Media Bias 101: The SPLC Edition

Ever since the emergence of the Tea Party movement, the left (and the media, but I repeat myself) has been dying to link violent extremism – and a potential for violence – with it. It hasn’t panned out. In fact, since the movement began the only acts of political violence have been from the left.

There’s been all the violence at the Occupy camps and even a thwarted bomb plot. There was the union violence at ports in Washington (they even took hostages!). There’s also been a politically motivated attempted mass shooting at the Family Research Council. Despite all the warnings and the lectures from Democrat politicians about “violent rhetoric” and the need for a “new tone” – you see, they were warning that the right was potentially violent – the last few years have shown that the threat of violence comes from the left, as it has historically. Yet the media continues to selectively cover these instances.

How quickly did the media blame Sarah Palin’s “target map” for the shooting in Arizona involving Congresswoman Gabby Giffords? It was instantaneous, with bottom-dweller Markos Moulitsas famously stating “Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin” When it was determined the shooter in that case was basically apolitical and had an unhealthy obsession with Giffords long before the “target map” – which it seems he never saw – the media stayed quiet. No attempt was made to correct the record. No one was held to account for falsely linking “violent political rhetoric” to the shooting. The narrative was left out there to damage the conservative movement. It was intentional.

Now the media is at it again.

On Wednesday, Floyd Corkins II pleaded guilty to several charges including assault with intent to kill and terrorism. On August 15, 2012 he went to the Family Research Center’s headquarters in DC to “kill as many (people) as possible and smear Chick-Fil-A sandwiches in victims’ faces, and kill the guard.”

He got his targets from the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center – the self-appointed arbiters of who is a “hate group” in the US.

Corkins told the agents that he identified the FRC as an anti-gay organization on the website for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization.

Unlike Sarah Palin’s “target map” and the false linkage between that and the Arizona shooting, here we have documented proof that a website was used to target people for killing. It just so happens the website is a leftist one. But we’re not going to be hearing calls for a conversation about “political rhetoric.” There won’t be any stream of Democrat politicians demanding a discussion on arbitrarily labeling organizations “hate groups.” No one is going to make a stink about it.

And the media will go along. The agenda demands it. Having a frank discussion on left wing violence would undermine all the work the left has done to falsely portray the right as potentially violent. It’s been said before, but the media’s most insidious power is the power to ignore. The average American isn’t paying close enough attention to issues like this. They rely on a grossly biased media for their information. The media can simply move on from this story and the American public will continue to think political violence is a “right wing” phenomenon in this country, when history proves the opposite.

This is our challenge. We need to be the ones making the noise. We need to correct the record and make sure the American people understand where the political violence is coming from. We can’t just hope the American public learns this on their own.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is now more of a “hate group” than most of the organizations they’ve labeled a hate group in the past. Their rhetoric has provably led to an attempted mass murder. The media should be held to account for ignoring this part of the story. It’s up to you to remind them of it. You can use the power of information to make sure they know we know the story and that they’re ignoring it. It may not lead to coverage of this story right away, but they’ll eventually learn that someone is watching and documenting their bias. Sure, they can dismiss places like NewsBusters / Media Research Council, but they can’t dismiss hundreds and thousands of private citizens letting them know they’re being watched.

Be the watchdogs. Don’t rely on anyone else.