Accuracy in Media
The Bloodthirsty Left, Extreme Rhetoric, and Murder
AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | June 15, 2009
The Wright comments undercut the left-wing campaign to depict Von
Brunn as a right-winger and blame conservatives for inspiring him.
James Von Brunn, who believed that "Obama does what his Jew owners
tell him to do," attacked the Holocaust Museum and killed a guard on
the same day it was being reported on a national basis that Obama's
former pastor Jeremiah Wright had said that "Them Jews ain't going to
let him [Obama] talk to me." It sounded as if they were reading from
the same tract.
The Wright comments undercut the left-wing campaign to depict Von
Brunn as a right-winger and blame conservatives for inspiring him. It
seems like Von Brunn's anti-Semitic views are shared by some on the
political left, even those backing and very close to Obama himself.
Wright had actually made the statement one day earlier, on June 10, to
David Squires of the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia. Wright
also said the "Jewish vote" and the "AIPAC vote," referring to the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, are "controlling" him, and
that Obama was in danger of becoming a "puppet."
If Von Brunn's anti-Semitism is shared by Jeremiah Wright, a
left-winger who was Obama's pastor for 20 years, then anti-Semitism is
not a right-wing phenomenon. That is why the attempts by various
"progressives" to blame the Holocaust Museum murder on the right-wing
are political nonsense and flat-out dishonest.
As veteran investigator Herbert Romerstein points out, anti-Semitism
is a condition that affects the left as well. In fact, he points out
that "Some Weather Underground activists were born into Jewish
families, but they were as anti-Semitic as their gentile born
colleagues." Their anti-Semitism seems to have been an outgrowth of
their anti-Americanism. They despise Israel because it is an ally of
the United States.
This is critical because Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and
Bernardine Dohrn were also political associates and backers of Barack
Obama. The wall outside Ayers' university office depicts Israel as an
imperialist lackey of the U.S., as an "American-made missile" falls on
"Palestinian youth."
However, Joan Walsh of the far-left Salon.com has reportedly been on
MSNBC trying to blame "extreme right-wing rhetoric" for the murder at
the Holocaust Museum. She decries this "ugly rhetoric." This claim
reminded me of something that one of her staffers had written
personally to me several weeks ago.
I had asked Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com about his acceptance of an
"Izzy" award named after communist and Soviet agent-of-influence I.F.
Stone, and what he would say of the article in Commentary magazine
about new evidence linking Stone to Soviet intelligence.
Part of Greenwald's response was an attack on Commentary. He said,
"The fact that Stone is being smeared by the likes of the consummately
chicken-hawk, nepotistic, bloodthirsty Podhoretz family and the truly
deranged, sex-obsessed, conspiracy-monger Cliff Kincaid will make me
place my Izzy Award on an even more prominent shelf in my office."
The term "sex-obsessed" was apparently a reference to my opposition to
giving special rights to practitioners of the homosexual lifestyle. It
turns out that Greenwald is gay and has a "lover" in Brazil but I
didn't know that at the time. I hadn't thought about commenting on the
"bloodthirsty" comment until the attack on the Holocaust Museum and
the controversy over whether anti-Semitism is a right- or left-wing
phenomenon, and whether right-wingers are too "extreme."
Norman Podhoretz is the editor-at-large of Commentary and the author
of the book World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism. He
was not one of the authors of the piece on I.F. Stone in Commentary,
and his family had nothing to do with writing it. The authors were
John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev. Haynes and
Klehr are historians and Vassiliev is a Russian journalist who worked
for the Soviet KGB.
