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Steven Taylor
February 17th, 2010 - 17:12

Dan,

The problem is, of course, that any speculation of what the media might have done had Bishop been someone else is just that, speculation. Worse (in my opinion, as noted above), I think it is using a triple homicide as a vehicle to critique the press about a matter not related to said homicide.

And look: if there was evidence, or if evidence emerges, that her politics were relevant to the killings, I have no problem pointing that out.

Topsecretk9,

My question would be: upon what do you base your assumption?

For what it is worth, I see no point in pointing out that Girard was a Palin fan.

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Steven Taylor
February 17th, 2010 - 17:14

And, btw, the evidence of Bishop’s exact political views remains pretty thin, which is also part of the problem with the speculation. One RateMyProfessors.com statement and an anonymous family member’s description hardly give us much of picture.

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Steven Taylor
February 17th, 2010 - 17:26

To put my position another way: if Bishop had a “W” sticker on her car and talked to relatives about how much she liked Dick Cheney and if a RateMyProfessors.com comments called her a “Dittohead” and yet the rest of the story was the same (past weird instances of violence, the tenure denial, etc.) it would be wholly inappropriate to turn this into a political story. And I would be critical of that, had it happened.

Again: unless a crime has obvious political component, then it is unseemly at best to try and use it make a political point.

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Xicalfibiuzez
October 24th, 2010 - 05:12

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