Fox Encourages People's Anger.

This is just an other example of the unacceptable dialogue which has become commonplace on the American right. Here, we see Glenn Beck talk about "picking up a gun".

And here we see a Republican supporter make fun of the fact that Democrats "want us to feel sorry for them that they've gotten a couple of ... angry voicemails".



That's one way to look at what has been occurring, but the messages left on the voicemail of Stupak are, I think, worrying.

"Congressman Stupak, you baby-killing mother f***er... I hope you bleed out your a**, got cancer and die, you mother f***er," one man says in a message to Stupak.

"There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill," a woman says in a voicemail, "and all of those thoughts that are projected on you will materialize into something that's not very good for you."

CBS News also obtained copies of faxes sent to Stupak, which include racial epithets used in reference to President Obama and show pictures of nooses with Stupak's name.

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes should know better than anyone how dangerous such talk is, as he worked for Ronald Reagan at the time when Reagan was gunned down by an assassin's bullet.

Beck should not be talking about people "picking up guns" and the hate being directed towards Stupak certainly should not be played down in the way it was here.

And Miss Cupp walks a typical Fox News line when she "condemns the violence" but quickly states, "I hope people stay angry".

Fox News have been whipping up people's anger for months now. And they have done so by pushing falsehoods about what was actually in Obama's healthcare bill.

The danger in getting people angry, is one can never predict what they will do. It's one thing to inspire debate, even heated debate, but to hope that people, "stay angry" is to play with fire. Anger, by it's very nature, is rarely rational.

UPDATE:

Gene Lyons at Salon has an interesting take on this:

Finally, conservative thinkers such as David Frum and Bruce Bartlett have begun warning that Republicans are foolish to make themselves captive to the "hysterical accusations and pseudo-information" of the party's entertainment and tea party wing. "Talk radio," the former Bush speechwriter argues on his FrumForum blog, "thrives on confrontation and recrimination" rather than governing.

Bartlett cites a survey of tea partiers at a recent Washington demonstration that shows most know nothing about the policies they so noisily abhor. Almost none realize, for example, that Obama's jobs stimulus plan gave "90 percent of all taxpayers ... a tax cut last year and almost 100 percent of those in the $50,000 income range." When people resort to racial epithets and sexual insults, it's normally a sign they've got nothing else to say.

UPDATE II

Here's more of this nonsense with Tea party Protesters posting what they imagine is the home address of a Democrat who voted for healthcare, suggesting that people pop round for a “good face-to-face chat”:

Just in case any of his friends and neighbors want to drop by and say hi and express their thanks regarding his vote for healthcare. I personally believe it’s so important for representatives to remain fully grounded and to remember exactly what it is their constituents are saying and how they are telling them to vote. Nothing quite does that like a good face-to-face chat. It has a much more personal touch to it.

As Politico explained, the address Troxel posted was actually the address of Periello’s brother, who lives with his wife and four children under the age of eight. “If they [Periello's staff] would like to provide me with the address of Tom, then I’d be more than happy to take it down,” he said. “I have no reason to believe it’s not his house.”

This kind of stuff is simply gruesome, although Nigel Coleman, leader of the nearby Danville Tea Party in Virginia was keen to make this clear: “There’s an assumption that we’re a violent group of people and we’d do something bad to the man,” he said. “We’re just trying to get heard.”

I suppose they've never heard that Congressmen have offices and that it is normal to contact them by writing to them.

Tags: Fox News, anger, universal healthcare, Glenn Beck