This has been a hugely shameful week for sections of the American Left, who have exploited a horrific tragedy that claimed six lives, in order to advance political attacks upon some leading conservative politicians and media commentators, as well as an entire political movement in the form of the Tea Party. The vitriolic and hate-filled attacks have marked a low point for liberal media elites in America in the 21st century, even to the extent that President Obama himself, probably the most liberal US president of modern times, felt the need to rebuke this undignified and crass display of left-wing finger-pointing in his memorial speech in Tucson on Wednesday night.
And after all the accusations against an array of prominent public figures from Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, to Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes, it emerged that the deranged shooter, Jared Loughner, was in no way influenced by political rhetoric, and indeed had no interest at all in politics. As Charles Krauthammer noted in The Washington Post, “rarely in American political discourse has there been a charge so reckless, so scurrilous and so unsupported by evidence”.
I have compiled below a list of some of the most egregious examples of Leftist hysteria over the past week. It is by no means an exhaustive list – this list could easily be expanded to 20 or 30 further instances, especially crude statements from liberal politicians. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was among the very first to link the mass shooting to conservatives, and two of his hugely irresponsible pieces feature in the list below. The list also includes a major article from American Guardian writer Michael Tomasky, as an example of how the Left-wing vitriol of the last week emanated not only from the east and west coasts of the United States, but also in some cases from across the Atlantic.
So here is my top 10 list, which Telegraph readers will no doubt wish to add to in their comments ....
Check the link for the top ten. I actually missed a couple of these, so it's a great roundup. And Gardiner definitely nails it for the top spot. And thank goodness some folks across the pond aren't going bonkers. The Economist blames the 2nd Amendment guns for goodness sake.
And by the way, I think he worked up the Top 10 before last night's "Real Time." Otherwise, Bill Maher certainly would have made the cut: "The Lies of Bill Maher — And the Epic Struggle Between Good and Evil in the Aftermath of Tucson, 1/8/11."
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