Clinton Outrages Fox News.

I thought Clinton made some very good points, the main one being:

But what we learned from Oklahoma City is not that we should gag each other or reduce our passion from the positions we hold -- but that the words we use really do matter, because there's this vast echo chamber and they go across space and they fall on the serious and the delirious alike. They fall on the connected and the unhinged alike. And I am not trying to muzzle anybody.

But one of the things that the conservatives have always brought to the table in America is a reminder that no law can replace personal responsibility. And the more power you have and the more influence you have, the more responsibility you have.

I don't find anything he said there particularly outrageous. But that's not what they heard over at Fox News.

Charles Krauthammer: "I think it's disgusting. ... This is really disgraceful."

Stephen Hayes: "But to link it to Tea Parties, to suggest that there's some bridge, that there's some connection, I think is grossly irresponsible."

Chris Wallace: "Why is he bringing up the Tea Party and Oklahoma City in the same sentence or the same paragraph in the first place? And again, it seems to me to be an effort to marginalize these people."

Byron York: "I think this is more of an effort to sort of pre-tar the Tea Party movement with the label of being violent when, uh, nothing in fact has actually happened."

Clinton has not said that anything has actually happened, he's talking about the atmosphere which is developing, and that's an atmosphere which Fox News are encouraging. Also, Clinton is not trying to silence anyone:

Clinton: We owe it to keep on fighting, keep on arguing.

He's addressing the tone of the debate. He's arguing that, "the words we use really do matter".

That's not an outrageous point to make, unless you are Fox News and you think that he's trying to silence the Tea Party protesters. He's not trying to silence them. He's asking that everyone watch their rhetoric, in case it falls on the ears of the "unhinged".

That's sound advice as far as I am concerned. Why do Fox find that so outrageous?

Tags: Clinton, Fox News, Tea Party protesters