Members of AIM who had received our AIM Report on this matter have
been encouraged to contact Joan Walsh, editor-in-chief of Salon.com,
with postcards that read:
Dear Ms. Walsh:
One of your bloggers, Glenn Greenwald, reacted with vile
insults when questioned about his acceptance of an award named after
Soviet agent I.F. Stone. Why would a staffer for Salon.com accept
such an award? If there is any doubt in your mind about Stone's
service to the old Soviet Union, we suggest you consult the new book,
Spies, by Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev. The section on Stone begins
on page 126, in the chapter titled "The Journalist Spies." Does
Greenwald also believe that Soviet spy Alger Hiss was innocent of the
charges against him? Would he accept an Alger Hiss award? What would
be your opinion on that?
Note that Greenwald's natural impulse, in response to an article in
Commentary attacking his icon, was to smear Podhoretz as
"bloodthirsty." This speaks volumes about the "rhetoric" of the left.
What makes this even more interesting is where the Greenwald comments
ended up first. Before I even had a chance to comment, they surfaced
on the blog of someone named Jane Hamsher, who advertises herself as
"the author of the best-selling book Killer Instinct" and the producer
of such films as "Natural Born Killers."
Directed by Oliver Stone, "Natural Born Killers" is about two
psychopathic killers who thrive on media attention. The two characters
"travel across Route 666 conducting psychedelic mass-slaughters not
for money, not for revenge, just for kicks," noted one review.
I'll never forget Jeff Cohen, the founder of Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting (FAIR) -and the one who would subsequently give Greenwald
his "Izzy"-once telling me that he rejected Stone's idea of holding a
fundraiser for FAIR by showing the film "Natural Born Killers" because
he found it too gruesome.
Hamsher's Killer Instinct book is said to be the story of how she came
to be involved in "Natural Born Killers." Defenders of the film said
it was a commentary on media violence. But it inspired real life acts
of violence. Indeed, a study, The Influence of Technology, Media, and
Popular Culture on Criminal Behavior, found that the 1994 movie was
linked to a dozen murders and the 1999 Columbine school massacre (the
killers who killed 12 students and wounded another 24 were reportedly
fans of the film). The academic study was by Jacqueline Helfgott, an
associate professor at Seattle University who specializes in "the
criminogenic effects of pop culture."
A lawsuit was filed, Byers v. Edmondson, alleging that Sarah Edmondson
and her boyfriend, Benjamin Darrus, went on a crime spree after
watching the film. The suit claimed that the film producers were
liable to the victims for distributing a film "which they knew or
should have known would cause and inspire people" to acts of violence
by "glorifying" such violence and "treating individuals who commit
such violence as celebrities and heroes."
The suit was filed on behalf of Patsy Byers, who was shot during an
armed robbery of a convenience store where she worked in Ponchatoula,
Louisiana. As a result of the shooting, Patsy Byers was rendered a
paraplegic. Another victim was William Savage, who was murdered. The
suit was dismissed when a court ruled that there was no evidence that
the producers of the film had knowingly intended to incite violence.
But in an affidavit, Edmondson admitted that "During the two weeks
prior to the robbery and shooting of Mr. Savage on March 7, 1995 and
the robbery and shooting of Mrs. Byers on March 8, 1995, Benjamin
Darrus [and] I watched Natural Born Killers several time[s] in
Oklahoma. We also ingested a quantity of LSD, a hallucinogen, during
this time. Had we not seen the movie repeatedly we would not have
taken a gun. It wouldn't have occurred to me. As well, had we not been
under the influence of LSD; we never would have left Oklahoma. The
movie did have a numbing influence concerning the effects of violence
and a desire to experience it. The shooting did not take place as much
from a need for money as from a desire to experience the power of
violence."
Despite her proud role in producing "Natural Born Killers," Hamsher
wants us to believe she is against real-life violence and thinks that
the right-wing should be blamed for the attack on the Holocaust
Museum. She is recommending as a TV guest somebody named David Neiwert
who has written a book on How Hate Talk Radicalized the Radical Right.
"If any media folks need contact info for David, drop me a line," she
said. BINGO. Just like that, he was on Anderson Cooper's CNN show on
June 12.
Neiwert runs his own website called "Crooks and Liars." This seems
somehow appropriate.
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